Last week we got a big snowstorm, which isn’t uncommon during early spring here. The weather was snowy and wet and just yuck.
One of our members stopped by. “I brought you some sunshine on this gray day.”
It was two gallons of ice cream. One was orange vanilla swirl.
This member doesn’t know how much my family loves ice cream, he just drops it off occasionally. Sometimes it’s the fancy stuff with tons of mixins. Sometimes it’s homemade vanilla style and toppings. But this time it was sunshine.
What an encouragement.
Then today at church one man brought in a cooler of something for us.
Moose. Ground moose.
I’ve been wanting to try moose since we got here and we just haven’t had a chance to get any yet.
Now there are 3 pounds’ worth of ground moose burger in my fridge.
I can’t wait.
Chinese Food
While we were cooking supper tonight, one of our people stopped by with a Chinese menu and the money to go order takeout.
What’s funny is Sunday after evening service, several of us were chatting about what the best place was to get Chinese. We decided to make our own tonight (and Esther did a wonderful job – it was delicious).
What an incredible blessing and encouragement! It will be a treat for all of us.
God provides in surprising ways
After I posted on Monday about God meeting our needs, He has continued to provide for us, in ways we didn’t expect.
I posted on Facebook the same post I put here. I wanted to give God praise at what He has done.
Yesterday I was chatting with another pastor’s wife about my frustrations about taxes this year (we accidentally missed sending some information to our CPA so it made things look pretty discouraging until it was all worked out). She asked if she and her family could come by today. They are dear friends, so of course I said we’d love it for them to visit.
They came with goodies. Chocolate cupcakes and strawberry rhubarb crisp. How’s that for an encouragement? But what amazes me is they handed us an envelope, saying that somebody had put it in the offering plate with our name on it.
Our pipes burst from the cold this week. We keep a space heater on them so they won’t freeze, but they still did. We have water inside the house (these are the pipes in the garage), but no way to pay a plumber to fix them. There was enough money in the envelope to call a plumber. Stephen tries to fix as much as he can, but doesn’t have the tools for copper pipes yet.
After they left, I got a message from someone, asking me to call her. I did. The woman explained that she heard about our situation and wanted to give us money and food, and could we please come pick it up tomorrow. That amount was almost exactly what we needed to pay the electric bill.
God moves in amazing ways.
Where God guides, God provides
God always provides what we need, when we need it.
Friday someone pulled my husband aside and slipped him $100. We needed groceries pretty badly and this was a huge help.
Saturday a $200 check came in the mail. This also went toward groceries. A family of 8 eats a lot!
Today we went to go get groceries. On the way there, we got a message that somebody had paid for 100 gallons of oil for us, and that it will be delivered today. Our tank is almost empty and we weren’t sure when we were going to get more. The oil truck arrived a few minutes after we got home.
Where God guides, God provides.
Thrift Shopping
We went to a thrift store today. We heard clothes were $1 a bag. We got there and it was a totally different story. Yes, it was $1 a bag, but we weren’t prepared for how they would mark everything else down as we went.
Kids clothes were free. Men’s and ladies XL were free. We needed two shopping carts to get this all out of the store. Two leather winter coats and two men’s suits. Samuel even found a three piece suit that looks brand new. The little old lady at the cash register squealed when she saw how good it looked on him and marked it down to $1. Winter clothes for almost all the kids. Flannel sheets for one of the kids beds.
$13. For everything.
Then we went to leave and she asked if our kids could have cake. She brought out two cakes and some cupcakes, and then loaded a shopping cart with black beans, diced tomatoes, Mac and cheese, instant potatoes, and applesauce.
God said He would provide, and He most certainly did.
God Always Provides
What a busy few weeks it’s been.
The fuel pump on the big van went out. We got a call before we took it into the shop, asking how much it would cost to fix. “I’ll bring a check by tonight.” And just like that, God provided the money for the van to be fixed.
We went to Stephen’s parents’ church Sunday night, to see everyone and say our goodbyes. Stephen was asked to share his burden about Maine and to preach, our family was asked to sing, and they gave us a special monetary gift for our trip as well.
Before we left, they had us stand at the front of the congregation for everyone to hug us, shake hands, etc before we leave. One person gave me a hug and said, “I know the church already gave you something, but God told me to give you this” as something was pressed into my hand. I opened my hand later to see that it was a $100 bill.
When God first told us to move, we knew He would need to provide for it. It’s already gotten much more expensive than we ever expected, but every step of the way, God has provided what we needed right when we needed it.
Faithful is He
It sure has been an interesting couple of weeks. All I know to say is my God is faithful.
Our house here and the house in Maine are both under contract. We’re having some back and forth with the bank about requirements for the new loan – there is confusion on whether or not the new house is multifamily or not. Lord willing that will be sorted out ASAP. If it’s found to be multifamily, I have to take some sort of landlord classes….and time is running out to be able to do that.
The official countdown is 22 days until we move.
Yesterday we got a call that the movers we were going to use can’t move us. That was a bit of a shock. I think our current new plan is to have Stephen’s dad drive up with us to help drive the rental truck, and we’ll fly him back home. The kids are thrilled with this plan, of course.
Then our family van decided to start acting funny. Turns out it needs a new fuel pump. One of our best friends is our family mechanic and he can get it fixed this week (which is good – we’re using it to haul a trailer to move Stephen’s grandma into a nursing home at the end of the week!).
It seems like everywhere we turn something is coming up to complicate things. Honestly we expected the devil to fight us, and fight he has. I’m so excited to see what God has in store for our family.
My God will Supply
Once again God has supplied our needs in a mighty way.
Yesterday I got a phone call from someone who wanted to help us with our trip. They are sending us money for us to get a hotel during our trip so we don’t have to drive thee 20 hours straight through, AND enough money for us to buy all our meals out, instead of packing meals to eat while we drive.
What a blessing.
Then on Saturday, I got a text from our pastor’s wife, asking what size tops I wear. She said she was cleaning out her closet and had some things I might be able to use.
I love to wear sarcastic t-shirts most of the time around here, but I don’t feel like that’s clothing I want to wear as a pastor’s wife. I was just thinking the other day that I was going to need to get some different clothes for running errands and stuff. I hadn’t even prayed about new clothes yet; just realized I needed some.
God sent them before I even prayed about it. It was a huge tote bag full. Almost all of it fit. What was even more amazing is it was exactly the styles and items I’d been needing! It was almost all long sleeves, and one top was exactly the style of one I’ve been wanting to get. Not only that, but many of them still had the tags still on them. What an encouragement!
My God is Awesome
Monday we paid for the property assessment.
Tuesday we mailed our earnest deposit.
When we started this process, we forgot that these deposits are due right away. We had enough money in our savings account to pay for them, but the money was set aside to buy the kids’ schoolbooks for this fall. I took a deep breath, transferred the money, and sent the payments.
God said He would provide, and God also tells us to trust Him. He called us to Maine, and He would have to provide the money to get us there. Moving that far is expensive, especially for a family of our size.
Then today. What a mighty God we serve.
Today we were given a large sum of money toward our move. It was enough to pay the movers, gas for our own van, and money to buy winter clothes for all of us too. We don’t move for six more weeks, and God has already providing the money for it.
My God is Awesome.
I Have Never Seen the Righteous Forsaken
Once again I am in complete awe of the way God provides.
In sales like we are, income is unpredictable. The slow times make us even more grateful when the sales do come in. But things have been slow.
On Thursday of last week, I stood looking in the fridge and prayed for God to provide once again. My fridge and pantry were getting empty again.
Friday morning I got a phone call. Our pastor’s wife had been asked to clean out someone’s house, and she wanted to know if I could use the food.
I cried and said yes.
She wanted us to come pick it up immediately.
It filled a huge tote box and then some. What was amazing to me was that while it was non-perishable foods and canned goods, much of it was food that we do regularly eat and some were items we don’t buy often but that we really enjoy. There were tons of peanut butter, beans, and rice, and canned vegetables. All things we definitely use and needed.
We had to rearrange the pantry to make room for all the food.
Once again, God provided for our needs, exactly when we needed it.