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Topic: Blessed (11/29/04)
TITLE: BLESSED YE POOR- LITERALLY By goa yong 12/02/04 |
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Kate came from a poor family background, and as far as i know she started working without completing her degree education due to her family financial situation. Shortly after joining our small group bible study, she decided that she should strive to complete her university degree. This she did. And to sustain her education expenses, she took on part-time jobs whenever they were available. Despite her burdens, Kate continued to serve faithfully in Church ministries, never harbouring any bitterness against anyone or against the Lord. Whenever one of us happened to ask about her financial situation, she would kindly reply: "no worry, the Lord knows He will provide".
Faithfully, Kate worked, studied and served through her first few semesters. Few weeks before last Christmas our small group decided to raise some funds to help Kate through her final year in the university, so that she could concentrate her studies without worrying about money. All sorts of ideas on how to raise funds were suggested. Some contributed generously from our savings, some sell small gift items, and one brother, who had never ran a marathon before, completed a 42km run to help raise funds for her. The Lord blessed our efforts and we raised more than what we set out to achieve.
Finally, Christmas came. All eyes were on Kate during the gift exchange. With a broad grin our small group leader walked up to her shaked her hand and presented her our gift of love. He explained how we have desired to help lighten her financial situation, and although it was not a big sum, it was enough to tie her through the final year in University. Suddenly, without a word, she broke down in tears. The room was silent no one knew what to say or do. It took quite a while before Kate got hold of herself. She sobbed saying: " I am so thankful. Thank you all, thank you. You know, i am only left with 40 bucks in my bank account, and i was praying like crazy for God to provide. The Lord is good! Thank you."
Thinking back that was the best Christmas celebration i ever had. Truly being poor could be a blessing in disguise. For it is when we have nothing much earthly to fall back on that we could really learnt to depend on God's mercy, boasting that the Almighty creator is my provider and protector. What a blessing!