40 Cents

In the churches I grew up in we had something called Faith Promise. Commitments were made to give to missions over the course of the year. The cards said something like, "I promise in faith that by the help of God I will give $____ to missions" and then you indicated if that would be a one time or monthly pledge.

Honestly, I enjoyed "Faith Promise Sundays." Often special speakers were brought in and some pretty cool stories (always true) were told. One that keeps coming to mind is about a couple who, knowing faith promise was coming up, had discussed how much they could/would pledge. When Sunday came, due to various responsibilities, they were separated and both filled out pledge cards, thus promising twice the discussed amount. They went to the pastor, apologized, and explained their inability to donate that much. The pastor said he understood and would understand if it didn't work out but challenged them to let God work. They did and HE did. They were able to meet their pledge. Pret-ty cool.

Here in Germany they don't call it Faith Promise but they have similar missions-giving opportunities. Just a couple of months ago cards were distributed for pledges to be met by the end of this calendar year. After translation :) as well as some thought and prayer I felt like God was leading me to pledge 50 euro. At that point there was talk about me working with a little girl one day a week (for 2 hours) to expose her to and help her learn English. It wasn't set and I didn't know how much it would pay. I had a "back-up" plan knowing I could cash in some traveler's checks if necessary but aside from that I didn't know where the money would come from.

It was a Saturday night, just a little over a week before the end of the year, I wanted to get the money prepared to easily slip into the offering plate. After a little calculation I realized that, with the "baby-sitting" money I earned, after tithe I had 50 euro and 40 cents left. That was 40 cents more than I needed to pay my promise! Praise the Lord! God is so good. He provided more than enough.

It is exciting to be part of the unfolding story. My cup runneth over... :)