April 6, 2008

A Day of Blessings

On March 30th, I had the opportunity to share for a few minutes during both services at Newtown UMC. God gave me the words to speak the night before, and I felt the strong presence of the Holy Spirit as I spoke them. It was an awesome experience as God used me to convey the spiritual and physical needs of His people in Paraguay.

God also showed his presence that day through 2 displays of His faithful provision in our lives:

Car Story - In March I told the story about the woman who let us borrow her husband's car. Well, at the end of March she came to me with the good news that her husband was returning from Kuwait a month early. Of course that meant returning the car to them a month earlier as well. Before the service on the 30th, I told Stacey, our church's worship leader, that we needed to start praying for another car for us to borrow. She told me that the way God was providing for us,that we would have another car by Tuesday. Wouldn't you know, directly after the service a church member approached me and asked if we needed a car for the month of April. Due to unforeseen circumstances he and his wife were going to have 3 cars for the month and only needed 2.

When I told him that we did need a car, he immediately replied, "Come pick it up on Tuesday!" Thank you God!

The Widow's Offering - A young college student came up to speak with me after the service as well. He told me that he was touched by what I had shared and wanted to be on the mailing list to pray for us. He then handed me our prayer card and $7 in cash.

That afternoon I had to pick up Donald from a trip he had made to do a couple of workshops at a weekend retreat for middle school aged youth. When he met me in the parking lot, the 1st thing he asked was if I had $7. That was exactly the amount he still owed for his part of the gasoline expenses!

It was such a joy to write a thank you note to that young man and share with him the way God used him. It seemed like such a little thing to begin with. However, God used that $7 to build up our faith as well as that of the one who out of obedience, gave it to us.

These testimonies have been given to us in order to encourage and build up the faith of all those we share them with. May YOU be encouraged this day!