Brenda

I hadn’t been attending church for a Sunday morning service in a few years. The first time I had walked into the church that would redirect my life towards a serious pursuit of Christ in the fall 2000, I cried and cried as the worship music started. It was a contemporary style of worship. Having grown up in a Catholic church and then getting married in a Southern Baptist Church, I was unaware of this style of worship. And now Holy Spirit was bringing a comfort and peace I hadn’t known. My husband and I were in some serious financial troubles. We had $20,000 of debt. Most of it was credit card debt and the remaining was in medical bills. There wasn’t enough money coming in to pay what was going out. I sat in the church services four Sundays in a row and cried and cried, I said to God one night “I know you will rescue us from this debt. I don’t know how people without you could make it through this kind of stress, because if I didn’t have hope in you I would consider suicide.” I believe that although I didn’t hear His voice that night, His answer was “Yes, daughter, I will rescue you but I’m going to teach you some things on this journey first.” Two of the biggest lessons that the Lord has shown me is that He gives so we can give more and that we should never put His provisional ways in a box. He has all kinds of creative ways of providing from checks in the mail, to people retiring, His voice telling us to change jobs and random cash being handed to us.

Here are a series of testimonies of the journey.

~Vehicles sell to pay taxes
We had $2,400 in property taxes due in 2 weeks on some family property that my husband’s family jointly owned. Because we were already struggling to pay the monthly bills, we hadn’t set aside money for this large bill. And to top it off, it was due in January! Right after Christmas! When I talked to the Lord about it, He said to keep praying since worrying wouldn’t bring the money. Also during this time, my husband had inherited an old truck from his deceased step father. He also had 2 much older trucks that we needed to sell but we hadn’t bothered to put adds in the paper yet, knowing it would take some time to sell. The week that the taxes were due, my husband’s brother, Barry called and said he had been on a deacon home visit and the woman they were visiting had another visitor at the same time that was going to buy her old used vehicle. In talking with this guy, Barry found out that the man buys old vehicles, fixes them up and resells them. So we made arrangements to drive both of our old trucks to this man. On the day before the taxes were due to be paid to Barry, the man looked at our trucks and offered $2350!!!! I handed the cash to Barry and he said that we can consider the tax bill paid!! Yes Jesus!!!

~$5000 gift
During this season of great financial stress, not being sure of how and when certain bills would be paid, I was sitting there looking at my bible and saying to God “Lord, You have said that if we confess our sins, you are faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. I have confessed my careless spending and not relying on you and not having a giving heart. I know you have forgiven me. Lord, you also say in Philippians 4 that we are not supposed to worry about anything instead pray about everything, tell You what we need and thank You for what You have done and so Lord I’m not going to worry about these large bills and debt that we have but instead I’m asking you to provide for them in your way and I thank You for all you have done and will do” About an hour later my husband comes home and I mention to him about one of the bills and he said “Well ******(a family member) sent us a $5000 check” I asked him if he had told them of our financial distress. He said ‘No” I was so stunned that I was physically shaking in the awe of the Lord’s timing….. Oh our Lord is so faithfull!!”

~Credit card and hospital debt
At the time of this testimony, I was the one managing the money. My husband knew that we were in financial crisis but he really didn’t know how bad it was or what we owed to whom. One day the Lord told me to write out all of the bills that are due each month, what our debt was and what our monthly income was. We had way more that was due each month that what was coming in. And we had $20,000 in credit card and medical debt. When my husband, Billy came home I told him what I had done and that the info was sitting on the desk in the office. After looking it over, he came out and thanked me for doing that and said that although it didn’t look good, at least he knew what was going on. And then he asked as he held up an envelope he had found lying on the desk “What is this?” I told him it was something from our mortgage company about refinancing our house. He looked it over and said that it was an offer to refinance our house and get $20,000 cash out included in the refinancing. If we were approved, we could get the $20,000, pay our debt, our monthly mortgage payment would only go up about $50 and would eliminate the $500 a month bill due each month for the credit card and hospital. Billy told me to call them the next day and we would pray that we would be approved. The next day I called the mortgage company. We did the application on the phone. At one point he got to the question of whether we had any federal debt. I told him we did but we were actually in the process of paying it that week. He said we would probably not get approved. I responded saying “Well we will see what God has to say about that.” A few days later we got the notice that we had been approved!! We got the $20,000 cash and paid off our credit card and hospital debt. It felt like God had given us a new start!!

~Cancelled medical debt ($1500)
We had a good bit of medical debt that kept building up due to one of our children having a surgical procedure every six weeks starting when she was 6 months old. At one point, the hospital was drafting a certain amount out of our checking account and we were getting bills from the doctor who did the procedures but it was difficult to pay both bills. The total on the doctor bill was $1500. I prayed one day and said “Lord, you say we are to pay our debt and I want to pay this debt and you tell us not to worry. So I’m asking you to somehow help us pay this bill.” And as a little addition to the prayer I said “It would really nice if that bill would just go away.” Within a few weeks of praying that, I was talking to a friend who had also had a procedure with the same doctor and had a small amount of debt. She said she found out that this particular doctor had retired and cancelled all the debt that was owed to him. I check on the information and she was right!! OUR MEDICAL DEBT WAS CANCELLED!!! Our God is faithful!!

~Cancelled medical debt (son’s $50,000)
In 2010 my son who was 25 years old at the time went into the hospital with a freak diagnosis of a collapsed lung. This happened a few months later to the other lung as well. He was in the hospital for 7 days the first time and about 4 or 5 days for the 2nd time. He was unemployed at the time. His bills amounted to over $50,000. The hospital encouraged him to fill out some forms for financial assistance. When he got his bills the next month the balance was -0-!!! They had a program in place for those in the unemployment situation. They canceled his debt!!! God’s mercy endures forever!

~Airline Ticket to Witness to Grandma
I had been praying for a few years that the Lord would provide for me somehow to get up to Illinois near Chicago to see my elderly grandma. I wasn’t confident that she was saved. Then one day the Pastor’s assistant of the church I was attending asked me if I still wanted to go to the Acts 2 conference with some of the staff. I told her “yes”, assuming it was in Columbia like the last conference. I asked her when it was. She told me when it was and to let her know if I was going for sure because they needed to order plane tickets. Surprised, I asked her where the conference was. She said “Chicago” I told her in disappointment that I didn’t have the money to go. She said “Oh, you don’t have to pay. The church will be paying your way.” Who would have thought that this is the way God would get me up to see Grandma!! I also got in contact with a pastor who has a church in my home town. He drove me the hour to my Uncle and Aunt’s after the conference. And to top it off, one of my cousins, Diane, who is a dear friend and lives in another state was also going to be there at the same time. Diane, her husband, Allen and I were able to minister to my Grandma in some of her last days here on earth. God is sooo good and faithful!!!

~Airline Ticket To Funeral
The same cousin, Diane, whom I had spent time with in Chicago earlier, sadly lost her husband, Allen, a year or so later to cancer. The funeral was going to be in Illinois. I didn’t have the money to fly there. Then my youngest sister called me and said that her and her husband wanted to do something special for Diane and decided that the best thing that she would love is for me to be able to be there for the funeral and spend time with her. So they decided to pay for my plane ticket to fly up to Chicago!! Oh Lord you are faithful!!!

~Car Gift for My Son
My son, Andrew had a truck but really needed something with more seats for his growing family. I told him to pray and that I knew other folks that had been given vehicles. He worked for a moving company. One particular day, his boss sent him to work in Charleston, SC for their sister company. While moving the furniture for a woman, he was telling her of needing another vehicle for his growing family. She gave him the keys to her Jeep Cherokee and said “It’s yours!” WHOA!!!!!!

~State Fair Tickets
It was fall time and my twins really wanted to go to the State Fair. They were probably 10 years old. But we didn’t have enough money to pay for parking, admission, food and rides. I sadly told them that the only way we could go AND do the rides is if they paid for the rides. William still had birthday money left. Rachel had spent all of hers. We got to the fair and as we approached the ride ticket booths, I felt like we needed to wait a bit before William purchase the ride tickets that could be anywhere from $25 per person for the pay one price or $25 for a sheet of tickets. The twins argued a bit but I assure them that they would ride. We walked about 20 steps away from the booth and a woman and her family approached us and asked if we wanted her tickets. Then her teen daughter asked the same. They gave us over $25 worth of tickets!!!!!! I got on my knees next to the twins and cried and we thanked God right there!

~State Fair Tickets #2
In 2011, I took the twins to the State Fair. We had enough money this year for them to enjoy the rides and food. It was Saturday morning and it was two ride for price of one. But after they rode several rides, I spotted a ride that I really wanted to be able to enjoy with the twins. But we didn’t have the extra money for me to purchase more tickets. Although I mentioned it to the twins, I’m not even sure that I really prayed about it. I just didn’t think it was an option. At one point, we stopped to purchase corn dogs and decided to go to another food trailer to purchase our drinks because they were a little cheaper. We patiently waited for some time. Then, a woman behind us asked “Would ya’ll like some more tickets?” Oh My Lord!!!! She gave us a whole $25 sheet of tickets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will always remember the joy of riding that little roller coaster and laughing with joy with my children. It was the last time to ride with them there. They are now at the age that it’s “friend’s only”. :o) Our God loves us and is so faithful!

~Quitting Job
About six years ago I was traveling to the other side of Columbia for my job at a modeling/talent agency in a hair salon. One day the Lord told me to put in my two weeks’ notice. After consulting with my husband, I put in the notice and began to work over on our side of town. The week following me resigning, the gas prices spiked up to $2-$3 more a gallon and haven’t lowered since. The gas expense would have been way too much! Thank you Lord for the creative provision.

~Trip to Morning Star: money in pocket, visa card in the mail
For a few years I had a great desire to take a trip alone to Morning Star and stay in their hotel/retreat for a night or two. In the summer of 2000, there was a conference at All Nations Church that Bill Johnson would be at. Morning Star was down the road. Although I wanted to, I hadn’t even considered going because my dad had gone through heart surgery in Greenville, SC earlier in the week. But by Thursday, things had slowed down, dad was ok, I was home and I began to think about this conference and told the Lord that I would love to go and also spend the night at Morning Star but He would have to provide because I didn’t have any spare money. I needed $30 for the conference plus hotel expense. Within the hour I found $10 in the jeans I had just put on. Then a bit later while driving my twins to guitar lessons, I was thinking about how someone had given a friend a visa gift card to spend at the conference last year. So I told the Lord it would be cool to be given a visa like that. Within an hour, I got home, checked the mail and there was a $25 visa card in the mail to me. It was a rebate from my phone that I had forgotten about. Then a friend said she wanted to give me money to help me go. Then I called to check hotel rates and discovered that Morning Star gives a 20% discount for those attending the All Nations conferences. So it was almost $20 less to stay at the Morning Star hotel than any other place and safer! So within two hours of praying for a visa card, I was on the road to Morning Star!!! The Lord is so fun and faithful!! He has also provided many other trips to Morning Star and All Nations since then.

~Car gift
In early 2012 I got a bad diagnosis for my car that had 220,000 miles. My husband said we didn’t need to put any more money into it and that it was time to look for another one although we had no idea how we would pay for it. I kept praying. One day a family member called me to tell me that he and his wife had bought a new car and wanted to give me their other one!!
It’s a Chevrolet Malibu with only 80,000 miles. And not only did it bless us right then but it made it possible for me to travel to Atlanta every week to attend Bethel Atlanta School of Supernatural Ministry that following fall! And I was able to give my oldest son the van to use until it couldn’t run anymore. He didn’t have a vehicle at the time. This is the 2nd vehicle that had been given to him so far. So faithful is our King Jesus!!

~Provision for BASSM
In the summer of 2012 while at a conference at All Nations that Bill Johnson was teaching, I had prayed that somehow I could go to Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry. But I didn’t know how that was possible. The following month I found out that Bethel had a plant church in Atlanta. My husband agreed that I could go if the expenses, $2500 for tuition and $2500 for gas, would not come out of our budget. I had decided that I would go forward with it unless I heard “no” from God. The provision started with a close friend giving me $500 saying it was a prophetic declaration that the $5000 would be provided. Next, those at my church contributed $800. Some dear friends bought me a laptop and printer that I would need for this schooling adventure. Every bit of the finances was provided for. I never knew where it was going to come from. Some of it was given by people I had never even met!! Woo Hoo for our faithful God!

~$100 per twin
Two years ago I prayed that our children wouldn’t suffer financially. The next day they each got a $100 check in the mail. It was a delayed birthday present! Yay God!! He hears my prayers!

~Provision for Ireland
I was asked recently if I would be interested in being one of the leaders to go on a mission trip with 16-19 students from our ministry school at church called South Carolina School of Leadership aka SCSL. I knew this was the Lord’s call. And He kept confirming that I’m to go. So although I don’t have the $2200 needed, I’m confident He is providing. I discovered that because I am a leader, the school is paying $900 of it. Then after posting on face book about my trip, a hair client gave me $75. This last Saturday while cleaning out a box that had been sitting around, I found $10! I thought about buying a flower for my front door since we had guests coming the next day. But I remembered a post that I had put saying that one who has a poverty mindset, when given money will say “great what can I buy” but the one with the Kingdom mindset will say “great who can I give to” So I decided to see if God wanted me to give any of it away. The next day, our Pastor announced that we will be doing renovations to expand and the budget is $300,000. I was tempted to panic a little thinking “Lord I haven’t even sent out my support letter and this week people are being asked to contribute, last week the church was asked to make their pledges for mission, will people even have enough for my trip. But then I caught myself and said ‘Lord, I will trust you on this” I placed the $10 in the bucket for the building fund. Then within the hour as I am encouraging my son on how faithful Go is to provide, a girl walks up and says “Go told me to give you $30”. Then this last Wednesday another friend said “God told me to give you this $20. THEN yesterday, I had cut a friends hair. As she held her check book out and asked me how much, I told her not to worry. She’s getting married and I wanted to help her. She then wrote out a check saying she had been praying about what to give and she handed me a check for $120 with the word “Ireland” in the memo. WOW! He is sooo faithful!!