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My husband I met while serving as urban missionaries in Detroit, Michigan. We had very little money to rent a house when we married as we only worked part-time. God provided the house with no money out of pocket. This great house needed work and my husband offered to make repairs in exchange for deposit and two months rent. This house was perfect for our needs. We had extra bedrooms to share with others, a large living room for small group bible study, a large kitchen and a large dinning room to cook, eat meals and fellowship with our new converts and others in the study group. We
had very little money, no furniture to speak of except the bedroom
furniture that we each brought from the apartments we had shared with
other believers. Church members gave us all the furniture we
needed and we were content.
One
day my husband said let's go on a scavenger hunt. We drove
through the upscale and wealthy neigborhoods of Detroit, stopping at
various house with junk on the curb. He got out and looked, I
simply would not. I had never done anything like this in my life
and was embarrased beyond belief. Finally, Ron looked at me and
said "if you get into this, you might be surprised at what God will
do." He then prayed and thanked God for his blessings in our life
and for me to have an open heart and a spirit of adventure. How
can you resist that.
"How
do I do this thing", I asked
"Think
of the one thing that we really need, keep it to yourself, pray and
wait."
We
drove around two or three corners and down an alley. I suddenly
heard God's voice - Stop!
"Stop,
Ron!" He did.
I
looked around and saw 3 big green garbage bags. Reluctanly I got
out of the car, walked over to the bags, opened one and inside were
freshly dry cleaned drapes. Beautiful and the color perfectly
matched the carpeting in our living room. My heart skipped a
beat, no several beats. "Lord, this just cannot be. Oh my,
will they fit that hugh window in the living room?
I
opened the other bags and all of them were filled with drapes and
curtains. I really got bold then. I said "Lord, we just
need curtain rods now." We went around a corner and there laying
on the curb was a box full of curtain rods including the draw string
kind we would need for the living room drapes.
When
we got home we put up the rod in the living room, holding our breath we
hung the drapes and they were an absolutely perfect, I mean perfect fit
and they were lined to keep out the cold that seeps through windows in
older houses.
You
see we had no drapes or curtains in the house, just could not afford to
buy them. All the windows were odd sizes and they would have to
be custom made. We had dfolded sheets on every window in the
house. In the winter sheets do not keep out the Michigan
cold.
Curtains
and drapes are such a small thing but . . .
Katherine Bowen (Submitted 02//7/2006) |
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