In 2016, while dining at a restaurant, we received the distressing news that the church was on fire.
Kim and I drove straight to the church property where 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 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 please 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 were standing outside the church gate. The grandmother and the little boy were crying as the last firefighter was there. You could smell the fire and you could still see the smoke and embers burning from the night before.
They were tearful, and it wasn’t even their 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 today.
Then, 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 on a day after the rain that our church member, Angie was walking from her home to the store. As she walked, she prayed, “Lord, I want to give $20.00 as offering for the rebuilding of the church. But I don’t have the money. Would You provide it? If You will make a way, I’ll give that $20.00 to the church to help rebuild.”
As she walked down the road she noticed a mudd puddle that was probably no bigger than both of my hands together. Approaching the puddle, she noticed something and thought, “That looks like a $20.00.” She looked closer and, sure enough, sticking out of the mud was half of a $20.00 bill. Angie reached down and carefully 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 could tell it was a $20.00 bill.
I was informed she was going to put it in the offering on Sunday. So, I quickly got ahold of the right people and put a fresh new $20 bill in the offering to replace her $20.00. I then took the bill Angie gave and put it in a plastic bag. It was placed in the display case right beside the thirty-nine cents the 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, as He nurtured them spiritually. We are grateful to be following in His footsteps here in Homeland.
– Pastor Mike Gratzke