A Birthday Wish ~ A Birthday Party

You’re invited to join in the celebration!

Many letters requesting mission support of various kinds to different places regularly make their way to our mailbox. Last month one plea stood out among the rest ~ a hand-delivered note from my ten-year-old friend.

Cynthia stood looking up at me with great excitement and anticipation as she handed over her birthday wish to give up everything on behalf of the orphans in Romania. She had been touched by their want and was willing to find a way to meet the need.

I tucked the paper in my Bible and waited to bring it home to share it with my children thinking this would be one more opportunity to find a way to help a friend. We were all touched by the simplicity of the desire combined with the greatness of sacrifice . . . a young child giving up toys, a party, self! Over the next few days, I realized that we had been invited to share in a sacred celebration ~ grace giving.

As the Lord times everything perfectly, the receipt of this letter came just before I began to study the lesson for Sunday on giving from 2 Corinthians 8. Paul reminds us that giving is a grace! It’s not something we do, but something He does through us! He goes on to encourage that giving abounds during times of affliction and poverty. Wow….this truth stands in opposition to much of our own thinking on this subject . . . Can we give even when in need ourselves? Can we really give in the midst of our own suffering and trials? The answer: YES, and not only yes – but yes, with liberality! That’s what makes it Grace Giving! It is not of us, but of God!

“Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints, and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. . . at this present time your abundance being a supply for their need, so that their abundance also may become a supply for your need, that there may be equality; as it is written,

"HE WHO gathered MUCH DID NOT HAVE TOO MUCH,

AND HE WHO gathered LITTLE HAD NO LACK."  2 Corinthians 8

The opportunity to experience grace giving was further extended to the Daybreak Widow’s class at FBCW! “Let’s throw a surprise party for Cynthia and watch GOD grant her the desire in her heart.”

Cynthia came to our class Sunday morning prepared to share her wish with the ladies there. However, little did she know that her request had been made known in advance to everyone in attendance! Before Cynthia arrived, wrapped birthday presents containing sacrificial offerings were hidden away waiting for the moment to share them with her. We came prepared to participate!

SURPRISE CYNTHIA!

God was good. Cynthia left that day with birthday money totaling over $600!

Today, September 1st, is Cynthia’s actual birthday. While $600 is a gracious plenty for a 10-year-old birthday surprise, it still remains small compared to the needs in Romania.

If you would like to participate in the grace of giving,

please message me separately and I will be happy to give more information.

Maybe God will surprise you as He did us! The morning before the day of celebration, I asked the Lord how much He would have me to give for this request. Obediently, I pulled the money out. Later that day an anonymous gift arrived in the mail – CASH! I felt that this was God’s provision to give liberally to the need. The cash surprise was given along with our sacrificial gift. God had given grace for giving! Again, later in the week, God sent the means for our own needs. You just cannot out give our God ~ test Him and see!

Who knows - maybe the Lord will lead US to give up our birthdays.  Wouldn't it be exciting if God provided the opportunity for the entire Apon family to go to Romania to encourage the fatherless?!