A Crazy (Awesome) God Story

By a Pioneer serving in South America

Reaching the unreached. Raising kids. And raising funds. All things God uses to lead us to lean on Him, and sometimes they’re connected.

A couple of weeks ago, my mom sends me a message that the garbage man didn’t come for two days in a row. Huh? She called them twice to come back to get the trash and they came but passed by my parents’ house, twice. She even waved at them while standing next to the giant, overflowing recycle bin. Super weird. But I was thinking, “Why is she telling me this?”

God Wakes My Mom and Gives Her a Job to Do

Then she tells me right before she went to bed on Sunday night, she was praying and felt she should look through the garbage. She ignored it and went to bed. But she woke around 2:45 am with the same feeling and couldn’t go back to sleep. She got up and had her customary devotional time. Again, an unmistakable sense came to her that she should look through the trash.

Finally, she relents and goes out to the garage and begins to dig through the giant recycle bin.

Wouldn’t you know it that $2000 check for our kids’ education fund, was in there? Ready to be taken by the garbage man in just a few hours?

The Lord stopped the garbage man from coming, twice! And He gave my mom a supernatural “tug” to dig through the trash just to preserve that check. Wow.

God Moves in the Heart of a Donor

What my mom didn’t know was that that check already was on a journey.

Look at this message I got two weeks before about how that $2000 check came to be written. It’s so good, so God!

“My wife and I were praying about how to best steward $1000 of kingdom money that we hadn’t yet allocated to kingdom work. I went into prayer wanting to give the money to a couple we support in Nepal. Funny enough, I felt strongly and specifically led in prayer to invest the money in your kids, and that we were supposed to make it $2000 instead of $1000. I haven’t experienced that kind of redirection many times in prayer before, so I thought I’d share it with you. God is the Lord, and He’ll take care of you and your kids.”

 “God is the Lord, and He’ll take care of you and your kids.”

So, God redirected funds once intended for Nepal, doubled it, sent it to my kids for their scholarship fund, saved the check from the garbage man twice, and woke my mom up at 2:45 a.m. to find it.

God Is at Work

Friends, we are living in a supernatural reality where God works. He does His thing; it doesn’t depend on us. Rather, we get to witness it and testify to it. There is no natural “circumstantial” explanation to this story.

Oh, and by the way, Mom later informed me that when she got the “magic” check in the mail, the envelope was open and could have been lost or fallen out between from California to Florida at any time. Just saying.

He Wants to Use You, Too

Things are going on around you in the spiritual that you can’t fathom in the natural. Be encouraged that He is at work and ask Him how He wants you to join Him in it. Listen to the Spirit as He tugs at your heart. You never know what part of the story He wants you to play.

Going Deeper

Bring to mind a time you felt God tug on your heart like He did for the author’s mom or the supporter who wrote the check. Or maybe God has provided for you in a surprising way. Pray and thank God for how you’ve seen Him at work. Give Him the glory.

Surrender yourself to God and ask that He have His way in your life, leading and providing for you through natural or supernatural means.

• Read more Stories of God at Work.
• Thinking about missions, but anxious about raising support? You’re not alone. In What About Raising Support? a Pioneer named Ethan shares how he’s come to appreciate the privilege.