Musings from Graceland

BLOWN AWAY BY A STRANGER

The alarm went off at 5:45 this morning, before it was even daylight here. I was getting up an hour earlier than usual because Betsie had asked if we could do one last road block to help raise money for her upcoming Thailand mission trip. I headed to the bathroom and heard a rumbling. Secretly I rejoiced for just a second as I said "is that thunder?" because if it was, I could go back to bed. Alas, my husband said it was the hamster. The hamster??? Yes, our hamster maniacally running round and round in the room up above us.

So after I accepted the fact that the fund raiser was on, I woke Betsie and her spend-the-night friend Bailey, threw on some clothes, grabbed a bit to eat, and headed for a 4-way stop in our area to meet a friend from church who was going to help.

We'd never gotten there that early before. We'd done Saturday mornings before but were hoping we'd catch the going-to-work and going-to-school crowd And boy howdy did we ever! Within 20 minutes, we had raised $70.



Just standing there with our signs and buckets and praying and smiling and praying some more and running up to vehicle windows when folks rolled them down.

One of those folks was a man in a big red truck. We didn't know him. He was a stranger to us. A complete stranger. He asked Betsie where she was going and was surprised by her answer of Thailand. He then nonchalantly threw a bill into the bucket and said "God bless you". Before Betsie could do much more than a quick "thank you" he was gone.

Then Betsie looked into the bucket.

First she saw a 1. Then a 0. Then another 0. It was a ONE HUNDRED DOLLAR BILL!

A ONE HUNDRED DOLLAR BILL from a total stranger. I won't say a random stranger, because he wasn't random. He was part of God's plan to provide for my Betsie. That stranger's humongous bill blew us away but it wasn't any surprise to God.



I have no idea what prompted that man to give that much money to a curly haired, teenage girl smiling by the stop sign this morning. But I do know that every good and perfect gift comes from the Father up above.

And that man's gift, was truly a gift from God.

Now don't get me wrong. Every single bit we got today was a gift. Whether it was the few coins dug out of a cup-holder; the smiling, sweet, elderly lady who made sure each of us was handed a dollar; or the woman who came back and wrote a check for $20 after she had told Betsie she didn't have any cash on her; ALL of these added up to provide over $300 for Betsie's mission trip.

But that $100 really hit home with Betsie.

It was a reminder that God is a big, big God and we should never doubt that He can and does do big, big things.

We are learning and seeing over and over again as a family that, as Amy Lancaster ( a missionary at WE WILL GO) always says, where God leads, God will provide.

And it is true.

For us and for you.

We are learning to not ever let the fear of not having enough money stop us from stepping out and doing something when God tells us to do it. He's a good Father and He is also a rich Father.

When our desires line up with His desires, He will make the way...whether it is through providing a job that will pay the expenses, a lot of little widow's mites, or a truck driving stranger tossing in a hundred dollar bill.