But my God will Supply All your Needs!

the Mr. and I

When my husband Ben and I married almost 10 years ago {can it be? 10 years?}- I knew that being rich was not in our future. He was on staff at a super-tiny church in a super-tiny town. He made $12,000 as the full time youth minister.

But what I didn’t anticipate was how God would supply everything we needed! {I also honestly didn’t realize how little $12,000 was- I was young and head-over-heels in love!} Towards the end of our first year of marriage, we decided to buy a house. Now this may sound ludicrous considering our salary, and if we’d gone out and bought a $100,000 home, it would have been.

Fortunately, my parents gave us some land. Then, we found a home that needed to be moved from its current location. The price? $10,000. This was not a mobile home- just a great deal on a 1940s house that the owner wanted out of there.

{We were so young and naieve, we tried to talk him down on the price! Didn’t happen though.}

Even though the price was ridiculously low, we had virtually no savings. {Oh, did I mention I was still in college?} So we took out a private loan for the cost of the house, what it would cost to move it ($3500) and $1500 extra to get us started on fixing it up. Our mortagage was $250 for five years!

We soon learned that the $1500 was not going far. The house virtually had no kitchen. We could live without pretty things, but not a kitchen. And we also needed a propane tank for cooking and heat. This is where God comes in.

The cost for getting the propane tank on our property was $500. We just did not have it. But Ben’s cousin was in that business at the time (gotta love living in a small town!) so we just went ahead and planned to have it installed,not knowing where or how we’d get the money.

About that time, our small town was hosting its annual festival. Follow me here- I assure you this has relevance!

Our church at the time hosted a booth every year, selling BBQ sandwiches. A few days before the festival, an old friend of Ben’s dad called. Ben had not seen the elderly gentleman in years. He lived at least 2 hours away from us. He asked Ben if he was going to be at the festival. Ben told him that, in fact, he was. The man (I’ll call him Mr. Smith) told Ben to look for him.

So the day of the festival arrives. We are out there super early cooking and preparing for the day. Around mid-day, Mr. Smith finds Ben at our booth and asks to speak with him privately.

I still get chills when I think about this. Mr. Smith told Ben that we had been on his heart and God told him to give us something. He pulls a check for exactly five hundred dollars out of his pocket and hands it to Ben. Can I just say that God will supply all of our needs?

By the way, this was on a Saturday. The bill was due on Monday. God’s timing is perfect!

I have many more stories like this to share. God has continually shown his grace to us in our marriage where financial needs are concerned. He’s even given us several “wants” along the way- but that’s a whole other topic.

I’d love to hear how God has answered your prayers!