As we got closer, I almost bailed out because I was going empty handed. I wanted to at least pick up some groceries or some baked goods for their kids... anything! But we had nothing to give. Literally nothing. We couldn't even give 100 pesos. ($2)
But I sensed the leading of the Lord and I heard the words of Peter speaking to the lame beggar in my mind. "Silver and Gold I don't have, but what I do have, I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" (Acts 3:6)
After we had been there awhile, the wife said, "we don't have anything to offer you." Meaning they didn't have a snack for us which is the normal thing that people would give you in the Philippines when you stop by. It meant they didn't even have money for their own food.
When we got to the prayer time, I prayed Acts 3 and the Spirit started stirring and out of my mouth came the declaration that the phone will ring or an Email will come and God is going to do a miracle.
About an hour after we left, without having given them a thing in a physical sense, I got a text from him that one of his old employers had just called and offered him a job to start on Monday.
Praise God! Now this brother is still gonna need a few miracles to sustain his family until the first paycheck comes in but I know that my God is able to supply all his needs! We keep praying!
People look at me, a white man living in an Asian country and they think I'm well funded. Sent by a generous American church. They don't realize how things have changed. I used to easily get thousands of dollars a month from America. That was 15 years ago. Now, I have one supporting church in Tacoma, Washington which gives $230 a month. Everything else comes in miraculously. Being a missionary requires just as much faith now as in the early days of missions! I know exactly what Paul meant when he said he knows what it's like to have plenty and he knows what it's like to have little. (Philippians 4:12)
Faith is not based on what we can see or what we know for sure is coming! It is based on the fact that we serve a God who not only can give big miracles, but He can and does give us daily miracles! I praise Him!
So let us keep giving even when we don't have silver or gold to give! And let us keep pressing on even when we don't know how we're going to get our needs met next month! Jesus never fails!
