Thu, Nov 20, 2008	<<<Previous  |
When I decided to surrender my life for full time Christian service, one of the things I knew was that I would never be a celebrity. Long ago, I became comfortable with the fact that celebrity status was not something I would aspire to or expect. When a person decides that his life belongs to the Father, he leaves in the Father’s hands what happens to him in life. God has been good to me. He has taken care of me. One of the things my wife and I decided years ago was that we were not going to worry about money. There have been times when we could have worried, but we simply trusted the Lord to provide. Sometimes, God provided in strange ways. In my first full time pastorate, I made fifty dollars a week plus five dollars a week for gas. However, the little country church we pastored had a parsonage which was quite adequate for our needs. In the front yard of that parsonage was a huge pear tree, and the first year we were there the pear tree was so laden with pears that its limbs were in danger of breaking. One morning I looked out the office window which was next door to the parsonage, and there was a whole passel of women in my front yard gathering pears from that tree. I thought that was strange but said nothing. My wife chatted with the women while they worked on that tree but never questioned why they were “stealing” our pears. A couple weeks later stuff began appearing on our doorstep. Pear relish, pear preserves, pear butter, jars of pear halves—everything you can think of that can be made from pears . . . enough of it to last us for years. (My favorite was the pear relish. Boy that was good stuff.) Not only that, but these dairy farmers brought us milk, cream, butter, cottage cheese (homemade), etc. Most of them had gardens so they were always bringing us tomatoes, cucumbers (and homemade pickles), and a myriad of other produce. Martha and I have often said we made less money at that little church but lived better than we have since. God always provided. He still does. Have a great day! Bro. Ken
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