Five Cents on the Floor

We’re so blessed to be able to serve the churches and leaders here in Thailand. As we connect for prayer and encouragement with individual leaders, we’re praising God for what he’s doing! Last week, I was talking with Caleb, a young intern. Together with his leaders, he’s planted a new church in the last month. He shared this story with me:

“Me and pastor Kyaw Lin took the bus from his church out to the location where I’m starting to serve. We had some money in our pocket for the return bus ticket back to use later that evening, but after teaching for a few hours and leading some people to Jesus, the group begged us not to leave. They wanted to know more about Jesus! So we took our bus money—around six dollars each—and fed the group supper, so that we could keep going till late at night.

“After sleeping in a small room there, we woke up the next morning and looked at each other. Pastor Kyaw Lin said wryly, ‘Well, we don’t have money to get home now, so God will have to provide.’

“Fishing through our pockets we came up with about twenty cents between the two of us. It was not nearly enough! Then I looked down and saw another five cents on the floor. ‘Look how the Lord provides!’ pastor Kyaw Lin declared. ‘The rest will come; let’s go catch our bus!’ 

On the way to the bus station, we stopped to check our bank accounts: both empty. Despite this, we went on to the bus station, and pastor Kyaw Lin walked up to the ticket counter confidently. I followed, wondering how God was going to provide. This time, when we opened our banking app again, there was exactly enough money to buy two bus tickets! We found out later that a lady from our church had gone door to door and collected loose change to deposit in our account, and it arrived exactly at the moment when we got to the bus ticket counter. This blew my mind.

God is taking care of me! I may not have money, or status, or much of anything in this world, but my God is taking care of me. My church loves me and is helping me to live faithfully for Jesus.”