Hallelujah

For well over six months we prayed and planned on making a significant dent in the debt on our building as a congregation. Much has been paid down over the years but we still lacked $101,000. The church is made up of mostly senior adults on fixed incomes. We rarely top fifty people in attendance. Still we set aside December 30th as a day to take up a special offering to pay down the debt.

28 days ago we began a church wide fast and intense prayer emphasis. The concept included a 28 day challenge to fast, pray about what we would give, to ask God for miracles personally and to pay down the debt. So began the 28 days to trust and obey. If you frequent this site often you are familiar with all this as I posted devotions for those 28 days.

So began our prayers. We also set aside December 30th to give testimonies of what God did during the past month. After a fellowship lunch we reconvened for the purpose of hearing what God had done. Many got up sharing testimonies. Some very shy. Others more bold. Even a brand new convert who got baptized earlier in the morning got up to testify. Joy filled the room.

The day ended with the announcement of the grand total of the offering. One of the leaders got up before the small crowd. He tried to speak but his words were broken and tears formed. After struggling to regain his composure he spoke again. I sat on the edge of my seat. I thought of the all the hours of prayer, all the sacrifice offered from the small band of devoutly faithful people. When I heard him say, "We took in today fourteen thousand....," I could not contain myself. I shouted, "HALLELUJAH!" and started clapping before he finished. Others did the same. I never did hear the full amount of the offering. We celebrated what God did.

Think about it. For a congregation of less than 50 people, more like less than 40 people most weeks, most on fixed incomes, and the Sunday following Christmas Day to come up with that much money is nothing short of a miracle in my book. Of course I wanted to do more personally. Brenda and I both prayed diligently that we would get blessed so much financially that together we would be able to giver $20,000 ourselves. That did not happen. At least not yet. We gave what we could. Others did the same.

Some of our offerings may have looked like the loaves and fish the little boy offered to Jesus to feed the thousands. God took our gifts and multiplied them. With that single offering we were able to move the debt from $101,000 to $86,000. We also have another $16,000 in a special account set aside to make the building payments. Factor that in and we really only owe less than $70,000. A mountain many believe God to totally remove in 2019. Nothing short of miracle.

All glory to Jehovah. All glory to Jesus. Hallelujah!I rejoiced when I saw the chart we have colored in taking the debt down to $86,000. I conclude with something I read that missionary William Carey said, "Attempt great things from God. Expect great things from God."