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Philippians 4:6 GOD’S WORD Translation (GW)
6 Never worry about anything. But in every situation let God know
what you need in prayers and requests while giving thanks.
We had worked as missionaries in
Africa for 12 years. The Lord had richly blessed us. We had hundreds of
friends. Many of our students were already making their mark on the world. Now
the Lord had told us that He wanted us to return to the U.S.
Then we got a letter from the
mission board. It stated coldly that we had only worked in Africa for three
years. They had no responsibility to return us to the U.S. They had decided to
fly us to the nearest airport in the U.S. and drop us. It was up to us to make
our way from there. The same mission board had consistently garnished our wages
upwards of 50% for “the Lord’s work.”
We were stunned. We had spent all
our savings just surviving in Africa. This is a part of mission work that the
home churches never see. I requested that they do the very minimum and drop us
back in Detroit where we had originally left from. We prayed to the Lord
fervently. We literally didn’t have enough money left to get from Boston, where
they chose to drop us, to Detroit near family. We praised the Lord that He had
blessed us in spite of the tightfisted man who controlled our funds.
When we arrived in the States, at
my dad’s urging—he had been a missionary to Africa for 42 years—I wrote
headquarters and explained our plight. The treasurer there thundered back,
“They can’t do that to you!” He went on to say that he was the one who had
originally hired us to go to Africa 12 years earlier. Then for the next six
months we received check after check of bonuses that we were entitled to but
had no knowledge of. This amounted to thousands and thousands of dollars.
Since that time, the Lord has
abundantly blessed us, even beyond our dreams or expectations. We had never
wanted to be rich, and we still aren’t. But we are comfortable. Indeed, praise
the Lord!
We are grateful, Lord,
that You look after Your own so well. We rest our future in Your marvelous
nail-pierced hands!
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