United States of America
The most extraordinary happening!
I am stunned into silence, needing quietude with you Lord, to package this and see it’s greatness.
It seemed a gazillion years ago that my heart had quietly yearned for an emerald – it sounds like my name. I looked at pictures of them, and would scan jeweler windows when passing by. I even bought some fake green stone earrings, which didn’t cut it! Secretly, my heart envisions an emerald with tiny diamonds around it.
This is one of those hidden desires of my heart that I don’t deem important. I won’t pursue and spend the money purchasing this. I even giggle as sometimes, I see myself walking down the street one day and there lies an emerald.
These past few months, there has been a shift in my being. In obedience, committing all to you. I believe you will provide income personally and for the ministry. God is teaching me how to let every thought of worry, fear, stress, personally, and for the ministry go!
I started choosing to say and believe that you will provide, that you are providing. So I asked for daily discipline and next steps and then…. of course, challenges at Abode, our ministry place, which had a need of cooling in the back section. And just like that the system and install were provided!
Next thing… the Lord asked me to give up lollygagging for one week, no brain games at night, give Him all my time! No watching shows!
In this very week, His extravagance shows up unexpectedly. Just when my heart felt as if a knife went through it. I received a stinging email that left me feeling of no worth to that person. I had to give this to Jesus and fight not to let this take root in my heart.
A little later in the day, a couple called, wanted to come over, and they had a gift for me. This has not happened before! They handed me a small gift bag with a box that held another box. Inside was a necklace with an emerald and little diamonds around it! No words.
God sent His people that day, what timing! How extravagant! When we serve God, He always gives in return!
No giving comes back when we lay aside our wants and desires. You see us,you hear us, more than we know!
Emgem
Jamaica
Last year, in 2022, the organization I founded had a significant goal to build a playground at a school in a rural town in Jamaica. We needed $25,000 to cover the cost of the playground supplies and other costs. A month from the trip, we still had about $15,000 to raise for the trip. I’ll be honest, I started to panic. I became angry, fussy, short-tempered, and overall negative. I was so fed up with people. Why wasn’t anybody supporting this important project? I had a pity party to top all pity parties. I knew that God always came through for me, but raising $15,000 in 30 days seemed impossible for even God.
Self-doubt tried settled in. I wasn’t even sure anymore if I believed this was what God wanted me to do. I thought I was out of His will because the money wasn’t showing up. After much anxiety and headaches, I decided to shut down the voices whispering despair to me. I started to pray. I repented for my unbelief and reminded God what He told me many years ago when He called me to do work in Jamaica. His promise was that everything I and everyone I needed to be successful in the work He called me to do was already provided in my network.
God isn’t a man to lie. His word will not come back void. During this time, I also lost my passport. The adversity was coming in hot and heavy. By the time I left for Jamaica, God provided every cent we needed with some leftover! God proved to me once again that He is the Jehovah Jireh.
Rachel Dolcine
United States of America
I lived in Savannah, GA, 40 years ago, and loved it. My daughter was born there at 24 weeks old, and we lost her twin brother. She is a miracle and shouldn’t have survived (she was 1 lbs. 7 oz. at birth). She is a miracle in and of herself.
We’ve always wanted to come back, but my husband and I have both been self-employed, and it’s never easy to restart a business in a new place. Even though I’m from the north east, it’s frankly never felt like home. Over the last few years, with the changing political climate and a loss of moral compass, it felt less and less like home. Well, on a trip to the Outer Banks in May 2020, I suddenly realized that we probably had the chance if I acted fast to make a move back to Savannah. As a result of Covid a lot of my work had become remote. It was now legal for me to treat my patients on Zoom from anywhere. We put our house on the market that summer and, after a few twists and turns, sold it for quite a bit more than we paid. We knew that if we waited at all to take action, market conditions might change for the worst and they did. This was God speaking to us I know.
We came to Savannah to buy here and homes were selling right out from under us. We weren’t really considering Rincon at all as we wanted it to be somewhere in Savannah proper but anytime we made an offer on something it sold out from under us.
My husband and I were having dinner at a downtown restaurant. A text came in from our broker with a photo of a house in Rincon. We looked at it and immediately knew it was home even before seeing it. Our offer was immediately accepted. The move itself presented many challenges. But we are exactly where God wanted us to be. We love the neighborhood and the wonderful folks. We met and our next-door neighbors introduced us to Compassion. We love it and feel so blessed most importantly, my husband due to his unfortunate exposure to church as a child hadn’t been to church in about 50 years. Now he’s is the first one out the door for church and we both love it. We know it’s all God’s hand.
United States of America
Almost 3 weeks ago I had returned from my future sister-in-law‘s bachelorette party. It was Labor Day 2023 to be specific. Exhausted from the travels and fun of a long weekend. I crawled into my cozy bed nestled back in my farm apartment in Harwood, MD (sidenote: I rented a families basement apartment on their farm! It’s dreamy with horses and magical views of the evening stars!)
My friend sent me a voice message, and I listened to it before closing my eyes. It was a voice message of her praying over me. She was praying over my future husband and I uniting, and before she finished the prayer, she asked God to surprise me. I’m still waiting on my husband, but the Lord had a more sudden surprise up his sleeve. The next morning, I started work and received a voice message (a common theme in my life) from a life mentor of mine. She told me she felt led to offer me the last scholarship spot at her writers conference in St. Louis ($600 value). The conference itself was covered; however flight and room/board were not. Considering the conference was about 2 1/2 weeks out, all seemed very unrealistic. After all, I’ve been deliberately working the past few months to stick to a strict budget and get out of debt.
I was thrilled and honored to receive the offer, but I also knew money didn’t fall out of the sky. So I did all I could do and left the rest up to the man upstairs. This consisted of prayer, fasting, and asking others to pray. About a week later, I told my mentor it wasn’t going to work. Two hours after I told her no, God told me no to my no. One of my friends, whom I had asked to pray with me, reached out and said she was willing and able to give me $600. I almost fell over. She was funding over 80% of my projected expenses for the trip. I knew that was my cue to go. I moved some things around in my budget to cover the rest of the trip, and here I sit writing the story at the writers conference in St. Louis.
Isaiah 6:8 “Here I am Lord send me”
Kristen Wiblishouser
Uncategorized, United States of America
Since my early 20s, I have always wanted to have a child. Doctors told me that I would never be able to conceive because I had a tumor. Years went by, and I never thought again about having children until that one day when I felt deep in my heart that I had conceived. I was 34 years old when I became pregnant with my firstborn (one and only) son. My miracle son is called Emmanuel because God was with me. Today, he is a 27-year-old man whom I am proud of and love very much. Miracles happen!
K.L.
