I had, how can I put it, a colourful childhood. Perhaps you also know all too well that feeling when the headmaster 'invites' you into his office. So naturally when a manager 'wants a word' and invites you to sit down you wonder what's going on. 

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This was back in the days when the factory manager was a gentleman by the name of Anthony Antel but first let me give you some of the prelude to this meeting and then I will invite you to be a 'fly on the wall' so to speak.

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One of my more recent mission trip plans was causing me some stress. I had decided to do something much bigger than before. Basically I plan for a few weeks on a very low budget in Kenya but this time I wanted to go to a few locations which would include a week in Juba, South Sudan. My initial budget hit £3,000 which was totally out of my league so to speak and much more than I had ever planned before. I didn't have any savings and I had about 8 or 9 months to pull it off.

 

Things were not going so well at church. I have a big passion for mission work and people are largely supportive but things had changed. Unknown to me at the time there were major financial obstacles for the church and the leaders were going to have to replan a lot of what they were doing. They were very concerned.

 

I had recently put in a formal proposal for developing a mission ministry which included asking for financial support. I got a very muted response. I didn't know why at the time.

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I had to stop worrying and stressing about it. I put the blank sheet of paper into the front of the hopper folder and laid in on the hopper, using it as an impromptu table. I stopped for a minute and listened. A name came into my head. It was an elderly widow in the church. I had no idea what she could do. We are talking about three grand here but I said I would trust God and listen and so I wrote her name down. Then another name came into my mind. Another unlikely candidate but I wrote it down anyway. I ended up with a list of five things and still no idea of how it was all going to work out but at least I wasn't stressed anymore. I kept the list strictly to myself for the time being.

 

The following Sunday evening I was on the way to church when I got a phone call. It was the elderly lady whose name was at the top of my list. She said "I have been praying for you and God told me to stand with you and help you" Totally out of the blue. Just like that. She then proceeded to donate the cost of the air ticket and then she told me she had years of experience in fundraising. She had done this many times. She would help me.

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The same evening the assistant pastor had asked to meet me before the service to talk about my proposal. He told me that at the present time there was no way they could assist financially {There were issues which he couldn't discuss with me at the time but had to wait for the next official church meeting when the whole congregation could be informed at the same time. He did say he would help me in any other way he could and to be fair to him he was true to his word.

 

So, the phone call was an emphatic answer to prayer and a huge confirmation that God was at the centre of all of this. Bit by bit the money came in Other items on the list proved to be pertinent and accurate. Nevertheless it was proving difficult. After the initial high of getting help and having the air ticket paid for things were going far too slowly. I had reached the six weeks to go mark and was only half way. I still had £1,500 to find. I was worried again. It is here that we come to the meeting with the factory manager.

 

I had made some decisions. Firstly I was not going to keep putting my own money into mission work but to try to rely on donations. I sat down one afternoon just six weeks from the departure date and decided to reverse that decision. I put back every bill as far as I legitimately could and found that by the end of the mission I would have a surplus of £300. {Goodness knows how I was going to pay all that was waiting for me when I returned to the u.k. I figured i'd worry about that when I got back. Maybe God will help me.} I also recalculated my budget to try and find ways to save money and managed to find around £300 at a stretch. This was better but it still left a gap of £900 and six weeks to find it. I had done everything I knew to do and now I said to  God you need to help me because if you don't help me now this is not going to work. The next three weeks were amazing.

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Anyway, we sat down in the meeting room next to some of the offices. Anthony then proceeded to tell me that they had been having a review and then he hit me with the news. "The thing is", he explained, "We are really pleased with you and we value the work you do. I wouldn't want to have anyone else doing that job." You've got to understand this came as a bit of a surprise. I've become very used to managers only ever speaking to people when they are unhappy about something. It really was a pleasant surprise but that was not all.  He then told me he was going to increase my wage.  Increase my wage? Wow. That was totally out of the blue. I could barely believe what I was hearing. I was really happy. Appreciation was in short supply in the workplace and this made my day. No, it made my week and month. It wasn't just the money. It was the fact that after all the politics of the workplace and silliness that goes on, after all the frustrations and feeling like I was banging my head against a brick wall somebody had actually recognised my efforts. I felt awesome.

 

I had taken £300 out of my own money to make this years mission work. Out of interest I calculated how much the pay rise would be worth in net terms over 12 months basic pay. I took off the total amount not only the tax but also the contributions I was committed to making to the local church. For me that is my real net remainder. How much do you think that 'net remainder' was? It was £300. I was feeling awesome. My confidence level was  way up. The next three weeks saw little miracles every day until the final total was reached.

 

Every now and again I look back upon that year and that meeting. This former sceptical atheist no longer has enough faith to believe we are just here on our own. God doesn't give us whatever we want or ask but when we make his plans our priority we begin to see things we never otherwise would see. Some people think you have to go to church to see miracles. I know otherwise.

 

The mission itself was an astounding success. So many wonderful experiences and people reached and helped. Ten years ago I'm not sure I would have been able to see myself doing what I do now. It's actually this mission experience that was a major part in my getting a new job and moving to London. I don't have a degree or university education but I do have experience.

 

Oh and a couple more things. I could withdraw money in Africa but for some reason I could not access the account balance. Things were changing on an almost daily basis and new expenses were cropping up. It was all getting very complicated and I was withdrawing money hoping I would have enough in my account to finish the mission. How about that for stress? When I got back to the U.K several weeks later I checked my account and I had less than a pound left. Less than a pound! Out of a £2,700 budget. Somebody was looking down on me.

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He must have pulled out £90 he had on him. The man then started to take out the change and said, do you want this as well? I said no, that's ok. You've done more than enough. I was amazed. My bills were paid and I was in the clear financially. I will never forget it. I've never seen anything quite like it before or since.