July 18, 2003
FSM 270 / FN 379 DO
—Testimonies of the Lord's Supply, Compiled from Your TRFs!
Copyright May 1995, World Services, Zurich, Switzerland
(Editor's note: You may want to read the introduction to "Tips and Testimonies of Supply" part 1 [FSM 269], along with this FSM, as the explanation in that introduction applies to this issue as well. We love you!)
From Claire, Sharon, Philip, and Victory, Thailand:
We were in quite a bind financially two weeks ago and needed some real miracles to pull out of it. We realized the outreach people were carrying a very big load in raising finances, and those in childcare and other Home ministries confessed they had been quite burdened about our financial situation, but they felt unable to do anything to raise the needed funds. After discussing it, we agreed to have the teachers meet every day during quiet time for half an hour of desperate united prayer for a real breakthrough.
This has become such a precious time as we rally together and fight for our Home. We start by reading some faith-building Word for 10 or 15 minutes, such as Mama's Letters on George Mueller, the "Supply" section from the MOP, "Kings," etc. It has washed away our burdens and replaced them with faith and expectancy! The Lord is answering too, as every day such encouraging things happen—a donation in the mail, a good day of outreach, a gift from a friend, etc. The Lord has miraculously supplied all the money we need since we started praying. We are so thankful for all that's been pubbed about prayer. It's changing our lives as we learn to live by faith more than ever before!
From Mateus, Joanna, Jonathan W. and Rute, Brazil:
We had desperate prayer for our finances, and the next day Jonathan's brother, who was visiting here, gave a $500 donation—a direct answer to prayer!
From Joy, Comfort, Rebecca and Richard, U.S.A.:
We were running quite low on food, and so had desperate prayer in devotions for the Lord to supply. Several people got the verse Mal.3:10, about the Lord's blessing being so great that there would not be room enough to hold it. By evening we had received over $1,700 worth of food, and there was literally "not room enough to receive it"! It was enough to fill all three Homes in our area to overflowing, plus we've been able to give quite a bit away to others who work with the homeless, etc.!
From John E., John D. and Meekness, Denmark:
Our financial situation was quite desperate this month, so we got the Home together for a prayer meeting. We had some bills that needed to be paid right away, so the following day I made a special trip to the P.O. box where we get mail from our supporters. I wasn't very hopeful, as the box had been checked just a couple of days earlier, and when I opened the box there was only one lonely envelope lying there. However, it contained the answer to our desperate prayers: a donation of $1,500! "God is still upon the throne and prayer changes things!"
From Maggie, Maria, Pete and Clare T., Japan:
The Lord miraculously started fulfilling the promise in Mama's Letter, "Ask and Ye Shall Receive." We specifically prayed before the Birthday Fast (1994) for $5,000. In one week the Lord had supplied it all through two generous donors—a provisioning contact and a catacomber. Praise the Lord!
From a Home in Thailand:
It was the middle of the month and we were struggling financially, with only one-fifth of our needed budget and low tool distribution stats. We were also trying to cover a big bill for our visa trips from the month before. It seemed mammoth, considering all that we needed to raise, more than $4,000 in all! We were also thinking of the "sacrifice" of the two Word days we were going to have to count out this month (which we later learned were for reading the GN about Dad's graduation), at a time when we felt like we needed as many days and as many teams as we could in order to pull out of the hole. We were desperate, to say the least. And that's exactly where the Lord wanted us to be, so that He could then show us that we didn't need to be leaning to our carnal reasoning and striving in the flesh, but that He would do the seemingly impossible by the miracle of His power, in answer to desperate prayer!
Boom! Boom! Boom! We saw the Holy Spirit go to work the very next day, when Peter and Promise got out 26 videos in one day! On that same day, a follow-up team of Joy and Abel went on the road to follow-up on some friends. At the end of the day, they reported that three friends gave donations totaling nearly $600 and one provisioning contact had sponsored 30 audio tapes!
Kristia called some friends in another country who had just received a newsletter and several responded, helping us raise $1,400! At the same time, we also received help from other tithers, totaling over $1,000! The power of prayer!
The following day, Peter and Mary got another unexpected sponsorship contribution from a regular supporter. Besides giving his monthly pledge, their friend had approached his company to sponsor 10 videos as part of their annual gift to charities.
The blessings continued unabated, and when we stopped for the two Word days, we saw how the Lord had miraculously already made up for these days. It was convicting to see how the Lord's ways are not ours.
But the Lord's miracles didn't stop there! On the two days following the reading of Dad's homegoing GN, after we'd been envisioned to carry on Dad's commission, the Lord helped us get 21 videos out, supplied unexpected donations from some of our supporters, lots of posters went out and souls were won! When the final count was made, the Lord had fulfilled His promise of Mat. 6:33. We put Him and the Word first, knowing we couldn't make it without Him, and He loaded us with the benefits: 126 videos, 80 tapes, 800 posters distributed, almost 200 souls, plus a full month ahead on our budget!
From Andrew, Thailand:
Ever since receiving Mama's Letter, "Ask and It Shall Be Given" (ML#2893, GN 570), the Lord has continued to increase our faith month by month. It's still quite a struggle as we have a very large budget to meet every month, but it's so inspiring to see how the Lord never fails. We are learning tremendous lessons on faith and persevering and keeping positive with a praising and thankful attitude. The Lord has been very faithful to keep us in check regarding our motives and desire of caring for and feeding the sheep, as well as remembering to abide in Him and look unto Him at all times.
Over the past few months we've received three or four generous monthly pledges, and this has been a tremendous blessing in establishing a financial base. As Mama suggested in "Ask and It Shall Be Given," we have been presenting a somewhat GP version of our budget to our closer friends whom we've known for some time, some of whom we've already asked to increase their help many times. But as it says in that Letter, we need to continue to ask and have the faith that the Lord is going to touch these people's hearts in His time.
One inspiring testimony is that right after we received this Letter, one of our friends whom we've known for five or six years came through with the biggest donation any of us had ever received. It was such an answer to prayer and a direct confirmation of all Mama shared with us in her Letter. We know it's only the beginning and we still have a long way to go in truly establishing a solid monthly financial base, but it's so inspiring to see the Lord working in such a marvelous and miraculous way!
From John, Jerry and Julie, U.S.A.:
By far, our most outstanding testimony is that of meeting our newfound friend, George. In spite of the fact that the part of town where he was met had been "hit" with the tools for a whole year, George was ripe fruit waiting to be picked! On our first meeting he gave us a $250 donation. He was so turned on to meet people who truly preach the Word and follow it. In less than three weeks he's given us $1,500. He pleads for us to regularly visit him as he's so hungry for fellowship, prayer and the Word. He's come to visit us and shared how he really felt the Lord's Spirit as soon as he came in the door!
From the Thai DF Home:
A real answer to prayer this month was when the Lord supplied the $10,000 we needed to get a new van for our Home. When I went to see a long-time friend of the Family, I presented the need and explained to him that we needed it for the many "consider the poor" programs that we are involved in, and also to be able to take the children out more frequently. The Lord miraculously touched his heart and he cheerfully gave the funds and asked us to purchase the van right away. Praise the Lord!
From Joy Swiss, Thailand:
We have been ministering to an elderly Japanese man, the managing director of a large company. On our last visit he was very happy to see us. With great pride he showed us the new catalogue for his company, where, in shiny letters across the glossy cover of the magazine, is the Family's famous quote: "The way to be happy is to make others happy." Inside the catalogue it explained how it is now the company's policy to make other people happy. Apparently he had taken this from one of our Christmas cards!
He expressed how happy he is to see us and how he likes our work, etc., and asked how we get our support. We explained, using as an example the story of a Japanese woman we had recently met DTD, who had right away offered to help us monthly. He was quite impressed with this and commented, "Well, I think that I could do the same. Why don't you come around here on the 15th of each month and I will give to your work." He cheerfully pledged to give a generous amount each month. We didn't even ask, we were just faithful to feed him the Word and the Lord did the rest.
From Mary Dear, India:
Mr. S. is a precious man who has known the Family for the last six years and loves the Word. He has brought his daughters over to our Home many times and attended our Bible studies. He pledged every month a good amount and was always very willing to help us. In the course of our ministering to this man, at one point we offended him in a small matter, which affected him to the point that he stopped wanting to see us and fellowship with us. After many attempts to make amends and restore our relationship with him, we seemed to never quite regain the closeness that we once had. We were somewhat discouraged and didn't know what to do, until the recent prayer day for finances. When praying for our contacts, we felt led to go and see Mr. S.
After desperate prayer we went to his office, where he received us very warmly. We were able to read with him a full Treasures article, talked a little, and at the end of the appointment we gently mentioned to him about helping our work, asking if he would like to start pledging again. He was very sweet about it and said that he would come by the Home and drop something off. We left it at that and thanked him profusely.
He had to make a business trip the next day, so he asked us to call him when he returned. Upon phoning him he was so inspired and excited about his trip and how the Lord protected him. He told us he was involved in a serious car accident. His friend ended up in the hospital, seriously injured, but Mr. S. didn't get a scratch. He just knew it was the hand of the Lord on him, protecting him. He wanted to share this testimony with us as soon as he could. When he visited with his daughter he was bubbling over with excitement about how the Lord did a miracle for him. We had prepared a study on miracles and read some things from the "Power and Protection" mags with him.
As he was leaving, he handed us a very large envelope. To our surprise it contained a whole year's pledge, quite a large amount. He explained to us that he knew the Lord protected him so that he could get to our place and give his help. It seemed that the Lord had spoken to him through this accident and inspired him to forgive us and to let go of any ill feelings in his heart towards us. We are very thankful to have this dear man back into our fellowship again.
From Tim, Michael, Lamb and John, Thailand:
This month we had two sets of parents visit from the West. One set of parents whom we knew to be fairly negative, though seemingly tolerant, confided in us during the course of their visit that some time prior to coming they had in fact been to some ADFI/CAN meetings, and had received all the material sent out by our enemies. So it was nothing short of a miracle that after spending a week here, they went away quite favorable! In the end they even said to us, "They [ADFI] call you a cult, but we think they are a dangerous cult!"
They visited the Home on two occasions, including once for dinner. They were very impressed by the VIP tour and our home schooling. Our "consider the poor" ministry was also a real key, as the father is very involved in charity work in France and is president of two such organizations. He was especially inspired that we were ministering at these places regularly.
The visit resulted in them increasing their monthly gift (which was already quite substantial) by $250, and on top of that, they agreed to send the rest of the money that we needed to get a large new car for the Home.—Altogether they agreed to send $13,000!
From Ana, Gabriel and Glory, Brazil:
This month two more people decided to give us their tithes, bringing the number of tithers to eight! The Lord is helping us to get closer to the goal that we had set up as a Home to have a good balance between witnessing with the tools, as well as having other sources of support. Now our funds don't come only from our tools and witnessing, but also from mail, follow-up, provisioning, etc.
From Peter S., Thailand:
The Lord led us to a new supporter this month, a Japanese executive. When we presented him with the idea of being a monthly supporter, he said, "I feel honored and privileged that you would ask me to help you!"
From Lily and Rejoice, Thailand:
One day while out on follow-up, we still had a half hour before heading home, so we decided to do a bit of outreach. A gentleman received us warmly as we entered into his office and seemed interested in our work. Since he didn't have any young children himself (to purchase a video for), we presented him with our sponsorship program. He seemed a bit hesitant and then went on to say, "I have been looking for something like this, a way to help others. But what I would like to do is help on a regular basis, every month. I'd like to give you monthly support! Can I do that?" Rejoice and I were so surprised—we had never met someone who was asking us to let him help on a monthly basis! It was a real encouragement to us that there are many people out there who want to do something for others. We just need to find them!
From Matthew and Marie, Belgium:
We first met Jojo last Christmas while provisioning sound equipment for our shows. He works in a music shop and had received Jesus three years earlier with a TS family who had faithfully ministered to him at that time, God bless them. Jojo got real turned on about the Lord and started witnessing right away. As a successful musician, suddenly the Lord seemed to close the doors on him just as he was starting to make it "big" in show biz. He was in the middle of recording an album but everything kept going wrong, and after months of unsuccessful recording, he realized the Lord didn't want him to continue in that direction.
After some heartbreaks he prayed for the Lord to give him a wife who would love the Lord. Shortly thereafter, he met Laura, whom he witnessed to and led to the Lord. They got married and soon had a beautiful baby girl.
Laura got real turned on about the Lord and kept fellowshipping more and more with this TS couple, but Jojo cooled off a little. However, when we met him for the first time around Christmas, he was overjoyed to come to our Home.
We started feeding him Bible classes weekly, and he and his wife started visiting the Home and got more and more turned on. They were "gobbling up" as much Word as we could feed them. We also started taking them out witnessing.
We gave them a class on "God's financial plan," which inspired them very much. Previously, they had thought that if they didn't join full-time, they were failing the Lord or were "second-class citizens." They were so inspired by the fact that they could be a blessing to the Lord's work and have their place in the Family by helping to support it. They are not wealthy, as Jojo works as a salesman in a music shop and his wife is a nurse, but they pledged to pay most of our rent every month, which was more than their tithe.
Now, only seven months after we started ministering to them and feeding them the Word and fellowship, they have also made the decision to give us a large donation from funds which Jojo had accumulated during his years as a musician. God bless them! We made a certificate of appreciation for them, and they were very touched by it.
From Andrew and Andrea, Mexico:
"All through a prayer!" The other day a man who runs a glass business came over to put in some windows that he was donating to our Home. During his first visit to take measurements, we prayed with him to receive Jesus. We also prayed for his business since he mentioned that it hadn't been going so well.
When he came over again to put the glass in, we spent some time talking to him. He mentioned that after we had prayed for his business it started going better. And when he saw that our prayer worked on his business, he told one of his friends about us and how the Lord answered our prayers for him. His friend very desperately wanted to meet us, so the man with the glass business asked us if he could invite his friend to come, and if we could pray for his friend to receive Jesus.
They came over that afternoon and we were able to witness to his friend and share with him some Bible stories about tithing and putting the Lord first. We also read some verses about giving, faith, and the Lord's blessings. He opened his heart and mentioned that five years ago his business was one of the most successful ones in town, but one day he made a comment to one of his friends about how good his business was and how he didn't need God's help. Since then his business had gone downhill and hit bottom. We prayed for him and he also prayed and asked the Lord for His forgiveness and help.
The next day he and his wife came to visit us and they brought an envelope with their tithe from that day. They gave it to us and said that from now on they are going to set aside their tithe daily and put the Lord first in their lives. He was almost crying as he told us that he wants the Lord to know that he is really sorry and that he wants to get serious with Him and have Him as his business partner. They were also so touched by our JETTs' sample and dedication that they want to bring their daughters over so they can learn from our kids!
From Lily, Thailand:
One of our monthly supporters, who we had asked to increase his pledge, hadn't given us an answer yet, when he ran into another one of our monthly supporters, Mr. K., at a party. In the course of conversation, they found out that they both were friends and supporters of the Family. Mr. K. asked him how much he helped with every month, and upon hearing his reply exclaimed, "Is that all?! Your company is the largest of its kind in the country, you should help them a lot more than that!" When our friend asked Mr. K. how much he helped with, he laughed and said, "I won't tell you, but it's certainly a lot more than you help with!" He then told him, "Your company is going to lose face by giving so little when it's such a big company!" Ha! It's inspiring to see a little positive peer pressure as our close friends encourage others to help us more too!
From Chinese Joy, Thailand:
Through a series of miracles, the Lord led us to meet M., the chairman of a Chinese association, who is also the owner of a number of tanneries in our area. He is a very precious man and invited us to the 6:30 a.m. breakfast gathering of their association. We had already attended this very exclusive Chinese gathering once before, but took the opportunity once again, in order to help them get to know us better. A team of YAs and teens came along to sing some songs for them, and they were a big hit! M. was very enthusiastic about the songs, and really wants to help the Family. He immediately invited us to perform at a dinner their association was having the next night. He said he would ask all the members to help our work.
He arrived promptly the next afternoon to take us to the function. All the people were very precious and interested in our work, and really enjoyed the program. M. handed out envelopes to each of the people there, asking them to help our work. Then he had each one come up and give us their envelope. It was very precious to see him so enthusiastic about helping the Family. He has such a sweet and precious spirit, and his love for the Lord and the Family is growing. Praise the Lord!
From Gideon, Jeremiah and Joan, Japan:
We've been attacking on our pledge program to try to do what we can to improve our financial situation. Over the last few weeks, we have been able to gain more support from old-time friends or contacts, as they have pledged to help on a regular basis. Thank the Lord! It's a real answer to prayer! Although the average donation monthly is only about $100, we feel that if we continue to push in this direction, the Lord can provide mightily, as every bit adds up and is a big help! Thank You Jesus!
(Editor's note: As Dad has mentioned in the Letters, it's better to have a whole lot of little givers, faithfully giving or tithing every month, than to depend on one or two large donors for most of your support. By spreading out your support base to many smaller regular givers, you avoid the financial crisis that could occur if one of your very few large givers is no longer able to give their monthly gift. Having many supporters also gives you more people to regularly minister to and bring closer to the Lord and the Family and gives more people a chance to receive the Lord's blessing!)
From Gentleness, Italy:
Last week we visited Mr. D., whom we had met while on the road. The girls sang for him and he was very touched. After hearing the children sing, Mr. D. said, "You people are from a different world! We live in a world of hurry, competition and strife, but you all are different." We met in Mr. D.'s office and he, his brother, son and daughter, who were all there, prayed with the girls to receive the Lord. One of the things that Mr. D. likes the most, of all the things that we've given and sent him to read, is "Our Statement of Faith." He says it's the most beautiful thing he's ever read! Before leaving, he asked his daughter to prepare an envelope for us. When we got home and opened the envelope, we found that it contained the exact amount we still needed in order to pay our rent, which was due in three days! Thank You Jesus! If we're faithful to pour out and minister to our precious friends, He will supply!
From Luke, Joy and Stephen, Taiwan:
Today we went to see Mr. P., an old-time friend and supporter, and shared with him the vision for our new Home. He was very inspired and helped with a generous donation of $2,000, praise the Lord! Another team saw a friend today with whom we shared the statements and needs for our new Home. He decided to double his monthly gift to us and also gave a large gift of $1,200 to help us get started. A real answer to prayer! Today alone the Lord brought in enough to pay our rent!
Christina and I followed-up on another old friend, Johnny. Although a staunch Buddhist, he really loves us and reads the Mountain Streams we send him. At first he had told us that he could only read Buddhist literature, but after starting to send him Reflections and Mountain Streams, he said he really likes reading these now. We shared more about our work, and also told him exactly what we need and what our monthly budget is. He told us to fax him our bank account number and he would send us a gift. The Lord touched his heart and he sent us $4,000!
We also visited Charlie, one of our dear supporters for over six years now. We shared different news of the Family—the recent persecution, as well as our vision for a media Home here. He said that for the past year he had lost the desire to make money, as he is already doing well financially, but that after hearing about our work he would now like to make money for us! We shared that we had a large rent deposit we needed to pay on our house, and he right away offered to give us $4,000 for that, as well as pledging a large monthly gift. So within two days the Lord provided $8,000 for the deposit, an amount which had seemed almost impossible to pay! Our God is a God of miracles!
From Jonas, Rose and Rejoice, Japan:
Leilani and Jonas were invited by a new friend to the anniversary celebration of the founding of his company, where we were to receive their charity gift of $1,000! We gladly accepted, and Jonas gave a thank-you speech to the over 800 attendees at the celebration gathering. The amazing part of this testimony was that this friend was introduced to us through another friend who gives us ice cream. Our ice-cream contact told this man about our work and encouraged him to help us, which he pledged to do even before meeting us!
From Prem, India:
One precious man whom we met just a few months ago helped us with almost $5,000! We had asked him for $10,000 and he said that it was no problem, and that he would help us with the full amount eventually. He was also quite open to helping on a monthly basis. The money was almost a non-issue for him. What he was most concerned about was his children, as he feels that they are quite spoiled. In the short time that we have known him, he has become convinced that we have the answers to his children's problems. He has been talking about us in glowing terms to his friends. One friend of his whom we met said that he used words like "Heaven" and "paradise" after visiting our Home! Praise the Lord! We just needed to have the faith for the Lord to supply from His abundant resources. While we were crawling on the ice the Lord was waiting on us to put Him on the spot, and He met us all the way. In one fell stroke the Lord not only supplied our whole month's expenses, but also our next month's buffer as well! Praise the Lord!
This same friend asked if he could send his two daughters over once a week so that they could spend the day at our Home. He felt that the positive peer pressure from being around our kids would affect them positively.
The children have been over about four times now and look forward to their days at our Home! The first day they went home and told their parents that there were no servants at our Home, but the "uncles" and "aunts" did all the work. That day we'd taught them to bake cookies and also to set the table, and now they are always asking their mother what they can do to help in the house. They have also learned to pray and thank God for the food before they eat. These little changes in their children have really impressed the parents and brought them in much closer. Thank You Jesus!
Recently our friend had a large birthday party for both his girls. Instead of having the usual System band, rides and games which most rich people here have at their parties, our friend wanted to have the Family come and do a performance of songs and skits. About 500 people attended this party. It was a tremendous witness and we met so many sweet people. Our friend suggested that we give away two of our tapes to each of the kids there and we ended up giving out 300 tapes which our friend generously sponsored. God bless him!
From Peter, Flame and Mary, Japan:
The Lord showed Trusty in a dream the specific name of an individual who would help us with a prefab building for our Home. After searching high and low for a company to help us and after visiting a few to look at what they had, we still had not found this man. Then one day she called a rather small leasing company and got through to the owner right away. This man's name was the same as what the Lord had given her in her dream, and after talking with him for only a few moments he offered his help. It turned out that this was just the prefab that we wanted!
In another dream, the Lord showed her that a certain kitchen supplier would help us with our needs. For awhile, after getting in contact with this company, it seemed a little hopeless. Time was passing and still nothing had come through. During the months we were waiting, some people wanted her to search in other directions, but she held on, believing that this was the company that the Lord wanted to use. After waiting three months, this company finally called informing us that they had a kitchen set for us and that they would be delivering it to our door! It pays to trust the Lord!
From Peter, Micaiah and Susanna, U.S.A.:
We had been praying for fresh milk for a while, when while out witnessing a big truck drove in front of Peter, blocking his path. He noticed that it was from a dairy, so he asked the driver what company it was and where they were located. It turned out to be the only large dairy in town. After presenting our need to the owner, he's now helping us on a weekly basis and has promised to keep increasing the amount he will give. Thank the Lord for His answer to prayer!
From Renee and Aaron, Thailand:
One of our contacts, Mr. W., had been "checking us out," as some of our Chinese contacts tend to do, but was always very sweet and good-natured with us. He would tune in to what we had to say when we visited him, so we tried to keep up good contact with him through correspondence and occasional visits. As Christmas and New Year season was fast approaching, we asked for his help with some food supplies and some cheese. His reply was, "I'll check to see what I have. Call in a week." After a few phone calls, he asked us to come and pick up what he had for us. Lo and behold, he filled our truck up with 500 kilos of cheese! In this country, this would have cost over $5,000! It was a real miracle and answer to prayer, as cheese is virtually unaffordable for us here, yet something we all really enjoy, especially the children.
From Aaron, Klara, Joe and Victoria, Russia:
God can supply, even in Russia! Since we made a list of needs for our Home and hung it in the hallway for visitors to see and also as a prayer reminder for ourselves, the Lord is showering us with blessings! Thank You Jesus! This month He provided for free some of the main materials needed for our Home improvements: wallpaper, 80 sq.m. of tiles, material for curtains; as well as 100 pairs of shoes, 500 kg. of fruit, and 200 kg. of meat and eggs! Thank You Jesus!
From John, Cefas, and Clara, Brazil:
The Lord provided over one million pages of free printing and xeroxing this month! Much of the printing also included free filmwork, and another contact donated the printing plates!
From Mark, Switzerland:
One year ago a company donated eight palettes of muesli (oat cereal with dried fruit and nuts) to us. Recently I contacted the same company again and found out they were closing down their business. I asked if they would still have some products to give to us. The lady happily agreed to give us thirty-five palettes of muesli, but we had to come and pick it up within three weeks. At that time I was also scheduled for a long faith trip, so I did not have much time to arrange the transportation for such a large shipment. As the deadline for the pick-up approached, the lady phoned and said that if we could not pick it up on time she would have to donate it to someone else.
So the Lord inspired me to contact the sales manager who helped one year ago (he had changed jobs), and ask him if he would know of someone who could help with the transport. He gave us a recommendation for a transportation company that right away agreed to help.
The last obstacle now was that the lady said we would need to pay for the wooden palettes themselves, which would have totaled about $500, which we didn't have. But the Lord worked this out when, due to a mistake, the transport company that had agreed to help us didn't pick up the muesli right away. So when the lady called us again, she said that if we could pick up the muesli right away she would donate the palettes also, praise the Lord! Ten days later, we received another phone call from the same lady, and she said that she had found another forty-five palettes of muesli for us! The Lord abundantly supplied the needs for our area, as well as the needs of those we are ministering to in our "consider the poor" ministry with the Bosnian refugees, thank You Jesus!
From Kristia, Thailand:
A precious contact and friend recently donated $1,000 worth of outside lighting for our very large yard. When we saw the quality of the light fixtures he was donating, we were quite surprised, as we hadn't been expecting such a large donation. When we called him back and thanked him for his gift, we mentioned that we weren't expecting something so nice and he said, "I only want to give the best, as you have the best work."
From the HCS, Japan:
The Lord has really been pouring on the provisionments these past couple of weeks since our prayer day for finances. Here are some of the testimonies:
One morning we found that we were out of hand soap. Since we haven't been able to afford to buy any, we prayed for the Lord to supply. An hour later we found a box outside our free store loading area—we don't know where it came from, it just appeared there—full of about 100 cakes of top quality hand soap!
We also just received 500 kilos of imported steak meat for free, which we figured at the going rate, even at our cheapest discount contact, would have cost us about $10,000! Praise the Lord!
We also got a truckload of household items from the "do it yourself" fair—not an abundance of each article, but lots of little things that were just what we needed for our Home. The Lord is faithful to supply not only the big things but even the little things!
From David, Samuel, Gideon, and Sarah, Indian Area:
The owner of the company that duplicates our tools has been showing his gratitude for our help with his autistic son (who we have been visiting weekly). This month he duped 550 tapes for us free of charge, God bless him!
From Divina, Joseph, Christina, Charity, and Rejoice, Thailand:
The Lord has supplied a total of about $13,000 worth of goods and materials through provisioning this month, particularly construction materials for needed Home improvements!
From David, Samuel, Gideon, and Sarah, Indian Area:
When we approached a company for 200 computer disks, the lady we knew there told us that her boss was very stingy and that he probably wouldn't help. In fact, for that reason she kept putting off asking him. But finally, just before we had to leave town, she presented our request to him. She later called and told us in amazement that he had cleared the donation! When we went to pick up the disks, we were sitting with the secretary when the boss came out of his office. He chatted with us a little as we showed him our PR album. He walked back into his office only to come out a minute later to tell his secretary not to give us 200 disks, but to double it and give us 400, because, he said, their company was very generous! It was such a miraculous manifestation to this lady, who looked like she was about to fall off her chair!
From Peace, U.S.A.:
While provisioning by phone one day for a nice large dining room table, I called one man who turned out to be a Christian. After explaining to him our work and our need, he said, "I'll pray about it!" The Lord showed me to prepare a thank-you card for him. I had everything written on the envelope except for the zip code. When I called him back for it, he asked, "Why? Are you going to send me a Christmas card?" I told him, "No, I'm going to send you a thank-you card by faith!" He really liked that, and told me to come by and pick up the table, worth about $800!
From Matthew, Poland:
Four months ago my partner and I were doing our weekly market provisioning, and things weren't going so well. We prayed desperately for a miracle, as we didn't have much time left. Then the most amazing thing happened. As we were walking past the trucks at the market place, I turned back and looked into the eyes of a man I had never met before and smiled. I thought it very strange at the time, as I hadn't done anything like that before. A few minutes later, a young man came running over and asked us to go meet his boss, who happened to be the same man I had smiled at! Without saying a word he filled our large trolley to the brim with boxes of apples, carrots, onions and the like—enough to last us two weeks! Since then he has remained a steady contact and is one of our most cheerful givers. Thank You Jesus!
From David, Sheri, Joan, Justin and Christina, U.S.A.:
This month the Lord provided $4,000 worth of ceramic tile, grout and mortar for remodeling some of our rooms. The company we called was in another state, but the boss agreed to help and ship the tile to us. When the tile arrived, we realized it wasn't what he had originally agreed to send us, and was a vinyl floor tile, not ceramic. So after looking to the Lord in prayer, we felt led to call him back and ask him about it. We politely explained that we wouldn't be able to use the vinyl tile, and asked him how we could return it. We told him that we could understand that he might not be able to help with ceramic tile, as it is quite expensive. The Lord blessed our honesty; he said there had been a mix-up and agreed to exchange the tile. He put 700 square feet of ceramic tile on a truck and sent it to us the next day. On the phone, he had agreed to send us 10 bags of mortar and grouting for laying the tile, but he sent a whole pallet-load instead—over 30 bags!
From David, Crystal, Crystal D, and Hannah, Indian Area:
The Lord supplied a contact for 8 free airline tickets per month within our country, which will be a big saving for those needing to travel frequently!
From Sela, Sweden:
The Lord did a miracle and supplied over eight tons of paper for free, for the EE work. The company that had been helping us had just made a new policy not to help anyone anymore, but then the new boss said that there were many workers in the company who were pleading for our cause, so they decided to help us after all!
Next we needed to ship the paper. We contacted another person in the same paper company to ask for help with the freight. He told us that he had prayed the prayer on the poster we had sent him last time they helped, and that this had changed his life. He agreed to send the shipment halfway for free, and then contacted another shipping agency in Germany who decided to help with shipping it the rest of the way. It was a savings of $2,000 on shipping costs!
From Sharon and Solomon, Asia:
As most of our visa trips had to be made this month or the next, we were in desperate need of extra funds, so we got together to discuss different ideas. One suggestion was to call some of our relatives and best givers to ask for their help. Since it wasn't the way we usually did it, it was a step of faith for everyone. But the Lord really blessed it, especially through one of our supporters from Europe. She is an older lady who has been supporting us regularly every year. When André called her, she exclaimed, "Oh, my Indonesian children!" and started crying, so happy to hear from us. With almost everything André said (though not a long conversation as it was long distance), she started crying again. She was so touched. The call was very timely as she had just received the latest newsletter from André and was more than willing to help with the full amount that André asked for his trip!
At the beginning of the month we had prayed for the Lord to supply $10,000 (which is more than our usual budget).—And that's exactly what He supplied! The Lord supplies according to our faith!
From Peter S., Joy, Promise and Kristia, Thailand:
With only seven days left, we were about $2,000 short on our budget goals. On top of that we had to still raise funds to pay the labor for the construction of our new classroom! It seemed like an impossibility! Yet, as the Word encourages us, "Anything can happen in that little margin of time if you keep trusting and don't give up" (MOP 38:55). Our Home got together for desperate prayer one evening and petitioned the Lord to fulfill His promises of supply through our outreach and follow-up of friends in the coming days.
The very next day, the Lord answered beautifully! Instead of going out, one of our main outreachers stayed home and made some calls to friends. Just before lunch time, he called Father S., a Catholic priest in another town that he'd been ministering to. We explained our need for someone to sponsor posters for distribution, as well as the need for the construction of a classroom in our Home. He asked which we needed more and we explained the principle of Mat.6:33 and that if we get out the Word of God first and foremost, then the Lord would do the miracle to supply the rest of what we needed. He was very touched and gave $520, which covered the sponsorship of 1,000 posters as well as a substantial portion for our construction costs.
Then, right after that call, a young secretary friend called and said she had rallied her office friends together and they raised $200 for us in a response to our request for a new sewing machine. We had initially just asked if she had a sewing machine we could borrow.
On that same day, an outreach team picked up a check from one of our monthly supporters (who is often difficult to see) for $400!
The next day, a team went out on outreach. Mid-afternoon they called in and asked the Home for prayer. We rallied the childcare groups and all at Home to pray. Just after they put down the phone, they headed for their last stop, an office on a construction site. The power of prayer pushed them along and the managers willingly agreed to sponsor 10 videos and 500 posters! The team knew it had to be the Lord, in answer to prayer!
From Luke and Magda, Russia:
The Lord did a real miracle in providing enough funds for us to return to Russia from Poland. Three days before our departure we still didn't have the necessary funds, but we had prayed and believed that the Lord would supply. That evening John, one of our friends, came over to the Home for some fellowship. He's a Christian businessman and has already helped us by donating tennis shoes for everyone in our Home, as well as giving a cash donation. Towards the end of the meeting he put a donation into my Bible. When I checked it, it was 1/4 of what we needed for our trip to Russia.
Later, just as he was leaving, I thanked him for all that he had already done for us, and after explaining our situation, we asked for the 3/4 we still needed for our trip. He thought for a few moments, and then gave what we needed. You can imagine how thankful we were that the Lord had answered our prayer. About an hour after John had left, the phone rang. It was John. He was calling to explain that while he was at our Home, before I had asked him for the gift, the Lord had told him to give us the full amount to cover our traveling expenses to Russia, but he hadn't obeyed until I asked him for the amount. He said that I shouldn't feel bad for asking, and actually apologized for not doing it when the Lord told him to. I was quite impressed with his honesty, God bless him! At the end he even quoted Mat.7:7 to me on the phone! "Ask and ye shall receive," praise the Lord!
From Titus, Taiwan:
A team of our provisioners recently made follow-up visits to some of our contacts in another city. There was one certain contact who has faithfully supplied the Family with enough cooking oil for all the Homes in the country, but whom we have never had the opportunity to meet in person. So Heidi, our provisioner, had a real burden to meet him and to personally express our gratitude for his faithful and wholehearted help.
Upon arriving at his office in his somewhat remotely located factory, they were rather taken aback at how rundown, old and dirty the place was. So much so, that when the secretary asked Fran and Heidi to take a seat, they were a bit hesitant as the seat looked so dirty!
During their visit, before meeting our contact personally, they discovered that he was actually purchasing the oil for our Homes at a cost of $1,550 every six months!—But by the looks of the place that they had stumbled upon, it almost seemed as though our friend could use some help himself! God bless him for his giving! When finally our friend appeared, again our team was amazed to notice how simple and humbly he dressed. He seemed to be a real "country" type of person, wearing flip-flops, etc.
He was very thankful for the visit but said, "You didn't need to come all the way out here just to see me! What is there that I can do for you?" Not really having any specific plan other than to minister to this precious man, Fran and Heidi shared some follow-up material with him, and thanked him for how much of a blessing he has been to the Lord's work. He humbly replied that it was nothing, and asked if there was possibly anything else that he might be able to do for them.
At this point the temptation was great to say, "Oh no, thank you, you already do so much," as he really appeared to not even be capable of the large donation that he already regularly gives to the Family. However, the Lord led the team to show him an appeal letter that they had drawn up with a list of different Home needs. In the appeal letter there was listed a need for $8,000. He asked, "Do you need $8,000?" The team answered, "Well yes, but anything that you can give towards this amount would be a great help." To their surprise, he turned to his secretary and said, "Write them up two checks for $4,000 each"!
Needless to say, our team was amazed at this one man's willingness to help to such a degree! This man did not appear to be able to help us much, but the Lord greatly blessed as our provisioners took the plunge and just asked in faith. How many more humble people are out there, looking forward to helping a good cause, but no one asks them, perhaps because they don't look like they would be able to help much. But in shying away from asking we rob them of eternal dividends both here and in Heaven!
From Juan, Maria and Pedro Feliz, Brazil:
The Lord inspired our faith recently when it was time to pay our rent and bills, and we didn't have enough to cover it. During devotions we read the story of George Mueller and prayed desperately that the Lord would do a miracle. It was beautiful to see everyone unitedly seeking the Lord. We then put feet to our prayers and everyone, except for a small Home team, went out witnessing for the day. The results were that we got out 25 videos, and received donations totaling $1,160! The day began with one of our friends (whom we had not seen in a while) coming by to give us a donation. He said he had read in the Daily Might for that day about giving, and the Lord inspired him to come and help us with a donation!
From Peter N., Praise, and Peter T., U.S.A.:
Our car was at the mechanic for repair for two weeks. That left us without a vehicle, but that seeming defeat turned into a victory, as it caused us to pray for a solution. After going to a big car dealer here and explaining our needs, he gave us a 1986 Isuzu Trooper (jeep)! It was really a miracle as it's just what we need for provisioning pick-ups.
Another miracle, which was the result of daily prayer and having the prayer request posted on our prayer board, was the donation of 2,900 lbs. (1,300 kg.) of pre-cooked, vacuum-packed beef. When we first approached the manager at the meat-processing plant who ended up donating the meat, he said, "Your timing is nothing short of a miracle," to which we replied that we believe in miracles. He went on to explain that he had just taken over this particular plant and was in the process of clearing out their inventory, as they are converting different storage facilities within the plant! This will be a regular contact, Lord willing, that will be helping us with more!
From James and Anna, U.S.A.:
The Lord gave us a car this month! We had a problem with our vehicles, as we really don't have sufficient vehicles for the things we need to be doing, and on top of it one of our cars "gave up the ghost" when its engine went out. When we explained to our insurance agent what happened so she could take this car off of our policy, we explained how much we needed more vehicles. She then told us that a woman who buys insurance from her just bought a new car, and wanted to give her old car away. The agent called her to ask this woman about her car, and she right away said she would be happy to give this car to us, thank You Lord! It needs a bit of work, but runs really well and is a real blessing!
From Joy, Phebe, Ruth, Victor and Hopie, U.S.A.:
While visiting the pastor of a church one evening as part of our "Go to the Churches" ministry, during the course of our conversation he said the Lord had just told him to give us $500. He stopped right then and wrote us a check for that amount!
From Nathan, Mary and Stacey, Japan:
A man came by our house and unexpectedly told us that he heard we needed roofing and that he had some—just what we needed—$3,000 worth of it!
From Mary, Benny, Paul, and Charity, Thailand:
We recently attended a childcare seminar where emphasis was put on improving the standard for our childcare groups, especially in the area of equipment for the children to be able to fully benefit from all the wonderful video teaching tools we have. It was shared that, "as we obey the Lord will supply." Shortly afterwards, Peter and Eman went for a follow-up visit to our Indian friend Sunil and his wife Nita. After a beautiful evening with them, they had Communion and read the story of Easter together. When they were ready to leave, Nita said she had something for us, so she went to get it. Apparently she had received an inheritance from her grandmother, and she wanted to share it with us. She came back with an envelope, which contained close to $1,000—just what we needed to get a video player and a TV for one of the childcare groups, plus more fans for the children's rooms. Thank You Jesus!
From Steven and Emily, Venezuela:
We met a very rich Italian lady who turned out to be very receptive to our message. She is now helping us to get two houses we need. One of the houses we wanted had a rent of $3,500, but she intervened and persuaded the owner to bring the price down to $1,300!
From Dust, Rose, Christy and Crystal, U.S.A.:
Our van was recalled by the manufacturer because of a defect. But all things work together for good as they gave us $6,400 in return for it. With this money we were able to buy two vehicles, both of which were quite a bit better than the one that was recalled! It was a wonderful answer to a daily prayer request to upgrade our vehicles, which came in a most unexpected way!
From Joy, Flame and Peter C., Japan:
This month we received $2,000 from an anonymous donor! This person has helped in this way before, but we are still not sure who it is. With their donation they sent the following note:
"Dear ones, The Shukun Bunshun [the magazine that started a negative wave of publicity against the Family in Japan] harassment seems to be continuing, but I believe in you. Please don't give up. Keep fighting. Right now I'm so busy that I don't have so much time to read the Bible, but I want to live with the Family someday. Right now I can't be of so much help, but I will send this money hoping that it'll be of some help to your work.
"Please take care of yourself. I've never met you because you live so far away, but please remember that there is someone who believes in you folks. Sincerely, (no name)."
Well, to say the least, this was a real encouragement to us, and further proof of the Lord's loving concern in supplying our every need in His perfect time.
From Ruth, Mexico:
With all the witnessing ministries that were going on last month, we didn't have much time for outreach to bring in funds. So we just had to pray for miracles, as we had bills amounting to $4,000. We knew we had been working very hard helping many people, so we put God on the spot and claimed His promises. Miraculously, Luz received a phone call from her sister saying that she had just found her mother's life insurance policy (who had passed away some time before), naming Luz and her sister as the recipients of the policy! Then a friend of ours who had hardly ever helped before, after hearing of our need, said the Lord had been speaking to her about tithing to our work. Besides that, she was going to call up all of her friends and ask them to help us. She did, and raised several hundred dollars more!
At the same time, some live-out members had been visiting us from another city. We had felt it best not to ask them for a donation, as they are already helping the work in another city. However, we prayed that if it was the Lord's will for them to help, that the Lord would lay it on their hearts and that they would offer without us even mentioning the need. That is exactly what happened. The day after we prayed, Rolando (our live-out) said he wanted to talk with me. I was a little puzzled about it, as he looked so serious. He said that the Lord had told him and his wife to give us a certain large amount of money. I thanked him very much, and then told him what we had prayed and that this was a special answer to that prayer. When he heard that, he was very excited and ending up giving us even more than he had planned!
From Matthew, Hannah, Crystal, and David, Indian Area:
One of our greatest victories this last month was the provisioning of nine round-trip air tickets for our YAs to attend a meeting in another country. This resulted in saving almost $5,000!
From John and Beth, Belgium:
We met P., a middle-aged man, during a break while out "clowning." Nina (age 7) gave him a poster. We talked to him for a little while and he gave a small donation for the poster. He enjoyed talking to Nina, shook her hand and said good-bye. Then, just before we were about to start singing again, he came back and said, "Call me at my office and I'll help you with a donation." Today I finally got ahold of him and when I told him we were trying to raise funds to rent a van to go witnessing for the summer ("SWIFTing"), he said he might be able to help. He called us back a half an hour later and told us his company agreed to help us with a passenger van for the whole month of August, enabling us to go on the SWIFT. Thank You Jesus! He never fails!
From Timothy, Maria and Tim F., Chile:
This past month we were in a tight spot financially. On top of being short for our rent and other bills, we also needed $500 for clinic expenses for two of our mothers who were about to give birth. It seemed like we weren't going to make it, but we knew that the Lord wouldn't fail us, as we had prayed desperately and done everything we could. Thank the Lord, He came through and in one day supplied all the money we needed for the rent, plus the $500 for the deliveries!
From Pablo and Perla, Love, and Ruth, Ecuador:
The electric company came over one morning to cut our electricity because the company had done an installation service and we still owed $600 on it, Lord help us! We witnessed to the service men, and they agreed to wait a couple of days before cutting the electricity. We went to the company to see if we could pay our bill in installments. We got desperate, and the Lord opened the door to talk to someone who turned out to be a real sheep. When he saw our photo album, he was visibly touched. He even asked if he could photocopy some of the pictures. When he returned from the photocopy room, he said, "I'm going to cancel your bill!" Out of the $600 we owed, we were told to only pay $4 for paperwork.
From Tim, Christian, Promise and Rejoice, Japan:
The Lord supplied a large, fully-equipped bus free of charge! Eagle-eyed Sam spotted the vehicle on a road trip, looked up the owner and the man donated it to our work! Remarkably, the very day before we brought the new bus to the Home, our old bus threw a piston rod. The Lord's forethought and timing is amazing!
From Michael, Clare, Paul and Susanna, U.S.A.:
One day when we had sent out a flood relief team by faith (although we were desperate for finances) we also sent out a postering team. John, who was on the postering team, noticed some green pieces of paper floating through the air in the parking lot. When he got a closer look at the papers he realized they were currency notes! Other people were even walking over them without noticing them. As John gathered them up, he added up $79! The Lord supplies!—Even if He has to drop it out of the sky!
From Simon, Italy:
A few weeks ago, Peace and I made a trip to visit an ex-member who left the Family during the RNR. He was very happy to see us again, and we spent a couple of days with him and his mom. She's 87 years old and a real woman of God who prays and hears from the Lord. The last evening, during dinner, she turned around and told me, "You need money to pay your bills! Don't worry, the Lord told me that you will receive a big gift soon!" Then she got up and gave me an envelope with $1,000!
From Cid, Andrea and Gina, Mexico:
We had a complete miracle happen! We hadn't gotten an electric bill since moving to this house and had been told that it was going to be extremely large. We went down to the electric company to find out how large the upcoming bill would be, but they told us that for some reason they couldn't find our account. Apparently the computers had blitzed out and erased the data, so they were only going to charge us $19!
From Simon, U.S.A.:
The Lord has been doing so many wonderful things in our area this past couple of months. We had a rough time for a while as finances were low, plus we were short on housing, which made some of the Homes a little uncomfortable because of overcrowding. But since the Letter, "Poverty to Plenty," the Lord has done some miracles for us and we have seen our finances rise, and we have now secured five new houses and one temporary house for a family arriving from Europe. Hallelujah!
From a Home in Thailand:
We had a Home meeting and decided to put the $400 that our new friend Eddie gave us towards a vehicle we had been considering buying.
The following day Eddie called and said he had received our latest follow-up letter. We explained that we were thinking of putting his $400 donation towards a new vehicle, so he asked how much the car was being sold for. After we told him the total cost he said, "Okay, I'll take care of the car for you, I'll buy it for you!" We were of course thrilled to see the Lord moving so miraculously! Eddie is also sending two shipments of construction materials to us over the next few days, which will include needed electrical fittings, windows, doors and door frames, wiring, toilets, etc. So far dear Eddie has sent us $2,000 worth of materials—and this is only the first two truckloads!
From Simon, Steven, Merry and Pearl, U.S.A.:
Michael YA's parents, who are TSers, received $3,000 and two diamond rings in the mail as a gift from a lady who wrote in after receiving a "Somebody Loves You" tract!
From Beth (of John), Belgium:
I want to share a little testimony of how the Lord changed me by giving me the faith for provisioning. I'm a mother and childcare teacher, not a provisioner or outreach person, but my faith was kindled at a recent MOM meeting, where the point was made that, "if you don't have a van for the kids' excursions, work on getting one!" The Lord laid on my heart the burden to step out and take the plunge. When I prayed about it, the Lord gave me the inspiring, faith-building story from the Daily Might about "faith is the title deed," and off to the phone I went!
The results? After making some calls, the Lord is supplying a car from one of the local garages for free! A few other companies I called are not able to help with a van for now, but they are looking for other ways to help us. Through other phone calls, the Lord supplied four bicycles, 17 different kinds of birds as pets for the kids, 55 pizzas for the kids' activity nights, 50 meals at a local fast-food restaurant, and meals at different restaurants for Home members on W&R.
When phoning for meals, a couple of the restaurant managers asked to meet me, and one of them sent flowers back with the team who ate at his place! Another said, after I explained our work, "I gave you the pizzas because you had a sweet voice"—ha! It's only Him! Thank the Lord for the Word which gives me the faith.
From Willow (19), U.S.A.:
I'd like to share a testimony that could be an encouragement to others along the lines of personal witnessing and having the faith to step out and ask people for financial help. The Lord can use any of us to win friends and cultivate supporters.
I learned this recently when I met a fellow named Ray at a car wash. We witnessed to him a bit and he seemed to be receptive, so I got his phone number and told him I'd call him.
I was a bit hesitant to call him, since he seemed more interested in me personally than our message, but the Lord showed me to go ahead. Since my first call, he now calls often, and I witness to him over the phone. He took a few of us out and wanted to spend money on me for this and that, so we felt that we needed to share with him our financial need and give him the vision for helping the work. This was a real step of faith for me and real hard on my pride! It's amazing how much pride can get in the way when it comes to asking people for help. I guess you think you might offend them and then lose their friendship, but this is rarely the case! Anyway, I got on the phone and told him of our specific need at the time (which was $800), and he said he'd try to help out! So we went to his office that day, and he helped with $500, God bless him!
So, it definitely pays to ask and give them the specifics of what you need! I wanted to share this so that maybe others who think they're not good at witnessing or cultivating supporters can see that it's not as hard as they think. Even though I've mainly been working in childcare, and I haven't really had much experience in this, the Lord was able to use me! God bless Mama and her recent counsel on this subject! The key to going from "poverty to plenty," like she said, is having the faith to ask. And sometimes people like Ray don't even think of offering, or feel you must "have it covered," or else you'd ask them.
From Luke and Sharon, U.S.A.:
As a result of our follow-up of K., the Lord has opened wonderful doors. The first door was a ministry with the homeless in our area. This particular man has a business that generates lots of money, which he in turn gives to the various shelters and organizations that help the homeless. He was able to get us plugged into this network, and we now have a regular circuit to follow once a week, singing to the homeless and ministering to them spiritually, while this man's volunteers feed and clothe them. We go right along with them, and together have been making a fruitful team. The volunteers are happy to have us, as they know they have not been meeting this spiritual need, and they understand the value of it. The homeless are thrilled with us and cry when they see the love and care we show them. We are happy because we are obeying the call to "consider the poor" and the Lord has blessed us from day one.
So, obeying in two areas that the Home was very negligent in—follow-up and "consider the poor"—has brought on the supply and financial blessing that we so desperately needed. The key for us was reading the Word on it—"God's Financial Blessings"—which pinpointed our weak areas, and as we all got desperate to obey, the Lord came through miraculously.
Mr. K. has now become a king for us here and has committed himself to helping us with housing, as well as support. He sponsors sets of videos at $300 each when we find shelters that want to use them. He has also bought sets for his grandchildren, and is convinced they are the best videos for children that exist. He is also presently looking for housing for us, which he will pay for.
Needless to say, this testimony has greatly inspired us, as things in our area had seemed like they were "drying up." But the problem seemed to be that our methods of outreach were a bit outdated. Now that we have brought our ranching up to date with the follow-up, "consider the poor," and getting out the meat of the Word via the statements, the Lord is providing and blessing. It pays to obey!
—Testimonies of the Lord's Supply for New Homes!
From the Osaka Home, Japan:
We wanted to share one of the great victories the Lord did in Osaka, by helping us to close down the immense and rather historic Osaka school and guide us to our new Home! The testimony began about eight months ago, when the Lord showed us it was time for a change and we should close down the Osaka school. This was to be no small task, with truck load upon truck load of junk and forsake-all to go out, building cranes to remove refrigerators and heavy items from the top floors, etc. By faith we started the close-down operation, which was eventually to take the full eight months to complete. We didn't have a new place yet, but we believed that the Lord would provide a new place of dwelling.
Finding a house in Japan is very difficult. Finding a place in Osaka can approach the insurmountable—the biggest obstacle being the extremely high deposit requirements, which are usually 10 times the monthly rent! There had been numerous attempts over the past four years to find a new location for our Home, but each time the search had been discontinued. This time we felt we needed to show the Lord that we meant business, and so we began to close the school down. In spite of the formidable obstacles, we mustered up the faith last October to pray and petition the Lord with a specific timetable, to somehow find our house in the witnessing month of December and move in after the New Year. The Lord wonderfully answered this prayer!
In December, Tommy went out on his first appointment to look at a possible house to rent and he was very surprised to find that it was a house he had seen two years earlier when out house-hunting. At the time, Tommy did not go in because in spite of how nice the house looked on the outside, the price-tag was out of our range, close to $5,000 a month! However, this time the price had dropped $2,000 due to the recession (and through later negotiations it came down even further). It was amazing how the Lord kept this house for us, as it really is gorgeous and a high standard! The public areas are very spacious, with a beautiful dining room and kitchen, ideal rooms for schooling, etc. Just the kind of place we were looking for, where we felt we could really open up to the community and win kings and supporters!
When we met with the landlord, he was very sweet and fully accepted the fact that we are the Family. When we explained that we wanted to set up a little home-school in his house, he exclaimed, "It's perfect for that!" He was happy to have us as his tenants. The only catch was the $20,000 deposit!
We were able to come up with half the amount, but that still left us $10,000 short, and if we were to have this house, the landlord and realtors were requiring us to put a month's rent down and pay the full deposit within two weeks! That was quite a tall order, considering these two weeks were the last two weeks of January, which is well-known to be the absolute worst time to try to raise money in Japan (everyone has spent all their money during New Years and is eagerly awaiting their February paychecks). On top of this, Japan was in the middle of a biting recession! Needless to say, we were aware that this was a difficult time to come up with such a big amount, and we felt we needed to hear from the Lord to know His will.
During our prayer meeting, the Lord gave us the letter "Golden Opportunities," which we felt was a definite call to seize this possibility. Also, three of us received this same section of Isaiah 30:21: "This is the way, walk ye in it." Someone also had a vision of the Lord hovering above us, holding the entire amount we needed in His hands, which He dropped into our outstretched hands, a gold coin at a time. The key seemed to be that we had to keep our hands out there, anticipating His supply!
We took this to mean we were going to have to trust the Lord and keep our hand of faith outstretched for the duration of the two weeks, until the whole amount would come in, little by little. This was to require a real trusting attitude on our part, to wait patiently and believe. The Lord fulfilled this vision literally, bringing in the whole amount through a series of donations, thank You Jesus!
In looking back, we learned how important it is to pray and get something definite from the Lord; for when our faith was tested over the two weeks, each time we were able to fall back on the definite Word the Lord had spoken for our encouragement and the strengthening of our faith.
The $10,000 came in from every possible source: donations from friends, the mail ministry, outreach, other Homes, etc. It was beautiful how all the Homes in our area united together so sacrificially, by asking for help from each of their friends and contacts, contributing manpower for the move, provisioning needs, and also sharing what they could from their cash savings.
At the end of the two weeks, the entire amount was miraculously in our hands and we were able to finalize the contract and get the key to the house! In February we completed the monumental task of closing the school and moving our people. Then in March, we ran into another obstacle, when we were faced with $4,000 of back bills from our previous house.
All our resources had been tapped for the move we'd just completed, and we had nothing to turn to for this amount. So we turned to Jesus, and He literally dropped it from the sky! One of the women in our Home received a letter from a friend who was sending a donation for her daughter's airfare to another field. It just so happened that the Lord inspired him to donate an extra $3,000 to help our work! This $3,000 was just the amount we lacked to finalize the bills and turn the page on our former property! Praise God! For us it was a marvelous fulfillment of Mama's Letter for the new year, "Ask and It Shall Be Given!" (ML #2893, GN 570).
From Sara (18), and the MOM Team, U.S.A.:
When we first arrived in a pioneer Home that was just being set up, they had no furniture for their living room. We wanted to set up the house for visitors, so we prayed and looked around and found that they had been given some older mismatched couches. We felt that if we just did the best with what we had, the Lord would supply more and better furnishings. So we brought them in the house and worked on sewing and patching them up the best we could. Then we took the JETTs out provisioning to the swap meet (flea market), where the Lord provided a lot of different things for the Home, including some real nice flower arrangements that we were able to use in beautifying and setting up our living room. Thank the Lord, it came out looking pretty nice with just what little we had.
It was a good lesson, because as we were faithful to make do and be good stewards with what we had, soon after the Lord supplied 40 beautiful new couches and lots of matching chairs from a very fancy hotel that was remodeling. He never fails!
From James, Flower, and Chris, Mexico:
Some months ago, we were presented with the vision of possibly leaving the area where we'd been for the last eight months or so, and where the work is pretty well established, to repioneer a city where we had worked five years earlier. A prosperous work had previously existed there, but there had been no Home there for some time.
To say the least, we were thrilled with the idea of heading out to pioneer again after being almost five years in areas where there were established Homes. We spent about a week preparing and saying good-bye to many sweet friends and contacts that we had grown close to. Then we were off on our journey, which was to prove to be an exciting one, full of miracles and lessons. It was 35 hours by bus to our new city, so we knew it was going to take us quite a bit longer in our van, pulling a small cargo trailer with all of our things, and carrying our team of three adults, one teen, one JETT and eight children aged 1-9 years! The Lord definitely fulfilled His promises, and supplied miraculously and abundantly while on the road.
We didn't really have any pioneer funds as such, but almost everywhere we went, the Lord gave us real good meals for all 13 of us, spacious accommodations in good hotels, and free gas and tolls. For example, one night we pulled into a city where we were hoping to stay with an old contact, as we had traveled a good part of the day and were tired. Upon arriving, we found out that he was out for the night. The Lord did a miracle, however, and touched the heart of the girl on duty to give us two rooms, even though it had looked like the hotel was full.
On another occasion we needed gasoline. We pulled into a little gas station out in the middle of nowhere, with not a single customer to witness to or provision funds from. Miraculously, the owner was in, and he filled our tank to the brim for free—125 liters! Many, many other such miracles happened on the trip, praise the Lord!
After five days of traveling and having met many sweet sheep along the way, we arrived at our destination. It was such a thrill to see the beautiful turquoise-blue waters of the Caribbean again, and the Lord brought to our memory many sweet thoughts of witnessing experiences, sheep and friends and heavenly fellowship we had had when living here before.
As we had been in contact with a sweet brother who used to be in the Family and now owns a hotel about an hour outside of the city, we had planned to stay with him while looking for a house. But the Lord had other plans! It turned out his hotel was full, but another former member who manages the hotel for him invited us to stay with him and his family in their house. It was a bit tight as they have a small two bedroom house and three kids of their own, but God bless them for helping us out. The Lord used it, as we were able to minister to them. Also we could clearly see the Lord did not want us to get too comfortable, but to get right to work and get a house and a work going. Of course, it was a little sad to see how these folks have settled into the System and lowered their standard and convictions, but that also made us even more thankful to still be in the Family, by God's grace.
We had received the verse about "preparing our work in the field first," so as soon as we could, we started going to town daily to visit old friends and contacts and make new ones, etc. All of our old friends were so happy to see us and were excited to hear that we'd come to stay. The Lord did miracles to supply the gas and funds we needed daily, as with each need we'd meet somebody who would help us out at the moment we'd need it. We had lived by faith for years, had mostly been involved in provisioning and outreach, and had often pioneered in the past, but this time the Lord was (and still is) teaching us to have faith for downright miracles, like George Mueller, and to not depend on our drive or supposed talent.
After staying with these friends for about a week, the Lord led us to go visit another friend who had also been in the Family (having joined in our Home here years ago), and whose parents are presently supporters in another city. He was so thrilled to see us that tears came to his eyes. He said he'd been praying for so long that a Home would open again here. He then offered us to come and stay with him, which was a real blessing. He lived right in town, which helped us save time and gas by not having to travel two hours daily.
While staying with him, we had the opportunity to start looking for a house. All were either way too small or way too expensive. This is one of the most expensive cities in the country, with some monthly rents running as high as $4,000-$5,000. Wow! Then one day we saw an interesting house in the paper, for sale. We got a check to call, even though it was for sale and not for rent. It turned out to be through a real estate company—a factor which usually makes it more difficult—but the agent said the owner might consider renting it. So we went to see it. It was located in a very nice area of town, in a very strategic location for an outreach Home. It was surprisingly large for this city, with many advantages for a Family Home. It even has a pool. We witnessed to the real estate agent and told him we'd like to see the owner, which is something they usually don't let you do. Miraculously, he worked out an appointment for us to see the owner in a couple of days. We all really committed our meeting to the Lord in prayer, and claimed the house for the Lord's work.
Finally the day came to see the owner and to be honest, we were a bit nervous! We sat down and started talking to him and the Lord led the conversation as we witnessed to him about our work and showed him pictures, etc. He right away said he would consider renting us the house, but named a price higher than we felt we could pay. We asked him to give it to us for less, and he agreed! Then we told him we couldn't pay in dollars, which he wanted, and he agreed to take pesos. We also told him we couldn't afford the one month safety deposit, so he dropped that. Wow! Before we knew it, we had a house. Thank You Jesus! The next step was to sign the contract with a lawyer, who charges about $180, but when talking with him, he decided to do it for free and even offered his services for the future saying, "I hope you never need me, but if you do, I'm here to serve you." A house and a lawyer right off the bat!
After getting the house ready, we moved in with no furniture or anything. The house had been empty for a while and needed some work, but the Lord has done miracles in supplying these things also. For example, someone fixed the water pump for us and then the pool pump. Someone else came and put in a nice stair railing and gate for the kids. Someone came to clean the carpets and another to fumigate. Another person donated two gas tanks and put in the gas lines, etc. The Lord also opened up contacts for meat and cheese, fruit and vegetables, drinking water, gasoline, milk and more.
A few months later, being still short on personnel and very far from any other Homes, we found it a bit hard at times to get all the different things that we needed in order to set up the work the way it should be. We also still lacked some material goods necessary for the proper standard in our Home, etc.
While praying about this situation, we decided to put up a prayer list of the more urgent provisioning needs in different parts of the house. We were amazed as we watched the Lord go to work. Things that we had wanted to get for months, including some that we had even pushed to get with no results, started coming in. In a matter of three weeks, a good part of the list had been supplied, including a freezer, a refrigerator, a washing machine, a living room set, and a large cash donation that helped us pay off a debt and invest in some other needs.
It was neat how the Lord supplied some of these items. For example, one day we went to eat at a restaurant contact, and while parking we noticed some items in the yard outside a nearby hotel. We asked about these things and explained our work to the security guard. He said to come back the next morning and he'd see what he could do. The next day we were there at 7:00 a.m. and he gave us two nice commercial-size washers and a fridge that they were getting rid of because they had gotten new equipment. These are things that we had specifically prayed for during the last continental Prayer Day! Shortly afterwards, a friend closed down a business and donated all their leftover merchandise to us. This included about 650 pounds of cheddar cheese, frozen veggies, and over 250 liters of concentrated juice.
Also in answer to our prayers, a dear friend and ex-member who faithfully tithes to us, helped us out extra this last month. We explained to him our situation and how we needed to get ahead financially, etc., and asked him for any suggestions. The next day, besides his tithe, he gave us a check for an amount almost four times his tithe. We were so thankful and will be getting some school materials and other needs with it, praise the Lord!
From Joseph and Meekness, Peace, Ruth, YA Andrew and kids, U.S.A.:
We came to this Midwestern city in obedience to a prophecy. With our flee bags and $50 in our pockets, we headed out! Less than one hour out of our former Home, we had a transmission breakdown. Well, where God guides He provides, and He did, every minute, every mile, every meal! The van miraculously was fixed that night, and the Lord provided a very nice hotel for us all. The owner even greeted us at the door and helped us with our sleepy kids!
House-hunting in the paper was simple, but after a few calls we found that the bigger and better housing was only found through a rental agency. There was a $65 fee to join. We explained our situation to Jewel, the secretary at the rental agency, and she went straight to her boss and asked him to help us. If he couldn't drop the fee, Jewel said she would pay it right out of her own pocket. And she did! Jewel gave us a big book with about 800-1,000 houses. So the hunt was on. We had received a pioneer gift to locate a house, but only had a week to find a place, or the gift would go to another project!
After looking for a week and knocking on many doors, we wound up with the very first house on the list. The landlord is a sweet open-minded senior citizen who received us as the Family and was open to having so many people living there. Right away we started giving him statements and posters every time he came over, while we were setting up, cleaning and painting. He even bought paint and equipment for us, and materials to strip, sand, varnish and stain the wooden floors. We would mention the slightest thing, like a handrail for the kids' safety on the stairs, and the next day, he had made one and put it on! If something breaks, he fixes it. He built the house, so he knows all its little secrets. What a blessing he is—our own "live-out" handyman! We all love him so much and he really does love Jesus! He's had a near-death experience, and when we talk about Heaven he says, "I know! I know! I've been there! Words cannot tell!"
Before we even got the house, the Lord already provided the furnishings! The owners of a hotel liquidation store donated two truckloads of furniture to us. They let us go into their warehouse and pick what we wanted for six bedrooms, two living rooms, two dining rooms, and a double-car garage which we're converting into a children's playroom! We picked matching curtains and carpets and bedspreads. We also got lamps and tables for all the rooms and even desk lamps for the bedrooms. They said we could come back again if we needed more. We've visited them since, and they've continued to help us. They even invited us to their house for dinner.
Since the day we moved in, our refrigerator fills up and empties out quickly, and we've been living from one miracle to the next! Two times, during prayer, we got phone calls: one asking if we needed tissue paper, and the other offering us milk. We've felt just like George Mueller must have felt many times!
Although tool distribution started out slow, the Lord is showing us that He doesn't want this town pioneered by leaning on the arm of the flesh, because we have nothing to lean on but Jesus! He wants the work built here with heart-to-heart connections, which means a lot of personal witnessing, plowing the ground, planting and watering the seed to maturity. It's a big city with a lot of area to cover, and going out witnessing is so exciting, praise the Lord!
—From Solomon CR, HCS, Japan:
Over the past few months, the Lord definitely seems to be directing us to be more involved with personal witnessing, and not just strictly behind-the-scenes tool production. We have altered our schedule somewhat to accommodate what has now grown to be a regular weekend witnessing schedule of about two days a week average, where we send out a few witnessing teams, mainly JETTs, teens and YAs.
Since we've been doing this, there's been a notable change in the spirit of our Home, in the area of people's concern for others, and vision for the lost, and we're very thankful for that. Also, as we go out to witness, the Lord brings in needed finances for our Home and operation, praise the Lord! Here are some testimonies from our "first steps."
Night Singing and Witnessing
Several weeks back we began going out night-singing by faith, and the Lord led us to some open doors in nightclubs in a nearby area where we were able to sing, dance, pass out tracts and literature, and distribute tapes. This was the first time we'd sent out night-singing teams from the HCS for years, so it was quite a special event for us. The Lord really blessed that first night; He gave us a place to stay, supplied our food needs, and other Family members helped us find some initial contacts. The Japanese clientele in the clubs where we witnessed were quite open and receptive to our message and the fact that we were missionaries, and it was pretty much a hit that first night, which was quite an encouragement to us. Besides provisioning many of our needs while out, the Lord supplied abundant finances for the Home as well!
The next day we went out personal witnessing, and distributing tapes. Although the tapenessing didn't go as well as we had hoped, we were able to witness to people.—Even if they turned down the tools, we still witnessed to them and gave them tracts, and didn't leave with an attitude of, "Oh, what a goat! They don't deserve to hear the message." We tried to at least leave them with a word of encouragement, saying, "Okay, that's fine. Well, here's something for you. Remember that God loves you, and whenever you need Him, He'll always be there.—It's okay if you can't help out right now, we understand. But the main thing we wanted to tell you was this." We found that as we emphasized the personal witness and just loved people, and weren't so concerned about money, then by the end of our witnessing time, the Lord miraculously supplied the funds that we needed.
Each night while on the road, we shared our witnessing adventures and stories, which was really feeding. In the morning we would get together for Word time and then we would pray and put everything in the Lord's hands. The one phrase that I often repeat in prayer is, "Lord, we're out here, now use us for whatever You want. We'll witness to anyone You put in our path. We're Your tools, so please do miracles." I've often especially prayed that our teens and YAs would get a taste of how the Lord works in miraculous ways, to increase their faith. And I think the Lord has done just that.
Following Up on the Nightclubs
After making those initial contacts with the clubs on that road trip, we were able to do a little follow-up via phone from our Home throughout the next couple of weeks. Then the Lord impressed on us the need to send out a small team to the clubs that we had initially visited, and instead of going to sing or to try to get donations, that we should just go minister to the management. We felt we should just spend a little time with them, take them a Christmas gift, some invitations to our Christmas concert and literature and see how they were doing, ask if they needed prayer for anything and show concern for them.
So that night I went out with two of the YAs, and stayed out visiting these people until 1:30 in the morning. It was quite fruitful and I think they were very touched that we were there just to say hello to them. One of the managers of the clubs took us to another club that he wanted us to sing at, and everywhere we went we made appointments to return in a couple of weeks for more singing, follow-up and fund raising. We were also able to see a lot of the people that we had met on our first night out. It was quite inspiring and very feeding as well. It was wonderful to go primarily to witness and show concern rather than being so worried about funds, and the result was more contacts and friends whom the Lord will no doubt use to bless us financially as well.
Singing at a Wedding
A while back, we had agreed to sing at the wedding of the son of one of our contacts, who had helped us by printing designs on T-shirts for the filming of the Endtime music video. We weren't really expecting this man to help out any more, and we were offering our services to sing at this wedding as a love-offering to him, to show our appreciation.
But the day before we were scheduled to do the wedding, this man showed up and gave us an envelope with a large donation in it! Of course, we were very grateful for this. When praying about it, I felt that not only was the Lord rewarding our efforts to feed the sheep, but He was also paying our way for this night out, and that He wanted us to go and minister to people without being worried about having to bring in funds.—And He had already supplied much more than we would have brought in through donations.
At the wedding, we only needed to sing for a total of 10 minutes or so, because Japanese wedding ceremonies are so involved. He had also asked for Mary (one of our provisioners) and myself to give a little speech. There were about 250-300 guests, and we were ushered in with our two guitars. The singing group first sang a song with a music track, and then continued with acoustic numbers.
We had asked the Lord to help us to not go up there and be stiff, but to be very warm, loving, friendly and casual, and people seemed to really appreciate and like that. The second song, which we had not rehearsed well enough, didn't come out so well; part of it was off-key and it was quite embarrassing, but God bless the team, they fixed it up as they went, and kept going with the next few songs, which the audience loved.
When it was my turn to give a speech, I started off by saying that the Bible tells us that God is love and, among other things, love makes us think more of others than ourselves, gives us patience when we're impatient, gives us peace when we're angry, gives a solution when we don't know what to do. I said that it was our prayer that the bride and groom would not only be two people living together, but two people who would open up their hearts to the God of love and that He could give them all these virtues that they would need. Also, that they would be known, not only to their friends but also to their children, as a couple that not only educated children together, but also loved them.
At the end, we were quite touched at how many people came up to us, complimenting us for our part in the program, talking and exchanging business cards. Our friend also kept coming up, and would say so sweetly and humbly, "I'm so happy that you came. You really touched my heart. You've made me so happy. Thank you for coming." He bought six tickets to our Christmas concert, and on top of this, he kept putting more money into our pockets at the same time so when we left we had received quite a bit more funds. God bless him!
After the wedding, we piled into our van and decided to go out caroling and personal witnessing in the business district nearby. We entered a beer garden which was closed, but all the workers were there eating. We sang a song to them, and then led them all to the Lord. On and on it went throughout the evening, where we caroled and met other people, led them to the Lord and passed out literature. We felt the Lord had pretty much paid for our evening, and the best thing we could do was to go out and give the message freely and not be concerned about even trying to get donations. Actually, oftentimes we just pray that the Lord will bring the donations in, and people just give without us having to push for it!
Lessons Learned
Quite a few things came up on this last witnessing trip. Some of our teens sometimes get a bit light-hearted, especially in situations when they're talking to people who are a little tipsy or drunk, or who, judging by outward appearances, may not appear to be that sheepy.
On our last road trip, we were in a nightclub and two of the singing team were somewhat foolishly joking around with a 23-year-old who happened to be a bit drunk. I came over and asked if they had offered him a tract and they said no. So I took out a tract and gave it to him. Suddenly this boy became quite sober and said in perfect English, "Oh, are you Christians? Do you have God?" I said, "Yes." He said, "How can I have the God that you have?"
It turned out that the boy was a Catholic. Then we found out that he had met the Family six months earlier and was quite desperate. It was a very meaningful witnessing experience. He ended up praying with us, and we're keeping in touch with him. This was quite a sobering lesson for the teens.
Another thing happened the night we were out personal witnessing after the wedding. As we were walking along, some of the teens started getting a bit too light-hearted and as one of the girls was passing a bum on the street, she turned around and said, "Hi, bum!" I turned around and said, "What did you say to that man?" And immediately I felt led to witness to him, with the help of a translator. He turned out to be quite a desperate man that really responded to the Lord's love. It was one of those things that really hurt me, because I think our young people need to realize that the Lord died for that "bum"—or any other person we meet—just as much as He died for us. Jesus went through all the pain and agony for that man just as much as He did for each of us. We don't know what this man's past life is, but he's certainly a soul worth bringing to Jesus and it's not up to us to judge who to give the Lord to. I ended up putting my arm around the man, just trying to show him a little bit of genuine love.
In this situation, I feel the teen's comment was just a blunder of the mind; she was just having a good time and didn't realize what she had said. But the Lord made quite a good lesson out of it. On the way home there was hardly a sound in the van, and I think everyone was thinking about what had happened. I would say that the majority of our young people have a real deep love for souls and the more we go out, the more they're learning to let go and let the Lord lead them to the right people.
We also met an American who works in Korea, who seemed to have a bit of a sodomite tendency. One of the girls started witnessing to him and then I came over with others of the team. He said he had the Lord already, so we asked if we could just pray for him. We sweetly laid hands on him and prayed for him, and he was quite touched. I'm glad that we went on the attack and witnessed to him before some of our boys had a chance to get critical of this fellow, which might have hindered their witness to him. I think that one of the main things we're learning is not to judge by outward appearance, but to judge righteous judgment. When it comes to winning souls, we shouldn't judge, we should just give.
Witnessing at Audio-Visual Fair
We also recently got to attend a large fair, the biggest audio-visual fair on this side of the globe. People from all over the world come to explain their new products and find out what's going on in the audio-visual world and the international market. Since we've been going regularly each year, we have several contacts from there who we follow-up on and minister to.
This year we felt led to take a bigger team and commit all of our needs to the Lord specifically the night before. We went there armed with better presentation brochures and feeding lit to give out—not only to the contacts, but to all the other people we met. We also wanted to give our contacts a report of what we'd done this past year (1994), since several of them have helped us a lot. It was very different from any other year that we've gone, as the attitude of our team was pretty much to help feed people and give them a witness.
With every contact that we met, we gave a little running report about our work in other parts of the world. We'd also explain what we've done here in Japan and how our work here helps missionaries on the field by producing tools that they can use to support their own work, etc. People were quite impressed and touched. We also asked them if everything was going well in their lives, and if there's anything that we could do for them, or that we could pray for, etc.
At the end of a conversation with one man who spoke perfect English, we gave him a "Somebody Loves You" tract, and said, "Just remember this message. If you ever find yourself really needing God, remember that He loves you very much and He cares about you and we just want to let you know that." As we walked away, he grabbed my arm and pulled me back. He looked right into my eyes and said, "I really want you to know that I really am very, very grateful for what you have just said, it means a lot to me."
About a week later, this same man called up and donated a very expensive tripod that we needed, worth thousands of dollars! Previously he said he had been unable to give us some of these things for free, but as a result of us trying to reach his soul and minister to him, he was touched and willingly gave us one of the tripods that we needed for free. Praise God!
When people we met expressed reservations about helping us, or said that they couldn't help, we gave them something to read and said, "Well look, it doesn't matter right now. Here's something for you. Remember this message. Please read it and remember that God loves you and cares about you and if you want to open up your heart, He'll come into your heart." People were genuinely touched. They said, "Thank you. I'm glad I got to meet you. I'll keep this in mind. I will read it and maybe I can help you in some other way, or I can help you next time, or whatever." We tried to show more genuine concern for them, and instead of just going out trying to provision, it ended up being more of a witnessing excursion, and opportunity to follow-up on our contacts.—And as we poured out, the Lord was faithful to supply all our needs!
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Copyright 1996 The Family