Friday, May 16, 2008

"Found Money"

I am not sure this is what Bob Jones had in mind when he prophesied this phrase, but it seems that we have "found money" in unusual places this week. I am reminded of an incident that happened when we decided to say "yes" to this missionary lifestyle 5 years ago this spring.

One particularly windy day, we pulled into our driveway and noticed that there was something sticking to our garage door. As we got closer, we realized it was dollar bills being blown against the door. Randy got out, grabbed the money and headed inside with all of us eagerly following. There had been four dollar bills on the garage door and he promptly lined the boys up and said, "The Lord has given us provision today and I want you to remember this". He handed each of them $1 and stuck one in his own pocket. He went back outside and in the same exact place, there was now a $10 bill being blown against the garage door. He grabbed that one and brought it inside and we were all jumping up and down at the outrageousness of God. I opened the front door and there in the landscaping lay several more dollar bills scattered throughout the mulch. As we collected all the "found money", we knew that it was a sign from God that He would always be our Source and would bring in provision even by the wind.

Recently, we have been in a season of financial need due to unexpected medical and dental bills. As a family we have been reading the story of George Mueller's minstry to the orphans and our faith has been stirred again to ask in faith for all of our needs. It has come down to "D-DAY" and our kids are asking, "Did we get the money we asked for?" I just have to smile and tell them, "Not in the way we thought, but we kind of found money."

Allow me to elaborate.......today was Zion's early birthday party. (Don't ask - that's for another post). Randy and I wanted to bless him with a fun birthday gift, but had a very small budget. Before Jackson's scheduled dental appointment this morning, we went to a few garage sales (a favorite family pasttime). Lo and behold, at the first stop, we found a jewel. The $100+ Playmobil Castle that Zion has wanted was sitting there with a $10 price tag. SOLD! It was now time to go to get Jackson's crown put on -- he had a root canal a few weeks ago and needed to get it all finished so he can get the long awaited braces! We knew this was going to be costly. And we did not have the money going into the office, so I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do. For whatever reason (maybe because I had to wait over an hour in the office, or because Jackson is simply so charming), when I went to check out, the receptionist looked puzzled and said, "That will be $46".
I must've looked stunned when I responded, "How much?"
She said, "Let me go check with him."
I saw her talk to the dentist and came back and told me, "Uh, you don't owe anything today. You are ready to go."
I asked, "What? Really?"
"Yes, that's what I have been told. Have a great day."

Well alrighty then. I certainly will.

Now, the money never passed through my hands, but I felt like the Lord just gave us over a thousand dollars today. Free dental work. An amazing birthday gift for a tenth of the cost. And best yet, no taxes!!

"Found money". What a great concept!

6 comments:

Shelley Paulson said...

This is such an awesome testimony! We have had the same kind of week - we've been praying for financial provision and increase and have seen God move in miraculous ways - like finding discounts online that saved me at least $100, booking a wedding in my bathrobe over the phone (almost never happens that way), clients buying out files for large sums of money...and the list goes on.

There's something going on and I LIKE IT! I am really coming to that place of believing that "I have not because I ask not." To God be all the glory forever and ever amen!

Anonymous said...

That's really amazing story. I am SO encouraged by it.
I hope that happens to me too! I'm going to be a Woman of great faith... just like you!
Bring on the finance for Kelsey and me! Bring it on!
Love you,
Esther

Elizabeth Kosorski said...

Awesome story, first the tow truck angel, then the dentist angel, and don't even get me started on the garage sales around here. AMAZING.

Debi said...

Love it!!! He doesn't always answer like WE think he will or like we think He should, but He does always answer and He is ALWAYS faithful, isn't He?

Thanks for sharing and stirring our faith as well! :)

Ronni Hall said...

God's favor is amazing. I'm sitting here with my $50 dollar laptop, listening to my $20 ipod and I drove here in my $150 neon. Amazing that when these things come, you always have the money... and you sometimes don't even need it.

I better go. I have a free baseball game to go to tonight. :) We are spoiled. :)

Anonymous said...

That's so awesome! I have a cool only-God-could-do-it story too. This past year my family filed bankruptcy which included foreclosure on our house. This all should've filed through back in November putting us out of our house around Christmas time, but for some reason (God, obviously) it hasn't gone through until this month! That's seven months of living in our house for free. But there was still the daunting task of moving somewhere we could afford and fit our family into (we have 6 kids, 2 parents and mom is pregnant!). But some friends of ours moved out of their unsold house this past weekend and offered to let us move into it for six months! And someone is annonymously paying the rent for us. God is SO good!