I remember as a child there was an MC Hammer song in which
he sang, “you gotta pray just to make it today.” And he was right.
Those of you who have been following know that things have
been… tight, to say the least for Mark & me over the course of these last
few months. By the Grace of God and
monthly financial support from his father, some money from my mother and some
from his, we’ve managed to scrape up rent, car insurance, and enough petrol to
do the very basics. Oh, and we’ve
managed to make sure we’ve had enough food to keep us from starving. The cats eat better than we do.
But through it all we’ve been praying, ceaselessly, as was
commanded to us by God. It’s always easy
to pray when we need things, much harder, at times, to remember to pray when
things are going as they should. And, as
I’ve been saying, all it takes is a little bit of faith.
Last week Mark & I went to the church to get some prayer
and it was good. It’s always nice when
the pastor spends some time to get to know you, to pray for you and then invite
you to prayer that evening. We did and
we got even more prayer. We left
feeling… blessed. If you’ve ever had
anyone pray for you then you know how we felt.
But still… the bad news kept coming. Mark’s housing benefits were being
suspended. We had no money to pay the
rent next month. They needed certain
information from me to determine if Mark is still eligible for housing. No.
They think we (because of my student loans) make too much money to be
eligible. And they want every penny
they’ve given him over the course of the last 9 months back. We have a few months before they’re going to
start asking us to pay it back.
And then we get even more news that it might be the case
that his job seeker’s is going to disappear.
A few posts ago I detailed how much it’s going to cost us to have the
basics and we were getting about £200 less than what we needed to pay
everything we need for the month. His
father’s been giving us some money every month and that’s helped more than we could ever say.
But we’re still not sure where the money for the rent for
July is going to come from, we don’t now where the money for the insurance is
going to come from. So we prayed, and we
prayed and we kept our eyes on the Lord and we had faith. Even when it seemed as if God was not
listening, we kept our faith.
After all, He brought us thus this far, hasn’t He? And if we lost faith in God, then we’re
really in trouble. And I am amazed at
the level of faith displayed by Mark.
For someone who was never raised a Christian, his faith in the Lord is
awe inspiring. And that faith in the
Lord is not without cause.
A few days ago we get a call from Dad who tells us that he’s
sending Mark some money for the rent. We
began to cry. It’s going to cost him some,
but he and Mom are going to help us with the rent for July. Mark & I are determined, no matter what
they say, to pay them back. So we
thanked God for such a blessing.
And then his In Training advisor calls him to let him know
he’s set Mark up with an interview for a company that makes cleansers of
various sorts for various companies. And
we praised God for the possibility of such a job. It’s factory work and it might not be
inspiring but it’s work and it is a blessing.
And if this is where the Lord can do His work through Mark, then so be
it. We shall go where the Lord leads us.
And then the other day his Uncle calls and says that he and
his son want to help us out. They were
willing to come down on a Friday to give us the money. I cannot begin to describe the tears of
humility and joy that we then shed at such an offer. This is his uncle and his cousin who are
helping us out in this time of need. Who
does that? His family, that’s who. Mark & I are firm that we will pay back,
somehow, this generosity.
And so we thanked the Lord.
So now the Lord has provided us rent for a month and car
insurance for the next couple of months.
And all through the generosity of his family.
August is but a month away and though we hadn’t thought
about what we were going to do for rent, we are focusing on the here and
now. I have been fully confident that
the Lord has a plan for Mark and that plan includes some sort of an income.
This morning Mark’s phone rings. I hear him talking and instantly my heart clenches,
I grow tense. Over the last few months
anything coming through the post or anyone calling has been a reason for
concern. Instead, it’s his uncle. His aunt & uncle had been talking last
night and they have a house that belonged to her mother just sitting empty that
they are offering us the use of for as long as we might need it. Mark immediately told his uncle that we’d
take care of it, maintain it, do whatever fixing needing done. And we told him we’d come down on Friday to
take a look at it to see if we’d like it.
(I’m willing to take this sight unseen.
Talk about a god-send)
While at his interview thing today, Mark was told that he’s
been scheduled to work today, tomorrow and Friday at this cake factory place
where he worked a couple of shifts. He
has been trying to call to get more shifts but they’ve not returned any calls
for work. 4 shifts is a little over 30
hours a week. He only needs to work
about 30h/week to pay all our most basic bills.
So we are going to pray that they have work for him every single day.
And now we need to call back his uncle and let him know we
can’t come Friday and if he gets work Saturday then we’ll come on Sunday… right
after church.
God is good
All the time
All the time
God is good
