I decided to take a little break from the community blogging series I was doing and share a few thoughts from my life.
It is hard to truly appreciate these kinds of stories and God moments unless you have either experienced them, or are completely depending on God to provide your needs. I respect those who God has blessed with a great paying job, stable family, savings, etc. However, those things don’t have to prohibit you from being completely reliant on Him.
I am not familiar with a lifestyle where I can only rely on my brains, might, or the people I know to get me well off financially. Even while growing up in Richmond my family never really had all of the bells and whistles. We made ends meet and we got by fine, but the luxuries that many families around us had, we did not. My family was rich though. We were rich in love, closeness, etc. I knew what love was growing up from my brothers and my parents. I never felt like I couldn’t talk to my parents about something, or share something that was weighing on my heart with my brothers. My folks never had the best jobs around. My mom graduated from a local community college and worked in the medical field until she had me, and my dad had a high school degree and sold life insurance to people all over the state of Virginia. We lived off his commission, which thanks be to God was always enough for us. We lived in suburbia, had two family vehicles, and went on vacation every summer. We were definitely middle class, but looking back on it, I know that our parents sacrificed a lot to give us kids a great childhood.
My father passed away when I was thirteen years old and for most families this would completely wreck their way of life financially. It definitely took a toll, but my mom never went back to work for years and we were able to live off of dads commission even after he had passed away. My family has always been founded on faith and trust in God. I couldn’t have asked for a better life example then my parents. My mom has recently gone back to work, and even though I think my mom needs that money to maintain the lifestyle she lives I also think that a part of it is because two of her boys are gone are and out of the house (the middle brother is getting ready to leave for Full Sail Art School soon so he hasn’t officially left yet, but he isn’t there much). Mom is a doer and if she isn’t busy with something then she feels like she is wasting time. I think getting a job helps mom take her mind off of the fact that her oldest is married and living in Lynchburg, her middle son is moving to Florida in January to pursue a degree from Full Sail, and the youngest is starting his junior year of high school and beginning to look at college, etc. The funny thing about all of this though is that even the jobs that mom has gotten have been completely God moments. My mom stands firm in acknowledging that her Savior, Master, Father, and friend is also her provider.
As many of you are aware [lcf] is completely support based. What this means is that families, couples, individuals, churches, businesses, etc have to financially support the church in order for us to function. Pastoring a college aged church is the best job in the world by far, but the downfall is that they are all broke. This has caused my faith to grow like never before. I have had to raise support for both the budget for the church but also my salary so that I can have electricity, a roof over my wife’s head, and food on our table. This concept has profoundly changed the way we view God and even the way we pray. Over every meal (many in tears) we thank God for the supporters that allowed us to have to food to eat and we pray that God would bless them for their generosity. Brooke and I are completely dependent on God to provide our every need.
I remember while Brooke and I were dating in an attempt to see if this was really the life she wanted I tried to scare her by talking about support. Brooke looked at me and with a smile on her face said, “God will take care of us.” Brooke will tell you now that even though that is a very true statement and God has taken care of us every step of the way, it is a hard path to walk.
I want to share with you a few brief stories from the past four weeks of our lives.
Three weeks ago, I received an email from a former missionary in the area that wanted to have lunch. He said lunch was on him so I gladly accepted. To paint an accurate picture of this I need to give you some background information. I was getting paid the following week, we had to take our dog Mollie to the vet twice ($150+) and we had budgeted that money for food to last us until next paycheck. All our bills were paid for that paycheck, but the problem was our fridge was empty and we had spent our budgeted money for food on Mollie. Now, going back to the lunch with the former missionary. He asked me where I wanted to eat at for lunch and so I suggested Waterstone Pizza (a local pizza place that Brooke and I love). He said, “That sounds great. See you there!” Because we had no food in the house I told Brooke that I would get her favorite pizza there (white pizza) and only eat half of it so that I can bring home the other half to her. While at lunch with this man he shared about his heart for missions, college students, and the church in the Middle East. After he finished sharing he asked a lot about [lcf]. I began to share with him our story and how our community came about. The check came and he covered it like he said he was going to, but as he went to pull out his card to pay he also reached into his wallet and pulled out a hundred dollar bill and handed it to me. My eyes began to water and he said that he just wanted to give this because he felt like it was what God wanted him to do. I called Brooke as we left to tell her I was on the way home. I didn’t want to tell her over the phone about what had happened. When I walked in the door I gave her a hug and a kiss and then she noticed my eyes looked liked I had been crying. She asked what happened and as I pulled out the one hundred dollar bill she began to cry as well. I told her the story about what happened and then we thanked God for being our provider and for this former missionary being exactly what we needed him to be.
West Lynchburg Baptist Church is one of our partners locally and our community loves them. They had asked me to come and preach the second Sunday of August and I gladly accepted. This is the same week as the the story above. The lunch with the former missionary was on a Monday and we had bought groceries and a few things we needed around the house. We had eaten almost all the food by Sunday because we had already planned for some friends to join us that week for dinner. After I finished teaching that Sunday a man walked up to me and shook my hand. As he began to thank me for coming and how the message really moved him I realized that in his hand was a twenty dollar bill. He told me that he knew it wasn’t much, but he just felt like God wanted him to give it to me. Thanks to that man Brooke and I were able to eat lunch and dinner that day. Luckily I got paid the following day.
About a week ago our washing machine broke. We had been given almost every appliance, and piece of furniture as a wedding gift. The washer and dryer were both around ten years old but had been great up until this point. We took it to a local appliance store and they told us that the inner tub was broken and the seal for it was cracked. Between parts and labor it would be around $120. To top it all off, I was behind on paying my school loan bill and I had to catch up on that or face the interest penalty. Brooke and I had enough money to get some groceries but not enough to get groceries, fix the washing machine, and get some basic things we need around the house. Food, comes first, so I went to the grocery store to get the essentials for the rest of the week. As I was checking out I heard a lady behind me say, “Reverend Watkins?” I don’t think that anybody has ever called me that before. I began to turn around and I noticed this elderly lady standing behind me in line. She had a huge smile on her face and she began to tell me how thankful she was for the ministry at Lynchburg College. She began to tell me about how she was a member of West Lynchburg Baptist Church and she was so blessed my message the other week. While this lady was talking to me the cashier was ringing up the food. The total amount came to $81 and some change. As I began to pull out my Wachovia Debit Card and hand it to the cashier I realized that the lady behind me had already handed her card to the cashier to pay for our groceries. I began to tell her that she didn’t have to do that and she looked me in the eyes and said, “Just say thank you.” I gave her a big hug and said exactly that…thank you.
Brooke and I are blessed to have a roof over our head, food on our table, and two working vehicles. God never seems to stop amazing us as He constantly shows up and provides for our needs. I believe in being generous, and I believe that God has called me as a Christ follower to be generous. Maybe throughout the years, months, and days, if I was more stingy with money then we wouldn’t end up in situations like this. Part of being obedient as a Christ follower is to being generous is trusting God. I truly believe that God is my provider and that all of this is His anyways. I am just called to be a good steward of the money, but in reality…it is all His in the first place.
- Philip Watkins
