July 15, 2003
FSM 370 April 2001
CM/FM
Dear Family,
God bless you for all your many labors of love, which are evidenced by the tremendous fruit you are bearing all over the world. Every month we receive more testimonies from you—outstanding miracles of supply, provision, and all kinds of blessings falling from the sky into the laps of His dedicated children.
This FSM is dedicated to sharing what the Lord is doing to take care of us all over the world, amazing things compiled over the last year. We pray this mag will be a blessing and a faith increaser for you. We love you and admire you so much!
With love, Your FSM Editors
From Andrew, Jay, Tina, Flo, Serena, Lydia, and Emmy, Middle East:
It was the last day for us to raise our monthly budget, and we were $1,000 short. At 11:30 a.m., we had an appointment with a potential giver—a prominent bank investor and landowner. We got there on time, only to find he had just left. His secretary suggested we wait until 1 p.m. (closing time, as it was the weekend), in case he might return. We decided to do that, but he didn’t come, so it seemed that we had only wasted precious time. By then we felt like going home, and almost did.
Instead we felt led to eat lunch at a small sandwich place nearby. That’s when the miracles began. First a customer walked in and recognized us from an OTO visit two years before! He bought a tape. He also told us that his boss (whom we had never met before) was in his office, so when we finished eating we went up to see him. This man not only gave a generous donation for one video, but on his own initiative offered to help monthly from then on! We visited a couple more offices and though almost everything was closed, we got out two more tapes.
By 4 p.m., standing outside in the rain, we again thought we were on our way home. But the Lord had a last-minute miracle up His sleeve. As we looked across the street, we saw the very businessman we had not been able to meet that morning! He met with us and pledged a gift of over $400. Praise the Lord! The rest of the funds came in that day through the other outreach teams, each one having lots of testimonies to share, and also through some special gifts from our sweet Family which arrived on that exact day!
We were thrilled that the budget was reached, but the best part was to feel the Lord’s presence with us. He had told us that morning in prophecy that He is more concerned about providing for His work here than we are, and that the lessons He would teach us are for today and for the future. Here is part of the prophecy we received in the morning.
(Jesus speaking:) I know it might seem an impossible situation when you analyze and look at it carnally, but you must look to Me. You must reach out to Me in the spirit and let Me give you My supernatural leadings. I am trying to teach you the ways of using My new weapons more and more, and trusting Me more and more. For this is preparation for the days ahead and the days which are even upon you. Have faith! Stand on it and claim My promises, for I will do it.
Though I ask you not to strive in the arm of the flesh, still you must fight in the spirit and give it all you’ve got. Some victories are not won without a good fight, so you must press in. Pray without ceasing; make yourselves available; do the asking; expect the impossible. So venture out today full of faith, for when there are no human resources to lean on, I can show My power even more clearly. (End of message.)
From Faith, Middle East:
Three quarters of the way through the month, we had only raised about one quarter of our budget. So we got together to bring the situation to the Lord in desperate prayer, and to hear from Him in prophecy. We received some very encouraging messages that the Lord would bountifully supply all our needs, and that we should have faith and keep praising Him. These were admonitions, as there had been a bit of murmuring in the Home. He said that He would bless a united effort through prayer and desperation and getting out teams. We also got some practical points which the Lord miraculously started to fulfill almost immediately, such as reminders of certain companies to approach for help, and counsel that He could supply through banks.
The Lord never fails, and He was so faithful to rain His blessing down on us. The day after our prayer meeting, we heard that a large bank we had approached would help us with US$1,500! Another company also came through with a very large donation, which I’ll share the testimony of here:
Dominic (SGA) had written down the number of a new phone card company after seeing it on one of their trucks. After a couple months of trying to reach them, he finally got through and arranged an appointment with the owner. He and I went to the appointment a few days later, and when we met the marketing manager, we were happily surprised. Dominic and some others had met this man several years before and he had visited the Home. With time, he had changed jobs and they had lost contact. The dear man was very happy to see us again; his visit with us had made a very good impression.
During our conversation, we felt led to ask for a bit more from this company than just a couple of phone cards. We talked about our recent activities, especially our Mobile Motivational Program, which is a clown show that we take to the refugee camps, schools, and institutions in the city. After some time, our friend took us to see the owner, who is a very influential man.
The owner was warm and friendly and interested in the work we were doing. Our friend gave a very good presentation of our work and our activities, strongly advising that they support us. He also referred to his previous visit to our Home, and how wonderful our children were. Then Dominic and I filled the owner in a bit more on our work and recent activities. The man said, What I like about your organization is that you actually give us a good reason to support you. Most other companies just come around and say, ‘If you help us, you’ll get tax reduction,’ whereas you are doing so much, and it really makes us want to help you.
It was quite an exciting first visit, and we praised the Lord for the miracle of opening this door, and putting our friend in such a key position, and that he was such a good representative of us to this man. We then wrote up a specific request to this company, asking if they could sponsor one program a month for either a year or six months. We were also able to offer some advertising benefits for their company if they were to help, such as displaying their company banner on stage, giving out some of their promotional items as gifts to the children, and giving a short speech about their phones and how to respect them and not vandalize them.
Some time later we met again, and explained more about our group as a whole, and the work we do both locally and around the world. The next day we got the call: Yes, we’d like to sponsor your programs for six months. You can come in tomorrow to pick up the check. We had also included sponsoring one video and one cassette for each institution we did a show at in our proposal, and we had shown him one of the videos. He decided to take a full set of 10 videos on top of his donation from the company. Praise the Lord! What an exciting, miraculous breakthrough in answer to prayer!
From Pat (22, of Peter and Praise), Thailand:
Recently we were struggling to reach our budget; a couple of our big regular supporters had pulled out and we were desperately praying for miracles. My partner and I were on follow-up one day in an office building we had been going to for a couple of years. Between appointments, we decided to try some new offices. Although nothing came through that day, we collected a couple of name cards of managers to phone for appointments.
One of these was K.S., a Korean man who made an appointment with us for the following week. He’s a dedicated Christian and, after hearing a bit about our work, gladly agreed to sponsor a set of videos. At our next meeting, in the course of our conversation he asked if we’d be interested in teaching his staff English a couple times a week for the duration of one month. His staff had begun a three-month course, but the teacher had had to stop after two months.
He had someone check with their accountant, and said he would be able to give us 48,000 baht (about US$2,000)! Wow! He works on a budget allotted to him from their head office in Singapore. I think he was almost as surprised as we were at the large amount, and he encouraged us to take it, as he knew how much we needed the help. God bless him!
From a young person, India:
With only three days left till the end of the month—one of them being a holiday—we had only raised about two percent of our budget. This really got me desperate, and I realized I hadn’t been keeping the outreach teams in my prayers that much. I started praying like a house afire! It is quite amazing how desperate you can get, and how your prayer life can change in a matter of seconds.
Later on that day, I was overjoyed to hear that the team out had sold a whole set of videos. This greatly encouraged my faith! The Lord did so many miracles for us during those days—we got out another 55 videos and 20 tapes, and many unexpected pledges and donations came through. It sure pays to be desperate with the Lord at all times!
From Matthew, Gloria and Ruthie, Poland:
Every month the Lord uses our provisioning contacts to supply all our basic needs—fruit, veggies, meat, eggs, milk, bread, cleaning supplies, etc. It is truly miraculous, as I never lived in a Home with such an abundant supply of food provisioning. Thank You Jesus!
Financially, though, this month there was not much coming in. We had spent a lot of time moving, fixing up the previous house, and setting up the new one. The videoing teams that we were able to get out this month could be counted on one hand. The donations to our bank account, which we had expected after our follow-up trip, were pretty dry as well. So when we faced the end of the reporting month, there was hardly anything to report financially. We were very desperate, to say the least.
We read God’s Financial Blessings and More on George Mueller, and went through some heartsearching to see if we were doing anything that was displeasing the Lord. He did tell us that we need to keep working on our unity and fight together, yet He kept saying that He would do it.
Well, by a miracle He used David’s mom to supply 2000SF (about US $1170), one day before we closed our report! This was really unexpected, as she had just told us a week before that she would not be able to help us. At that time she had told us to call her sister and ask her for help. When we had finally prayed up the faith to do that, as David never calls her (they live in Switzerland) and felt funny all of a sudden asking her for help (which she had never given before either), he got a check to call his mom once more and ask for ideas on how to approach his aunt. His mom said, Don’t call her—I’ll call you back in a few minutes. The call came and she told David that they would each help with half of the amount.
This whole experience brought out the point which Mama mentions in More on George Mueller about looking to the Lord alone and not to people or methods, but to fully trust the Lord to supply. We really had no idea where to find a large amount of money so quickly. What a wonderful testimony of the faithfulness of our sweet, wonderful, loving, concerned, never-failing Husband and Lover! We are so thankful to feel His loving touch, especially at this time when we are opening a new Home.
From Simon Simple, India:
One day we were quite low on finances (actually we were practically broke!), but when we brought our situation before the Lord He showed us not to worry about funds but to go out and feed the sheep and He would supply. Well, we had a very inspiring, full day and were able to follow up on people we hadn’t been able to see for awhile. But ... still no funds!
Lord help me, I started to get a bit worried, but my partner was full of faith. She said, Lord, we need a big gift and we need it tonight! I was impressed with her expectant attitude—especially since it was 8:30 in the evening and time to go home.
Just then we realized we were passing by the office of an old school friend of mine, so we decided to drop in and see him. By a miracle he was still in. This man is very precious and has helped the Family a lot but was going through a difficult time financially. When we had asked him for help a few weeks previously, he had not been in a position to help. We felt, though, that the Lord wanted to bless him, so that night we pulled out the story of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath and read it with him.
He listened to it very attentively and took it all in. We finished our visit with him and just as we were about to get in our car, he slipped a large donation in my hand. God bless him! The wonderful thing is, since this man gave to the Lord, things have begun working out for him. He’s the happiest we have seen him in a long time. So the Lord came through—again!
From Aaron Shondo (17), Pakistan:
At the end of a busy month we found ourselves still lacking a third of our monthly budget with only four days left to raise it. Desperation always has a way of showing us a thing or two, and we were getting to the desperation point, and fast! Things hadn’t been going so smooth in our outreach, so one morning at devotions we laid hands on the outreach teams.
That day Sam and Angel met a businessman who was rather aggressive, and debating, Should I take one or two videos, and how much discount will you give me?
Sam wisely answered him, We’re not dealing in business, we are dealing in God’s blessings! Upon hearing this, the man’s whole spirit changed. He smiled and without saying another word wrote out a check to pay for 10 videos!
Within the next few days other gifts came in via outreach, and unexpectedly in the mail. At the end the Lord did it all and raised up the funds we needed to the exact amount we had prayed for—a real miracle! It also encouraged our faith to see the Lord work and supply. For the past year we have been sending out mission gifts to different fields every month regardless of our income, and as Dad has always taught us, we can never out-give God!
From Martin, Hope and Stevie, Pakistan:
Last month we had a financial crunch. With only one week till our rent was due, we had nothing put aside towards it. Our initial reaction was to send a team out of the city on the road, to blitz the field. But when we got together as a Home to hear from the Lord about what we should do, He said that He had many people in our city that He wanted to reach. Though it went against what we would naturally have done, we followed what He said.
We did not get out many tools that week but had a fruitful time witnessing and following up on our friends and contacts. Then, a couple of days before the rent was due, we got a check from relatives that covered more than half of our rent! By rent day we had it all, and it was all Him. We merely took the time to listen and follow what He said.
From Sharon (of Philip) and Swiss Maria, Middle East:
Our monthly pledges were a little late in coming this month and we were short of funds to do our weekly grocery shopping. On the same day, our friend invited the whole Home to her house for dinner. She wanted one of us to prepare a Chinese cuisine and to teach her how to do it. First miracle of supply!
Later that day, our friend called to say that her water pump had broken down and she couldn’t get someone to fix it that day. She sounded discouraged and was also battling about a situation with her older son. We invited her and her family to come over to our place and said we could still go ahead with the planned dinner. She right away offered to buy the shopping and arranged for a time to take one of us out to do the shopping for the needed groceries and all. While out shopping, she started buying double of everything that was on the list, and more.
We had a fun and inspiring evening together of dinner and fellowship. We also played a game using the Quizorama book which they thoroughly enjoyed, as they are quite knowledgeable of the Bible.
They left feeling happy and thanked us for a wonderful evening, while we thanked them and the Lord for this unusual and faithful supply of our needs. The extra supplies they bought for us covered our week’s grocery needs, and they even left six bottles of wine for the Home!
From Trusty, USA:
Two of our newest supporters are the least able-looking financially. After going through our photos of our CTP work with native Americans, they told us that they were native Americans, and that we could expect $100 in the mail. Two days later we received it and then last week another check arrived for $80, with a note enclosed that we can depend on their continued support. Praise God!
From Dan and Abi Fisher, and Tim Andrew, USA:
We’ve been discovering that the Lord takes us at our faith and vision as far as finances go. When we just had the vision for the rent and bills, that’s what the Lord supplied, but now that we have a vision to go to India and need much more each month, the Lord has been honoring our faith for that higher amount! It’s a miracle, and so much better than having to work at a job—as the Lord supplies all our needs! Thanks, too, to everyone who has been praying for our fundraising efforts for India. We really appreciate it and couldn’t have done it without those prayers.
From Hannah Sunshine, India:
Over the last three or four years we have been ministering to the chairman and managing director of a large government-run oil company. They helped to sponsor the Jeremy Spencer concerts that were here two years ago, but they didn’t seem to have the vision for sponsoring the videos that we had presented to them. We kept pursuing it, and finally sent another request letter asking for a donation of Rs.100,000 (US$2,300).
For the next four months nothing seemed to be happening. I asked the Home to pray and it was a big battle. Deep inside I just felt that the Lord wanted to do something. After several inquiries it turned out that the letter had been sitting on the chairman’s desk for more than three months in a file marked To Do. Only God knows just how long it would have stayed there if we hadn’t probed a bit! Two or three weeks later we picked up the check for the entire amount!
From this I learned that it’s important to pray and then continue to follow that still small voice. The Lord often gives you the faith for your situation, and if you fail to follow through, the miracle cannot be completed. I believe that as long as there is life there is hope, so to speak, if the person you have approached has given you some hope or promised something. Even though time goes by, it’s good to check again and keep at it, to see it through. My heart sinks when I think of what could have been lost if I had given up, thinking that they were just not interested in giving or helping us.
From Michelle, Marcus, Christina and Paloma, India:
One day we received an e-mail from the friends of one of our supporters (who has faithfully supported us for nearly 20 years!), asking for more information on our work. I sent these people a personal letter, thanking them for their interest and including our latest newsletter. A week later I checked our bank account and to our amazement there was a donation of over US$2000 from them! Praise the Lord!
From Andrew, Miracle, David and Crystal, Croatia:
It’s exciting to be a mobile team and see the miracles the Lord does! We had been on the road for over a month, and were returning to our home city. We had given up our house, as we did not want to pay rent for the time we were going to be away; our contract had only been during the summer anyway. So here we were returning home, but without a home!
Just half an hour from town, our mobile phone rang. It was a friend of a friend, asking if we needed a place to stay. Were we ever excited! As we came into town he was there to meet us. The house he offered us is in the center of the city with a phone, furniture, and for a very good price—a miracle of the Lord! Our friend is also involved with humanitarian aid work and has been a great help to us in many ways.
From Samaria, Pakistan:
We had about 1000 kg of stuff to carry back from our extended road trip to another country, and our friend at the airlines who used to help us before had been transferred. The new man was not as generous, so we prayed desperately before going to see him. We explained our predicament, that we were given much more stuff than we had expected and really needed to take it back for the children for Christmas. He exclaimed, Well, you must have brought the Spirit with you today! and agreed to all the overweight we requested: 100 kg for each person above our allotted amount—double what we had been allowed before! This enabled us to bring all the electronic equipment that we would have been charged duty for if we had had to send them as cargo.
We then tried to provision cargo transportation for the 600 kg of stuff we had left. The Lord miraculously provided completely free transport for this as well; an airline gave us a discount and a friend paid the rest and arranged all the other details of the shipment. It all arrived safely, nothing was opened, and all went through customs without any problem!
We had a very exciting time at the airport, to say the least. We arrived to check in with our 500 kg of luggage, and since it was weighed on a bathroom scale, it turned out to be somewhat over the allotted amount. We checked in, and as we stood at the counter, the young employee kept staring at James. When we told him the work we do and that we had been in his country previously, he asked if we were ever in his town. James answered, Yes, twelve years ago.
Then the young man exclaimed, I met you at my school! You came to my school and did a program there when I was in primary school! At that he was all excited and waived the rest of the overweight.
From Stefan Pioneer, Hungary:
At the end of the month we went on a fundraising trip, distributing tools in a neighboring country. The Lord showed us exactly where to go, but about 50 km before our destination we got tripped off and stopped at a rich-looking tourist town and tried to provision a hotel room. Absolutely nobody wanted to help, and people weren’t very friendly. We stopped and prayed and the Lord showed us to go to our original destination. This taught us a good lesson right at the beginning of the trip; from then on we prayed desperately all the time about every detail. As a result the Lord poured out a blessing that we were literally almost unable to hold.
The first full outreach day the Lord gave us an increase of tools out and income of 50% more compared to a usual day in this field. The next day we had an increase of 300% more tools out and income. It was amazing! After two days we reached our financial goal (usually it takes four or five days), and we were able to spend the rest of the days in follow-up and feeding the sheep.
From John Delight (of Mercy), Indonesia:
We are in the midst of one of the most incredible crises in the history of this country—an almost complete economic collapse, with the value of the local currency having dropped to less than one fourth of its previous value against the almighty dollar, factories closing and a reported 2½ million without work, little hope of other work on the horizon, construction projects by the dozens halted in the middle, businesses and companies going bankrupt, and the price of all goods skyrocketing. Yet this has been one of our best periods, with tremendous provisions and financial blessings. It seems the Lord is trying to get across the point that He can and will take care of us no matter what the situation. Here is one of the most amazing stories of His provision.
With the growing instability in the country, we have been reviewing our survival preparations and found ourselves somewhat wanting, especially since we had recently gone through an electricity blackout which lasted more than 24 hours. Besides the obvious need for light and power for fans in this hot and humid country, as well as the aircon for the PPC, we do a fairly large amount of computer and studio work. Finally, it is really hard to pump the water we need for running a big Home without electricity! The need for a generator had become glaringly apparent and urgent.
Miracle I — The day after the local currency hit the lowest point in history, there was a panic run on supermarkets by people wanting to stock up on basic necessities. A change of plans set the scene for the first miracle. Schedule as usual was trashed, emergency plan put into action: Go for genset (local lingo for a generating set or a generator). We went directly to one of the biggest dealers we knew of and met right away with the top marketing manager—who turned out to be both a sheep and a key person in the company.
After hearing about our need and our work, he explained that they only deal with new generators, which are outrageously expensive—nearly US$6,000 (six or seven times more than we had managed to set aside)! But when we asked if he could help locate a used one from one of his customers, he said he could definitely do this on a personal basis. A couple days later he called to say someone had brought in a generator to be worked on and didn’t want to pay for the repair cost, but would rather just sell it.
This generator was much bigger and more powerful than anything we had considered before due to the price factor. It can deliver roughly twice the power we need to run our whole house, including aircons! If it were new, the price would have been more than six times what we had; even used it could have been three or four times too expensive, but our friend said we could have it for only US$1,500! Well, even this was more than we had intended to spend, but since the machine was exactly what we had hoped for, we decided to stretch our faith and shoot for it.
Miracle II — At the same time that this generator came to our attention, I got a call from an Australian executive we have been ministering to for about three years. Our original meeting with him had in itself been quite a miracle, as we were stuffed into our little van with the kids on our way to a CTP. When he asked what we did, I explained our work and said we were at that very time on our way to do a program in an orphanage, and that we live by the help of others. Hearing this he promptly reached into his wallet and gave $20, saying that we must need help.
He must have been sent by the Lord, because at that time (over three years ago) we were a bit low financially. We were able to get gas and film for the camera, etc. When we came home that day I sent a fax to thank our new friend for his help and told him exactly how we spent his donation. The next day he faxed us back, thanking us for our communication and saying how it had encouraged him that he had done the right thing. He said he had had second thoughts after he met us, wondering if perhaps he had been conned. He invited us to stay in touch, and we have done so up till now. At Christmas we sang for all his office staff, and I have called him at least every month, sent him a variety of feeding materials, and he had begun to help with a donation every so often. But it was still a somewhat distant relationship.
Back to the present: Our Australian friend called and said he had something for us in his office and also something he wanted to discuss. Thrill! Interest! Forward-looking thoughts and anticipation! This was the first time he had ever contacted us or called, and we made an appointment for the next day to visit him. It turned out that he had received some gift parcels for his company, but wanted to give them to us since they would not be having the regular year-end party due to the economic crisis.
More importantly, he said that he and the new finance director of the company had a burden to change the direction of their company’s giving to someone who was doing direct social work and helping the local people, and he said that perhaps it could be us or one of the institutions we help. I told him more about the nature of our work and how we operate and what we do. In passing I happened to mention that in light of the present situation we had need of a generator and that we had found a very special deal. He asked how much it was, and I told him. Not much more was said and we left with the gift parcels and his personal donation, which was double any of his previous gifts.
Two nights later we got a shock. I had just returned from a long day of outreach and the phone rang. I picked it up and it was our friend. He said, How much did you say the generator is?
I told him, 12,500,000 Rupiah. (Wow, whatta number! About US $1,150.)
He said, Okay, we will buy the generator for you. You can pick up the cash in my office on Monday! Phone hangs up. Shouts and whoops! Everyone gathers around. Explanation, and then more people are jumping around and shouting! Praise God! Where He guides, He certainly provides. As of this writing, the generator is paid for and in use!
From Lydia and Rose, Ukraine:
Imagine you’re in a Home where you have to buy bread every day. It’s not expensive, but it adds up. Hopes for a successful provisioning ministry here are quite low, because the country is poor and its one and only strong point is red tape! But you believe in miracles, so you keep trying. One day you notice that the bread you bought in your local shop has a sticker with the bakery’s phone number. So you decide to go ahead by faith and dial the number.
After a few inquiries you get another phone number, which gets you directly in touch with the director of the bakery. He’s right there to pick up the phone when you call. He is very friendly and lets you explain your question. But soon he apologizes and tells you very politely that he’s already helping a number of people and can’t possibly afford to help any more—that is, until you tell him you only need six loaves of bread a day. Then he exclaims, Oh sure! No problem! He makes an appointment with you for the next day.
The next day you manage to find the factory without any difficulty (not getting lost like you normally do) and immediately you get ushered in to see the director, who is impatiently awaiting your visit. He sits you down, goes over your request again, then calls his main bookkeeper. The bookkeeper takes your PR album, flips through the pages that describe your work in four languages, and scribbles on a sheet of paper for a few minutes, while you’re having a nice chat with the director. Then he gives it to the director for his signature.
At the last moment they decide that maybe it would look better if it’s typed, so off it goes to a secretary who comes back minutes later with a typed letter. It is then signed and agreed that you have the bread delivered every day from your local shop for free, for however long you want.
You don’t know how to show how grateful you are, but that’s not the end. After your last thank-you, on your way out you get a personal gift of chocolate cookies, a bottle of brandy (oops!) and a package of coffee. Then you get escorted to the bakery to sample the goods, and get some nice hot bread to take with you. You feel like flying by now! But you go outside and there’s the director’s personal driver waiting to take you home! Of course, you don’t say no ... and you don’t wake up either, because it wasn’t a dream.—It actually happened! Thank You Jesus!
From Micah, Merry and Faith, Japan:
Some time ago we called some paper factories to try to provision some paper. Later one of the companies called to ask if we wanted 15,000 large sheets of paper on three pallets! We were thrilled, and gratefully picked it up and took it to a warehouse where we had provisioned space. Later we offered the paper to the PPC, but their printer couldn’t use that large size. We knew the warehouse wanted us to move the paper out soon, so we were faced with a lot of paper that we didn’t know what to do with.
We took our paper problem to the Lord, and He told us that this paper was His love for us, and that He would bless whatever we did with it. That was very encouraging, of course, but after a few more days, and feeling more pressure to get this paper out of the warehouse ASAP, we asked the Lord again about it. Again, He told us that the paper was His love for us and that He trusted us with it, and that whatever we did with it He would bless. He said that this seemed to be a hard principle for us to understand, but if He said that the paper was His love for us, then it was His love for us—not a burden, as we had begun to look at it.
Thank the Lord, He finally got through to us and we started believing what He said. Since the Lord said He would bless whatever we did with the paper, we prayed about the idea of getting some Christmas tracts printed for our Home. But we certainly didn’t need three pallets’ worth of tracts! Then the Lord gave us the idea of offering to print tracts for some other Homes very cheaply. After calling a few Homes, we found that there was a big vacuum for cheap, large-size Christmas tracts. We ended up printing the whole 15,000 large sheets, or 255,000 tracts! Everything worked out better than we had hoped, and the paper indeed turned out to be God’s love for us.
But that’s not all! After sending out all three pallets of tracts to the Homes, the company where we’d printed the tracts called to ask when we were picking up our leftover paper. With the help of the printing company we had figured our printing to the exact sheet; now, to our surprise, they said that there were 15,000 large sheets leftover! Not only that, but they had cut all the leftover paper in half to make it usable on smaller presses, so we now had 30,000 leftover sheets, all nicely cut.
So we offered the cut paper again to the PPC and NPC, who now wanted it. But before they could get in the truck and pick it up, the printing company called to say that they had counted the paper again, but it was now 50,000 sheets! We called the NPC again and told them that they had better hurry and pick up the paper, before it grew any more, ha!
So in the end, our 15,000 sheets of paper made 255,000 Christmas tracts for the country, plus gave the NPC 50,000 cut sheets, and turned out indeed to be God’s love for us all!
From Andrew, Russia:
Over two years ago we first approached the sales manager of a big Italian company at a Christmas fair, and asked if his company could donate a free kitchen set to our missionary center. The man seemed quite positive, but said he had to counsel with his bosses. We tried unsuccessfully to contact this man a few times throughout the next year and kept sending our newsletters to the company on occasion. Since then, our need for a new kitchen had only grown.
Another Home in our area provisioned a washing machine from a partner company of the one we’d approached. Their contact designated the donated machine to be given to an orphanage, as he really wanted to help the needy. Later, as the man got to know them better and learned to trust them more, he gave another washing machine for their Home. We found out that the folks in that Home kept praying for the Lord to fulfill His promise, Give and it shall be given unto you, asking Him to give them a machine in return for the one they’d given to the orphanage.—And He did.
We didn’t know at that time how their experience was going to work in our situation. A few months later we called our friend again with the same question about the kitchen, and he said yes, but it turned out that he had in mind to give the kitchen set to an orphanage. Though we felt disappointed, we went ahead and arranged for an orphanage to receive that nice, fancy set with a big fridge.
We pretty much forgot about the whole thing, but our friends from the other Home encouraged us about their experience with the washing machines. We kept praying daily for a nice kitchen set. None of us, though, could possibly imagine how literally the Lord decided to fulfill our hopes and prayers!
Two weeks later Jessica, who lives in another Home, called and told us about her follow-up appointment with the man who’d given them the two washing machines. Around the end of their conversation, this man’s partner and close friend (our contact!) walked in the office. After a moment he said: Of course, I know the Family. I gave them a kitchen set! Jessica then explained to him how much our Home needed a kitchen set, and how we had prayed for the Lord to fulfill His promise, Give and shall be given unto you. Then she and with her contact shared their testimony about the washing machines, and how the Lord had fulfilled that promise then. Between the two of them, they convinced the man to donate another kitchen set to us!
He then invited us for a lunch at a restaurant, where we had a chance to witness to him on a deeper level and explain about our work and the way we live. So, almost two years later we’re getting the Lord’s promise—a brand new kitchen set with a fancy stove and a fan. Thank You Jesus!
From the Bangalore VS Home, India:
While Mark and Carina were visiting the U.S., Carina was looking into getting a secondhand computer. She found an ad and called the man who had advertised, saying that she was a missionary from India and was interested in his laptop (a Pentium II Toshiba, with CD—top of the line). He quoted a price and Carina asked if he could hold it until after the weekend, as they were going to be doing some fundraising and she would see how much they could raise. The man called her back after ten minutes and said that he had talked to his wife and they had both agreed to give her the laptop for free! Mark and Carina are now back in India with a lovely laptop which they are using for the Lord’s service in the VS work here. Praise the Lord!
From Daniel, Joanna and Vera, Russia:
Has it come to that? We’ll just have to trust the Lord? All of us had the same question on our minds that Monday morning when our budget envelopes were empty, as was our fridge. Our precious Russian-speaking couple had just left for Poland to have a baby, leaving the three of us with two kids (and one of us a pregnant mother). What were we going to do?
With desperate prayers and great curiosity in our hearts to find out the answer, we left for our appointment with the director of one of the markets whom we had been chasing for months with no success. This Christian man was very understanding as we presented our work and our needs. As we gave him our monthly shopping list, he right away agreed to buy all of our needs for the week ahead.
After inviting us for a snack—yogurt, chocolate, jam, and tea—we said goodbye. The next day when we met him again he read our thank-you letter and the poster we gave him with tears in his eyes. Right away he asked a man to lead us around the market to pick up what we needed. Then we realized he was paying for everything from his own pocket. You can imagine how happy we were to have all kinds of meat, fruit, yogurt, and all the rest—much more than we could usually afford. Jesus is so good to us!
Unexpectedly this man called us again on Sunday, then came to our apartment with champagne and chocolates. When he realized it was Joanna’s birthday, he took us out to the newly opened McDonalds in the city for a big dinner.—This had been all of our hearts’ desires for a long time. Praise the Lord! We were all happy that God took this impossible situation to not just fulfill all our needs, but even the secret desires of our hearts. He truly never fails.
From Peter Attack, India:
The air conditioner we were looking for was to be for our Hindi studio. It needed to have a capacity of one ton. Of course, we were low on funds, trying to be austere (tell me when this is unusual in our missionary life—ha!) and wanted either a provisioned one or a real bargain. One day I picked up the newspaper consisting of classified ads, which often has real bargains. To my surprise, there was a one-ton aircon advertised for a bargain price! You bet I tried that number as soon as I could.
Unfortunately, no one answered the phone.—That meant either the phone was dead or the people were away. I kept feeling led not to give up. Finally, after four days and at least 25 to 30 attempts, I was able to get through. When I explained what we needed the aircon for, the woman asked me what I did. When she found out that I was from the Family, she exclaimed, Oh! I know about your work!
It turned out she was the secretary to the chairman of one of the biggest automobile manufacturing companies in India. A few months before, she had helped us get some provisioned parts for our vehicle. We had never met her, though.—It had all been done over the phone.
Excited, she said that she believed the aircon she had was the one we needed for our purpose, and that she would give it to us for free! Wow! I nearly fell off my chair! She went on to say that she believed that she was just being an instrument of God, and that she was really happy to help us!
From Victor and Maria, Lebanon:
I called a company to provision some wooden beams for bunk beds. The man apologized and said they didn’t deal in the kind of wood we needed—only parquet wood. Would we be interested? We flipped! We had just been hoping to provision parquet wood for our entrance and living room, but had felt it was too large an item to tackle right away. And here the Lord just dropped it in our laps!
From Mary Wholeheart (of Sam), USA:
The store where we were supposed to pick up some donated clothes was located in a shopping center. I parked the car in the front of the store so we would be nearby to bring out the bags of clothes. I ran inside the store, met the lady working there and said, Hi! We’re from the Family missionary work, here to pick up the donated goods.
The lady responded with, Okay, go to the door in the back.
So I hopped in the car with Amber to go to the back, and Amber calmly said, Mom, you went in the wrong store. The doors were next to each other so I had gone into the other one! So after we went over to our original contact and picked up the clothing, we knocked on the back door of the store which I had gone into mistakenly. The lady was waiting there for us and I right away explained that I had gone in the wrong door, as the folks next door were donating to us, but that we were missionaries in need of any socks (it was a sock factory outlet). The lady said that she was trying to get ahold of the owner to confirm us picking up some socks, as they did have a large box of socks to give away.
Sure enough, they gave us the socks!—She had been trying to give them to some organization but no one wanted to come and pick them up. Thank the Lord!—That was the easiest provisioning I have ever experienced, and all because I went into the wrong door. Ha!
From Michael and Marianne, Australia:
A sweet elderly friend who owns a printing business has helped us numerous times over the last few years. When our photocopier went on the blink we rang him for help with copying some tracts. He asked if we had ever thought of giving up using the copier and getting a printing press. There was no way we had that sort of money, but out of curiosity I asked him how much one would cost. He was quiet for a few moments, then said, How about I give you my old one that I was going to use at home? We picked it up the next week. Praise the Lord!
From Abigail, India:
Have you ever been surprised when you tried to provision something big and the Lord took you at your word? It happened to me. We had approached a mattress company for 24 mattresses and 24 pillows, and waited with bated breath for the answer. The owner had said he would help, but that it would not be the exact sizes that we needed, as he was giving us mattresses that had a slight defect. When we picked up the mattresses, we found that what he gave was not only good quality and very expensive, but the goods were also the exact sizes we had requested.
From Zac, Jemima and David, Finland:
With wintertime approaching, all four of our younger children were in need of new snowsuits. We were praying for the Lord to supply this need, as it would be quite costly to buy them. We had previously sent a letter to one of our contacts to see if their company could donate any children’s clothes. We hadn’t specified what we needed, just clothes in general. A few days later, a big box arrived from this contact—and it was full of snowsuits! We all praised the Lord for answering our prayers. Our children got what they needed and there were extras to be sent to others too.
From Anthony, Talitha and Joshua, South Africa:
After praying for a long time for a car for our Home and not being able to save up hardly any funds for it, we were getting quite discouraged. When we prayed, the Lord told us that if we would just go about our work for Him, He would bring the car to us. Then He asked us when we wanted it, and we told Him Wednesday (this was Monday). Two days passed and nothing happened. We were getting more and more discouraged. We didn’t have the funds to buy a car but desperately needed one; it was time for a miracle.
We phoned one last man who said that he had a good car which we could pay for on time, so off we went. To get to this place we had to borrow a car from a friend who we minister to weekly. To our further discouragement, the car we went to see was a real clunker, so we went back home pretty down. On the way back we decided that maybe the Lord didn’t want us to have a car (for whatever strange reason) and that we might be able to make a deal with a rental company for one day a week so we could at least do our pick-ups and deliver food to our CTP.
When returning our contact’s car and telling him how things went, he asked us how we liked his car. We told him it was very nice. Then he offered it to us for exactly what we could afford, because it was for the Lord’s work! So the Lord did exactly what He had promised—He brought the car to us!—Not by our own works but by His grace. Our friend took it for a checkup, put on new tires, shock absorbers, a timing belt, etc., and then delivered it our doorstep on (you guessed it) Wednesday! (We hadn’t specifically told the Lord which Wednesday when we had prayed the week before, ha!)
Since we have had it, the Lord has opened the door of a big food contact and we have been able to deliver hundreds of liters of milk (two-thirds of a metric ton total) and over one and a half metric tons of vegetables, fruit, bread and much more to our CTP soup kitchen, a good load almost every day!
From John, Japan:
We had been asking the Lord to either supply a new vehicle or the parts to repair ours, as the doors were rusted out. One day my son Cephas and I went out on business. I had just read portions of the Word about following the leadings of the Spirit, and was convicted to pray more and to try to do that. We made an extra effort to praise the Lord and look to Him for direction.
We felt led to stop by and talk to the person we had bought the vehicle from, so we went to his shop. It so happened that just the day before, this man had received another 13-year-old silver Toyota van (like ours) with four good doors and exactly the same interior as ours! He was planning to take off any parts to sell, and then crush it within a couple days. If we hadn’t gone there at that time we wouldn’t even have known he had the van and it would have been gone, but the Lord led us to go there for the first time in more than a year. The man gave us all four doors, a needed bumper, all the seats, the speakers, and many other parts for free. What a miracle!
From Shajjad and Katie, Romania:
When we first opened our Home here in Romania, the Lord provided a good old Ford for free through a sweet brother in Austria (John Fireball, GBH). We used it for two years, but as it approached its 18th year, we felt the need to change to something a little younger. But as always, dosh (money) was real low.
During Christmas last year the Lord gave me a dream about a certain car that I knew belonged to a brother (Martin of Joan) in the UK. When I approached Martin and asked whether he was selling his car, he said yes and that we could have it for a good price. Then when I traveled to England to pick it up, he and his family decided to give it to us for free! God bless them.
We had this Volvo for a good eight months and put in over 30,000 kms on the clock, but due to the upcoming insurance costs ($1000 a year) we had to sell it.
I travel a great deal in Romania. Last year I clocked up 20,000 km worth of witnessing miles, so having no car would be a great loss to our work.
While in England fundraising, I mentioned the need for a car to a close friend. He immediately offered us his, but I was a little hesitant to accept it. It wasn’t so old and was a high-performance car, so the insurance would be very high. He then proceeded to offer to pay the insurance, and I’m sure you can guess—yes, I accepted! On top of that he paid for all the repairs and servicing for the coming year, and paid for my driving expenses back to Romania. God bless him! I’m convinced the Lord has a supply of good cars for everyone. He is so faithful!
From Charity, Gideon, David, Theresa and Lisa, Thailand:
We had been praying for another vehicle for awhile and were frustrated that not only was a new vehicle out of our price range, but our old van needed constant repairs—expensive ones at that. Having to put out a lot of money for repairs on this old van so often got us all very, very desperate, and that was the key to giving the Lord a chance to work. Finally we went on the attack not only in desperate prayer, but in asking our friends and then just following the Lord’s leadings in order to get another vehicle. The results have been phenomenal.
We asked one of our friends, the manager of a large car company, if he had a pickup truck we could use. He lent us an older pickup truck to collect our fruit and vegetable donations. Our friend was lending us the truck every week, then soon it was every few days because we were in the middle of a move. Finally he offered to just let us keep it for however long we needed it.
A little while later James (an FM brother) realized we needed a vehicle, and donated his car! On top of that, we heard about a very large company that rents vans and cars to large companies in the area, so we approached the management to ask them to donate the use of a van for a year. We prepared a letter and called the company, but it didn’t seem it was going to work. They even called one day to say they didn’t have enough vehicles and business was bad.
We still felt led to get an appointment with the head manager. A team met her and gave a rundown of our CTPs in the area and explained why we needed a van. The woman asked if we could pay something towards the van and after explaining that we have a next to nil budget, we offered to teach English to their staff in exchange for the use of a van. She said to call the next day and we nearly jumped through the ceiling with joy when they told us that we could have the free use of a nice 12-seater van for six months (initially) in exchange for three hours a week of English classes for their staff! WOW!! So, due to desperation and knocking where He led, we ended up with three vehicles!
From Josiah and Joy, Romania:
A year before moving here, we met a man in Switzerland who owns a huge junkyard. The first time we met, he helped us with two needed tires. Two weeks later he gave us some spare parts and winter tires at a very cheap price for our travel to Romania.
Three weeks after that, he told us that since meeting us his life had changed. He and his family were in a head-on car collision, and none of them were wearing their safety belts. Miraculously, none of them got more than a few small scratches; neither did those in the car they collided with, even though both their cars were completely smashed. Our friend said, Now I know that there’s an angel watching over me. You guys are very special. He sweetly gave us a car stereo and other things that we needed for our car for free.
During the next year, my wife faithfully wrote him about our activities in Romania, and visited him on her fundraising trips to Switzerland. His faith grew and grew. He was especially touched to hear about our CTP work.
This time, before Joy went to Switzerland again, I got a vision that the Lord would supply a van for us through this man. When Joy arrived in Switzerland, she started having car trouble. Faced with paying US$200 for repairs, she called our friend and asked if he could help with the spare parts. It turned out to be a major repair, but he paid for it all. He told us that if we ever needed his help, not to hesitate to ask him! Then Joy felt led to ask him if he had a van which could help towards our new CTP projects.
He said, Okay, let me think about that. About a month later he called and told us, I bought a van for you.
Without having seen the van, Joy asked Is it white?
He replied, Yes, how did you know? So she told him that this was the color of the van I had seen him giving to us in a vision, and that he was the answer to our prayers. He really flipped out over that, and when he saw how happy we were about his big donation, he paid for all the paperwork and gave us a good donation to get us back to Romania with it.
Once again, this is the fruit of the prophecy that we got, saying, I will supply all your needs. Take one step at a time, feed the hungry souls, listen to My whispers, and follow each step of the way that I have been telling you. For if ye seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things shall be added unto you. If ye obey and listen I will supply your needs. Just put Me on the spot and prove Me herewith, and I will blow your mind and you will glorify Me for what I said is true, only with the condition: if ye obey!
From Abigail G., Italy:
We were praying desperately for milk, because our main milk contact had closed down, although we always had enough for a cup of milk for everyone as the Lord provided through other contacts who gave small amounts.
One day we were making different telephone calls to open new food contacts, and we talked to the director of one of the biggest supermarket chains in the area. We told him about our needs in general terms, and he said that he would see what the company could do for us. A few days later he called us to tell us that he had US$5,700 worth of food for us. TYJ! After a few days he called us again telling us that we could come and pick up 1,400 liters of milk as part of the donation! The Lord gave us the milk we needed and more!
From Esther K., Hungary:
While in Norway we were trying to provision some very needed suitcases. One of the companies we contacted had helped us three years before with good-quality items. When we phoned them, they remembered the Family and were very happy to see us. They had received some newsletters from Philip and Meekness in South Africa and were so thankful that they remembered them. This company gave us so many suitcases and bags we didn’t know what to do with them all. Follow-up sure pays off.
From Steven and Maria, Ghana:
One morning the Lord told us that He wanted to supply milk for the children. We had been burdened about this, because we did not have the finances for it. That very day we claimed the miracle by faith.
We went out to minister to some of our contacts, first explaining to the kids that the Lord had said He was going to supply a sack of powdered milk that day. This was quite a challenge, as we wanted to use this as a testimony of how the Lord supplies without fail. At the very end of the day, after ministering to all the people on our list, one of our friends suggested we go see a certain man. When we entered his place he recognized the pictures in our PR brochure and remembered seeing our girls singing in a restaurant. When he heard we needed milk, he immediately called one of his colleagues. A few minutes later, in he came with a large box full of cans of powdered milk. We came home and everyone praised the Lord!
This is just one box of milk in the physical; the Lord provides so much for us we sometimes get familiar with it. But for us the most inspiring thing was hearing fresh and seeing God do it that day!
From Simon and Joan Livingstone, Nigeria:
We wanted to repaint our whole house, but we were low on funds. So we decided to set one day aside to provision 200 liters of paint and some very expensive material to reupholster our furniture. After prayer and hearing from the Lord, we approached a woman we had been following up on via mail. She was more than willing to give us the material.
The next challenge was provisioning all of the paint. After more prayer, we approached some paint dealers who said they could only give us a discount, but referred us to a paint company that might be able to help us. When we approached the company, the general manager was not there. Usually in this kind of company only the general manager or director could give the amount of paint we wanted. But just as we were about to leave, the receptionist asked if we would like to see the finance manager.
From our experience, this kind of manager could not help and we didn’t want to waste our time. But before we could make a decision to go, the finance manager came out and invited us in. When witnessing to him, we found him very receptive to the Word. We were still a little bit reluctant to ask him for such a large amount of paint, but finally he asked us if there was any way he could help our ministry, so we went ahead and asked him for the paint we needed. To our surprise, he bought all the paint for us and paid from his own pocket. Thank the Lord! We were looking on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.
From Joanne M., Russia:
Having just opened a Home and desperately needing furniture, over the last two months we’ve been going to furniture factories in our area. Many of them referred us to the same place: another factory outside of town. Although it was far away, for some reason I had a special feeling about it. I felt if we’d go, the Lord would do a miracle.
When we got to the factory, though, we found that the director had left five minutes earlier, and nobody knew when he’d be back. Having received a confirmation from the Lord about this trip, we didn’t want to give up, and finally after two hours of waiting the director showed up again. He said he only had five minutes to talk to us, but when we met him face to face, something changed in him. He started pouring out his heart about all the injustices he has to face daily—high taxes, backbiting among the factory workers, etc. It turned out that he was a believer, and his heart was broken by all he’d seen in his life. He pretty much said no to helping us, but I felt like, Ah, forget the furniture! This man looks like he could use some help himself!
We offered to do a little performance for his workers, and he quickly pulled out his business card and said, Here, call me! Stay in touch. We’ll organize it together. You can do any show you want, and then we can put it on paper as bookkeeping services, and we’ll pay you with our furniture!—Just what we were about to ask him for! This helped us to realize how those big tough businessmen just need someone who really cares, someone to talk to and be a friend for a change from their cold, cruel everyday life. Lord help us not to fail them!
From Stephen, Lily, Erica and Precious, France:
Since Precious (16) has been sick with multiple sclerosis, she has not been able to read or write on her own, and we felt that a multimedia computer would be a great blessing for her. With the appropriate programs and a scanner, she could dictate her outgoing mail into the computer, and it could read her incoming mail as well as the Word or even some scholastics, etc. It could help her to be more independent as well as more challenged and inspired. Some programs are even able to read everything that comes on the screen, like the Windows menus for example, but those programs are very costly and require a powerful processor. So we set out to try to provision such a computer.
After a few phone calls, a company pledged to help, although it would take some red tape and patience and we would have to pay some. After about a month, when permission was obtained from the manager, we were told that they would build a computer using PCs returned from their subsidiaries, according to the specifics we needed. Then there was no more news from them for about another month.
Finally we got through to the man that was supposed to be taking care of our computer, Mr. K., and he said he had a computer for us. We were disappointed to find that it was quite inferior to what we needed, and that we would have to pay about $1,100 for it. We contacted his boss who said the price was a mistake, not to worry about it and that he would give better instructions to Mr. K. Finally we heard that they would change the processor, add more memory, and we only needed to pay $800 for it.
Still things kept on dragging on, and after about another month with no news from the company, we tried phoning Mr. K. and his boss, but to no avail. It soon seemed that they were not really interested in helping us. We were getting quite discouraged and downhearted, and we were tempted to contact another company.
About that time, Mama Maria sent Precious a personal message from Grandpa, where he said that the Lord was giving Precious a special ministry to pray for others and receive prophecies for them. One day, a friend of Precious wrote and asked her to pray and receive some words of guidance for her. So we had a prayer vigil for her and Precious received a beautiful message. Then we thought about receiving something specific from the Lord about the computer as well. We sure received something specific: Mr. K. is the king! The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord and He turneth it whichever way He wants. Do not worry, do not fret. It is done, it is accomplished, you already have the computer! Well, I sure sobered up!—I was about to blow away the king! To me, it was a powerful reminder of how we can make such big mistakes when we do not seek the Lord but instead lean on our own wisdom.
We wrote a letter to Mr. K., saying we had been wondering if he really wanted to help us and that if for any reason he couldn’t, to please tell us clearly so that we could contact someone else. The letter was honest but respectful, thanks to the Lord’s guidance.
The very next day Mr. K. phoned, apologized for the delay and promised he would speed things up with the computer. It did take another month or so but finally the appointment was set to go and pick up the computer. Mr. K. wasn’t there when we arrived, and there was some confusion at first. We waited about 45 minutes before the secretary came back and announced that everything was worked out; we just had to sign some papers and pick up the machine in another department. When we did, we were in for a surprise!—It was a brand-new multimedia computer, much more powerful than what had been promised, with a built-in modem, telephone, radio, microphone, remote control and about 30 of the latest computer programs already set up.
But that’s not all!—Two weeks later, some relatives visited and out of the blue gave us a donation of yes, exactly $800! It sure pays to wait and trust the Lord!
Copyright © 2001 by The Family
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