I went outside where it was already dark, and I see a figure standing at the gate. At first I didn't recognize him, but as I came closer I saw it was a young man I haven't spoken to in probably five years.
"Hello Alan, how are you?" he asked.
Still caught off guard by this sudden visit at an odd hour, I said, "I'm fine Ricardo, how are you?"
"You're still in missions right?" he asked.
That was an even stranger question. "Yes."
Then things took another unexpected turn. Tears started streaming down his face. He took a deep breath before speaking in a shuddering voice. "The thing is, I was just in my house praying, and the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said I haven't been tithing the way I am supposed to, and that I had to give my tithe to a missionary. So this is for you. It isn't much, but I had to give it to you, and it couldn't wait."
He gave me a blank envelope and the tears came in broad streams.
"Can you please pray for me, I don't want to feel this way (conviction) anymore," he asked me.
I was still in shock, but I pulled myself together enough to say yes, put my hands on his shoulders, and pray.
After praying he said "Thank you," got on his bike, and rode off into the night without another word or any more explanation.
I went inside and opened the envelope with Karmy, and inside was $17.75. A more random number you couldn't find.
It would not have mattered if it was $5,000, the fact that the Holy Spirit sent him out here to give us that money made us stare at it in awe, and with utter reverence.
I told Karmy, "I don't know what this is for, but we aren't touching it until God makes it clear."
In the kingdom of God it isn't the amount given that matters, it is the amount left over. Remember the widow's mite? She gave more than everyone not because of the monetary value, but because she had nothing left after.
George Mueller, a man whose ministry ran entirely by faith said, "Why should we limit either the goodness or the power of God by our own knowledge of what we call the laws of nature?"
God does not see things the way we do. We may say that $17.75 is a small offering, maybe an odd offering, but done in obedience to God it is worth as much as $50,000, because maybe $17.75 is exactly how much another man or woman of God needs.
I still don't know what that money is for, but God will make it clear in His own time. Until then we are patient and in awe that He was thinking of us, and decided to tell Ricardo to come to us. How did he even know we were here? We don't live in Volcan anymore, and as far as I know none of us have spoken with him. Yet God knows where we all are, all the time.
By the way, if you are wondering what happened with the student who was robbed, I went to a nearby church where we had a team ministering. I pulled a couple of staff members out of the service and we drove around in the fog trying to find him for a while until he finally called us.
He was too far away for us to pick him up, but he was safe. He had invited a "friend" to stay the night at his house, and when he woke up the next morning his friend had stolen everything but the clothes he was wearing.
That is a fixable issue. We can get new clothes for him. For those of you thinking, "Well there you go! That's what the $17.75 is for!" I thought about that too, it was a no go from God. We have plenty of ways to fix that issue without this money.
“We are the Bibles the world is reading; we are the creeds the world is needing; we are the sermons the world is heeding.” - Billy Graham
Beautiful
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