MANNA: It was February 28, 1993...

It was February 28, 1993 when Josh and Jon were 4 and 2 years old.  

We had been on staff with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) since 1987 and had now been iving & working with the NY YWAM Center in Elizabeth, NJ since the fall of 1991.  We lived a couple miles from the Center in an apartment that cost $700 a month and our monthly support was $900, which covered rent and utilities and God provided faithfully for food and other needs over the next year and a half. 

We had been doing children’s ministry in the inner city projects of Elizabeth and felt we needed some training, so we looked into the Principles of Children & Youth Ministries training that YWAM offered in Scotland and had been asking God since Jan. for the provision to do so. 

Since deciding to go, our support came in very intermittently and that month we had received only $320 from our supporters. Though we had paid rent for Jan. and Feb. we were two months behind on utilities and obviously did not have rent for the next day. This was a huge test of our faith... and we were struggling. After putting the boys to bed we committed to pray into the night and we started with, ‘Lord, we don’t need less, we need more!” Our training school started  in 5 weeks on April 7th and in addition to rent and utilities, we needed to rent a moving truck and a storage unit and secure flights to Scotland in the next few weeks. So we prayed and prayed and read through a wonderful book called DARING TO LIVE ON THE EDGE: The Adventure of Faith and Finances by Loren Cunningham, in order to see if we were off in our plans in anyway. As we prayed and examined our hearts, Roger said he felt that there was an intentional veil so that we could not see ahead of is how things would work out much like Abraham. As he shared this, I had my finger on a verse that I wanted to read which said:

"His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints (His people) Eph. 4:11a

After that late night prayer time, we felt we were to continue to believe that God could and would provide for us to go.

The next day at the YWAM Center, the accountant said he was looking for us and I asked, "Why, did someone give us a $1000?" and he said, "No, but close"

As it turned out, our home church had incorrectly filled out February's monthly support check of $200 and it had to be sent back, so by rights if they resent that with the March support, it would have been $400, but the check was for $750!!!  We were overwhelmed and overjoyed! When I told the missions committee Director from our church about how that had met our needs so beautifully and asked why that was the amount sent, she said she had no idea.  

I wish I could go back and read in my journal all the details of how the 4 of us boarded that plane for Scotland at the end of March. What I do remember is that fellow missionaries from Brasil needed a car when they came home on furlough and felt led to offer to buy ours from us, so that covered the taxes we owed and the our airfare!! There is so much more to this story as we spent 6 months in Paisley Scotland... even a story about "Miracle NON-provision" that we could tell you about one day.  

So, here we sit on Wed. June 18th, 2014, asking God in much the same way... Is it your will that Jonathan go to this FARMING GOD'S WAY training in North Carolina on Sunday? We are trusting that if it is, then He will provide the remaining $ needed for his airfare and tuition, as He has so many times in the past and, if it is not in His plan, then He has another plan. 

Jon's first garden that he initiated when we lived in Nashua!

"Oh God, you are My God, and I will ever praise You,

I will seek You in the morning and I will learn to walk in Your ways and

Step by step you lead me and I will follow you all of my days." ~ Rich Mullins