The Rest of the Story
And now for the rest of the story….
I have unique position at the church as the pastor, because sometimes I get to hear the whole story, not always from start to finish but at some point, it all comes together.
At the end of February, the church was almost completely out of money. It came down to almost being a question of do we pay the mortgage and not the staff or vice versa? It was a timing issue in many ways. The first Sunday of the month with the typical offering was March 2. The bills were due the 1st. Ever been there?
Counting every penny from everything we had, it would just work, but what then? What about the next set of bills and expenses? What about the next month? Things did not seem to be trending in a good direction.
That’s where we were – and now for the rest of the story.
We prayed. God had a plan and God acted.
First, He put it on a family’s heart to create a matching giving challenge of $10,000. That’s a lot of money; an example of maximum generosity in my book. And God led them to offer it. He had blessed them, and they decided to be a blessing. That is God at work.
Then God began to move on other people’s hearts too. A family here. An individual person there. One heart at a time. One gift at a time. 31 days of God at work, behind the scenes, speaking, leading, inspiring, giving faith.
On Sunday, March 30 at our 1 Service Sunday, we announced an amount that was given. But that wasn’t the end of the story. There was more.
That day and the next, more came in.
The total is now $14, 576.78. Over one month, $24, 576.78 was given above and beyond our regular offering. That’s basically a whole month’s typical offering. That is God at work!
For the year, we went from being short of projected offering totals to being over $10,000 beyond projections. That meant we could fill in all the holes that needed filling in the budget and give more to one of our mission partners, Bridging the Gap. That is God at work.
His timing is perfect. His plan is always right. His ways are true.
If you find yourself in a similar position in life, start with prayer. Seek out God. Trust Him. Look for His provision. Be patient because His timing is different than ours.
He always comes through.
And now you know, the rest of the story.