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CTC Readers' Poll:
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"God has truly provided for our family in countless ways over the years. We are firm believers in God's promise to bless those who tithe, which means giving 10% of your income back to God. We do this by giving to our church weekly as well as various charitable organizations. Here is only one example of God's provision in our lives: Two years after we started tithing, we were expecting our first child. Due to limited income, we agreed that I would have to return to work after the baby was born. Turns out, my first child had colic in the worst way. We were both very concerned that he may be harmed if he was left to cry at the sitters all day, so we made a leap of faith for me to become a stay at home mom. Two months after I quit my job, my husband received a $7,000 a year raise! Glory to God. The job I left only paid $9,000, so this easily bridged the financial gap for us. God is true to his promises, take him at his word and you will never regret it!" ~ Mother of 3 boys in IL "After three miscarriages and having my 44th birthday my husband and I are thinking our biological family is ending. We have been blessed with eight healthy children so we decided we would see if adopting a special needs child was in His will for us. We prayed daily and took some steps to begin the paperwork required to adopt both domestically and foreign. No one seemed to want to work with us and we kept hearing that we were too old, had too many children and made too little money. Then one day a little girl popped up that we had inquired about before. She is from Kazakhstan and was born with a birth defect that requires reconstructive surgery. We made our interest and our circumstances known to her agency and two days later we were given permission to adopt her! Even with some expenses cut due to her condition it is still costing around $35,000 which is much more than half of our annual income. A friend offered to have a yard sale for us and so we asked all our friends , church members and fellow homeschoolers for donations. After two weekends of the biggest yard sale you have ever seen God provided $4,000! With other donations we have about $25,000 towards our goal. We are confident the rest will come before we leave in September. We also believe Jehovah Jireh will provide the money for the medical expenses she will have. God is Good!" ~ Anonymous
"I
wanted to share with you what God did for
my granddaughters. Jessica, age 13, was
preparing to go on a missions trip to
Mozambique with Teen Missions a day after
she turned 14. My daughter started a
program last year with her bank that
rounded up every debit to the next dollar
and put the change in a savings account.
Jessica had to raise $4,000 for the trip
and when they took her to get registered
for everything there were all kinds of
fees they didn't know about: visas,
airline fees, etc. which amounted to
right around $800 that they hadn't planned
on. She left to try to get the money
and found that bank account that she
hadn't looked at in a year had $842 in it
-- enough to cover everything. Then my 11
year old granddaughter was supposed to go
on a missions trip to Mexico with her
church youth group and needed $1,000.
So far she had only raised $90. When
my daughter stopped in at the church to
see what she still needed, she found that
someone had stopped in to the church that
morning and paid for all the fares of
everyone who hadn't raised enough. There
were about 25 people going so it must have
been a large donation. God always
provides." ~ Cathey
"Several
years ago my husband and I were living in a
home badly in need of extensive repairs with a
landlord who didn't so much refuse them as to
tell us, 'You pay for them and take it off the
rent.' Many of the needed repairs were too
large for our limited budget. We began to look
for a home/land of our own. One morning after
Bible study, I had a word from God that we
would have a home and land and be debt free.
My husband didn't scoff, but he looked
dubious. Fast forward six months and we were
GIVEN 10 acres of land for $100 by a family
member who wanted to divide her farm between
families. We purchased a manufactured home and
put it on the property. Our mortgage was for
30 years,with fixed interest rate and while
reasonable it was still a mortgage. Fast
forward ten more years and the estate of
a family member who'd died five years ago was
finally settled. Unexpectedly I was given half
interest in her home and property. Another
year rocked on until all who held an interest
came in agreement that the property could be
sold. My husband and I sowed a seed toward the
sale of the home into a ministry we support on
a routine basis. In three weeks we'd gone from
coming into agreement that we'd sell the house
to closing with a buyer! Uncertain of what
closing costs would run, we doubted my share
would be enough to pay off our mortgage. My
husband agreed to call the mortgage company
just moments before I walked out of the door
to go to the closing and we wrote the amount
down on a piece of paper. I laid hands upon
it, prayed that God would allow enough to
tithe and pay off our mortgage from the
amount. When all was said and done, we had
enough to pay our tithe first, enough to pay
off the mortgage in full and were left with
the original amount we seeded in the ministry!
We are now debt free, praise God! He truly
will provide!" ~ Terri
"A year ago my husband and I moved
with the company I work for. He had had
emergency surgery in March 2006 and again right
before the move. Even though I got a raise as an
incentive to move, it turned out the cost of
living was just a little bit higher, and as the
months went by and he still couldn’t work,
things got tight. But then Jehovah Jireh stepped
in. Three of my husband’s medications became
available in generic form, saving us a lot on
the co-pays. The books I had listed for sale on
Amazon.com suddenly became VERY popular – for
a while there it seemed like I was selling one a
week! And then, when my supervisor decided to
quit and move back, I somehow had the courage to
apply for his job. I got the promotion, with a
big raise!
"I
was having a bad day: I was tired,
stressed out, and feeling sorry
for myself. I had just pulled
into the parking lot at work, grabbed
my lunch box, locked my door when I
remembered I had forgot to bring any
money with me. I remember saying,
'Oh God I forgot my Coke money.'
I had taken about 10 steps when I looked
and there was a one dollar bill coming
at me in light breeze.I picked it up
and I started to cry. All I could
think about was how much God loved me
and cared about me to be concerned
about something so small." ~ Judy
"My husband and I have two biological sons and wanted to add to our family by adopting a daughter. Well, being military at the time didn't make it easy as our location was far from the County Foster/Adoption Agency. We were recommended to try private adoption. We felt that it wouldn't be possible as the cost is high. Well 13 months later we were the proud parents of a bouncing 4 year old Ethiopian daughter. When I didn't think we could afford, God provided. Two years later and not thinking of adopting again God's insight sent us a small boy at a picnic telling us to adopt some more children from Ethiopia! Well we're not in a position financially to take on 4 more children but as we all know, God has a plan for us and he will always provide if you follow. That was 10 years ago and we are now a family of 9! We have a couple that is very dear to us and they wanted to adopt as well but stated that they couldn't afford it. I told this very Christian family that if it was meant to be they would have their baby and God would provide what they needed when they needed it. Well their daughter came home to them when she was two weeks old and just yesterday we celebrated her 5th birthday!! God always provides what and when we need it...in his time not ours! And as stated above it has been a sometimes-wild, sometimes-wacky and always-wonderful provision from God to our family!" ~ Sandy "I'm self-employed, and work has been slow the last month or so. Two people owe me money, but right now I'm pretty much broke. Well, today I decided to do a little cleaning of some random stuff in a spot in my bedroom, and found a card from last Christmas. It had a $100 bill in it! My granddad always gives me and my sister a card with money at Christmas, but somehow I had forgotten to get it out and deposit it! I was very excited to find this, especially since I need it more now than I did right after Christmas!" ~ Danae "We have learned to trust God to look after us during the 18 years of our marriage while raising four children (12, 8, 6 and 3) and living on one low income (I am a stay at home Mum as well).
We
have many stories. Just this week we
came home to find $1000 in an
envelope at our doorstep which was
wonderful as our car had broken down
and needed major repairs. But I
did particularly want to share with
you my story of the pineapple and
pumpkin. Both really small things in
the scheme of life but a great
example of God's provision.
Recently
we were having friends over for a
meal so I went to the grocery shop
to get some ingredients. I really
wanted to buy a pumpkin to make a
side dish but when I got to the
checkout I had to take the pumpkin
out of the trolley as I didn't have
enough money. When I got home my
husband rang to say that one of his
customers at work had just given him
a pumpkin. So I was able to make my
side dish after all. God is good.
A
similar thing happened to me
regarding a pineapple. One of the
children had asked me if I could buy
a pineapple when I went
shopping. I put the pineapple in my
trolley but ended up taking it out
as it was just too expensive
and didn't look very nice. Later
that day a friend dropped my
daughter home from a dance class.
She opened her car door and said she
had something for me. She handed me
a pineapple and then said, 'I bought
you a pineapple and you may as
well have this other one as
well.' So I ended up with two
pineapples. They were also even
nicer than the one in the shop as
they came straight from the
farm down the road. God showed me
that not only does He provide but He
also multiplies what we have as
well. I started out with one
pineapple then took if out of my
trolley so I had none but by the end
of the day I had been given two even
better pineapples. Provision and
multiplication!" ~ Jessie
Editor's Note: Thanks to all these readers who took time to write! |
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