Back in 2016, while dining at a restaurant, we received the distressing news that the church was on fire.
We drove straight to the church property, were we helplessly watched fire consume our place of worship.
I was asked what we were going to do, and I replied. “We’re not going to rebuild a church building we’re going to rebuild the community. We will create a community center whereby we can bless our community.”
As the fire raged, I just kept looking up at the sky and noticed the stars. In a brief word of prayer, I said, “God I know You will be glorified, if we will trust you and we will trust you, just be with us.”
The next morning, all the Elders and Leadership Team gathered at my home for a meeting. Unbeknowst to us, a little five year-old boy and his grandmother was standing outside the church gate. The grandmother and the little boy were crying as the last firefighter was there. You could still smell the fire and you could see the smoke and embers still burning from the night before. They were tearful, and it wasn’t even their church. They may have never attended the church, but it was still their community. Community First was the church in their community and people started adopting us. How did we come to know this?
As Pastor David Winn was on his way to the meeting with our Elders, he stopped at the gate and met the grandmother and the little boy. The little boy had his hands clasped. In them, were seven coins. Seven. He opened his hands and gave the first offering of thirty-nine cents to Pastor Winn. He said, “This is to rebuild your church.”
Those seven coins – the original thirty nine cents – is in our lobby in the glass case.
As we were raising funds to rebuild the church, I asked the congregation to accept a $60,000 challenge and God provided these funds in various ways. Twenty dollars of it I will never forget.
It was the day after the rain and a church member by name of Angie was walking from her home to the store. As she walked, she prayed, “Lord, I want to give $20.00 in the offering toward the rebuilding of the church. But I don’t have $20.00. Would You provide $20.00? If You will make a way, I’ll give that $20.00 to the church to help rebuild.”
As she walked she noticed a mudd puddle that was probably no bigger than both of my hands together. But there in the water she noticed something and thought, “That looks like $20.00.” She looked closer and sticking out of the mud was half of a $20.00 bill. She bend over and carefully and lifted a full $20.00 bill out of the mud puddle – the amount she just prayed for. Half of it was muddy and half of it was clean – but you can tell it’s a $20.00 bill. I was informed she was going to put it in the offering on Sunday. So, I quickly got a hold of the right people and put a fresh new $20 bill in the offering to replace her $20.00. I then took and I took the bill and put it in plastic, adding it to the display case right beside the thirty-nine cents a little boy gave.
And by the way his thirty-nine cents turned into $2 million dollars.
These two stories serve as a reminder that not only is the name of the Lord is a strong tower, but God multiplies what we place in His hands. Whether it is two fish and fives loaves or thirty-nine cents and a $20.00 bill, God only asks us to give Him what we have and trust Him with the results. Jesus used fishes and loaves as a way to nurture people physically and spiritually. We are grateful to be doing the same in Homeland.