17 April, 2016

2 ou 3 dons, semaine de 21 mars 2016

Between mid-January and late March, quite unexpectedly, I received 3 gifts of financial significance from 3 different sources.
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For those who follow me here or glance occasionally into other social media outlets where I am active, I should tell you that since the start of 2015 there have been sharp, unforeseeable increases in my housing costs.

With strata levies and special levies being raised on properties across my city, I had been facing the sad prospect of maybe returning to full-time paid secular work in order to earn enough to keep up with the essential property costs (of living in a 38 sq.m. box worth $355k that mainly belongs to my mother!) This would have meant even greater losses for me - giving up part-time theological study at Moore, giving up time I wanted to spend doing more Christian ministry and growing in ministry skills to prepare for the future, not to mention giving up my stabilised sense of mental health (my last FT job at school in 2011 created a very bad state of mental health with severe anger management issues).

Whether this sounds noble or not, I was praying (both by myself and with others) for a short-term resolution to these unavoidable financial hurdles - at least, for the kind of resolution where I would not be forced into returning to full-time school teaching and therefore dropping out of Moore for 6 months (or longer).

I estimated that at least the first of these strata-plus-special levies would be around $1300, although I did not make this widely known.

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14 janvier 2016

At this time, an uncle informed me that someone he knew would be sending a secret anonymous ministry gift my way. Shortly thereafter a cheque for $200 arrived in the mail, a gracious provision from God which made paying a small electricity bill a whole lot easier.

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21 mars 2016

In this week (the Easter week), the 2 other gifts I inferred in my post title arrived. One given in secret, from an honest and hardworking source I am not permitted to disclose, amounting to $1000. The other, a thanksgiving cheque for $300.

Now do the mathematics, friends. What does $1000 plus $300 equal..?

It is important right now to clarify that NEITHER of the 2 donations above (totalling the exact $1300 I had estimated) were given by people who knew:
(a) I was in need of this kind of support, OR
(b) I had calculated, and was therefore asking for, a provision of $1300 in the upcoming quarter.

!!!!!


God in His great mercy was at work, behind the scenes, moving these 2 sets of people to give particular amounts that in fact, when combined, matched the exact amount I thought I might need and was praying about - without either of the donating parties having ANY idea of the precise sum!

I thought it was great reading about this kind of stuff happening to George Müller in the 19th century (see http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/george-muellers-strategy-for-showing-god#57 or http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon11/george_muller2.htm for more).

I didn't assume, nor claim certainty that it would happen for me - because whilst God does promise to provide all our needs "according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus" (PHIL. 4:19), it doesn't follow that what I define as a NEED is what God may agree or decide is one.

That said, I am extra joyful and thankful about what God's provision through these unknowing (and exact!) donations has meant for the next few months.


From George Müller himself:
"The gifts have been given to me 'without one single individual having been asked by me for any thing. The reason why I have refrained altogether from soliciting any one for help is, that the hand of God evidently might be seen in the matter, that thus my fellow-believers might be encouraged more and more to trust in Him, and that also those who know not the Lord, may have a fresh proof that, indeed, it is not a vain thing to pray to God.'"


I am not so noble as he, only a little shepherdess
-  and yet in His grace and mercy, God has once again given water in the desert and streams in the wasteland as drink to me whom He chose, that I might proclaim His praise (ISA. 43:20-21).

L/T.