In February this year I came dangerously close to losing my
home. It seemed despite my best planning I had fallen behind on my mortgage payments
by five months. Of course there was the matter of me losing my job three years prior,
coupled with my being hit by a tow truck in 2012 which rendered it impossible
for me to seek and/or gain employment. With no income and my savings depleted,
things quickly went south. I had literally run out of money. Looking at my
situation I had no options opened to me, or so I thought. With no idea as to
how I would be able to work this out, short of winning the lottery, I turned to
my faith as I usually did, but this time I was desperate. Nothing brings you to
your knees quicker than the thought of being homeless. Where would I go? I
could not move in with my daughter. Her resources were already stretched beyond
belief and space was limited on account of her seven children. Moving back to
the island was also not an option either as I sold that house a few years ago
to help sustain my living expenses. Honestly, it looked grim.
While I had told myself that I had given my situation over
to God and not to worry, there were still days that the thought of losing my
home was so overwhelming I could not get out the bed, but God. He uses who He
will to propel you into action. I remember it like it was just yesterday. It
was Thursday February 20th. I was in bed fast asleep when something
unexpectedly happened – my cell phone rang. Yeah, I don’t get a lot of calls
especially at 7:30 in the morning. I must have forgotten to set my DND (do not
disturb) the night before. By the time I reached over to answer it, the person
was transferred to voicemail. “Oh well”
I thought. “Guess they can just leave a
message.” I quickly abandoned the act of reaching for the phone and went
back to sleep. When I checked my message
later that morning I discovered the identity of my early morning caller. It was
Ms. Hillary. She said she was just checking on me. Said she woke up with me in
her spirits and wanted to know if I was ok. I’m familiar with that feeling as
it’s happened to me several times where God places someone in my spirit. To
truly understand the magnitude of this call you first need to know that while
Ms. Hillary is a friend whom I met through a mutual friend, we are not close.
Meaning we aren’t bosom buddies. We don’t chit chat on the phone on a regular
and we are definitely not involved in each other’s lives. Our interactions are
limited to the occasional run it at a friend’s function or party. She is an
awesome woman of God with whom I share the love for God and we have good
conversation when they occurred, but not to the point where she would know I
was in distress. The fact that she was
calling me to check on me was curious in and of itself but I know now that it
was God’s intervention.
Upon returning the call I shared with her some of my hardships
with finding employment and my health challenges, but stopped short of telling
her about my mortgage situation. After all, I am a private person. She did not
need to know that part. The thing about
God is, he already knows what you need before you needed it. He does not need
to reveal to people in His service the intricate details of your situation to
get them to move on His behalf. All they need to know is that God dropped you
in their spirit and they just need to be obedient to make contact and fill the
void as needed. Side bar: Too
many times people feel that they have to share all the details about their
situation when they are requesting prayer. Newsflash, God already knows the
details. Nobody else needs to know. All they need to do is lift your name up in
prayer and ask God to meet you at your need, whatever it is. Most times people
just want to know the details of your situation to satisfy their own curiosity,
but it is not required because God already knows what you need and that is all
that counts. He just needs a few faithful people to join their faith with yours
to move Him to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. Period! 
Ok, back to our regularly scheduled program – lol. She went
on to say that she had no idea I was going through as I am always cheerful and
looked like all was well when she saw me.
So at the end of the call she proceeded to pray for me. She then offered
to send me a few dollars through Venmo to help. I was reluctant to accept but
did so anyway. True to her word within minutes of downloading the app on my
phone I got a notification that she had sent me some money. It was not a lot
but it was enough to bring tears to my eyes. It was touching to me because I’m
usually the one on the giving end of generosity. What a feeling to be on the
receiving end of unsolicited kindness. By the end of the day a thank you card
was in the mail to her. As I sat on the edge of my bed reliving what had
transpired I remembered a heart to heart conversation I had with God the night
before. I told Him I knew He had a plan and to please reveal it to me. Then I
was hit with a very unorthodox thought – why not ask my friends and family for
help? Seemed simple enough right? Not so. The thing you need to understand about
me is that, and my friends and family members will attest to this, I am
incredibly self-sufficient. Well as self sufficient as anyone can be who trust in
God for their strength and ability to gain wealth. People who know me will tell
you that if I ever ask for help, it is because I cannot do it for myself and
have run out of options and asking for money, oh that almost never happens. Up
until then, the times I have asked for help was few and far in between if not
less. Needless to say I struggled with that idea for the rest of the day, but
when I thought of the prospect of losing my home of 17 years because I let my
pride prevent me from asking for help, I gave in to the idea. That and the realization that Ms. Hillary's call was orchestrated by God.
I spent the rest of the day and night working out the
details of the “ask.” The approach was very important. Do I ask for a loan or
do I just ask them to sow a seed into my life? The amount I needed was a big
factor in the “ask” decision as it was nothing to sneeze at. I already knew I
would not be able to pay back that amount anytime soon and the last thing I
wanted to do was owe folks. Shoot, I don’t even like it when people owed me
money. It’s the fasted surest way to kill a friendship. My mom used to say she don’t lend what she
can’t afford to lose. Meaning, she already made up her mind that the amount she
gave would not affect her financial ability to take care of her needs if she
does not get the money back. Knowing I had no way of knowing for sure when I
would have some sort of steady income, it was an easy decision to make. I
would just share the amount I needed and ask people to give what they can
towards it. This way there is no set amount and people won’t feel locked in to
an amount. I wanted it to be feasible for people to understand that any amount
was acceptable. So the next morning I
had a clear idea of what I was going to say. I composed the following and sent
to to my friends and family via text or email. Then I waited.
What happened next is still unbelievable to me. The
responses I got were awesome. Within minutes my cell phone was inundated with
text messages and phone calls. People were genuinely concerned about my situation.
One friend took issue with me to the point he asked why I waited for it to get
so bad. He reminded me that he was my friend for more than 25 years and I
should feel comfortable by now asking him for help. He pointed out that we had spoken
often and I never let on I was in need. He told me it was time for me to stop
trying to do it alone. I received $150 from him within minutes of that
conversation ending, but not before he offered me a loan. He said that the $150
was all he had to give but if I wanted a loan that could be arranged. Of course
I shared my hesitation to accept his offer citing my uncertainty on when I
would be able to repay the debt and gracefully declined.
Overall, the responses I got were mixed. There were those
who wanted more information about my situation before committing to sending me
anything. I happily shared. Then there were those who responded simply that
they could not help and yet others who did not respond at all. Truth is the “no’s” and "non-responses" taunted
me for a bit but as time went by I resolved those feelings, especially after I
spoke to one friend whom I thought for sure would have come to my rescue but
she never even acknowledge my request. Being the “no nonsense” "straight shooter" kind of
woman that I am, I called her up to see if she had received my email. She told
me yes, she did get the email but she thought it was a hoax. She further shared with me that there
were just too many stories going around about people’s email accounts that were
hacked and then people in their contact receiving messages from the hackers
posing as their friend and requesting money. She also said the request was made
even more unbelievable because it was from me. I was reminded that during our
more than 30 years of friendship; I had only asked her for a loan once and that
was over 20 years ago. To her, it just did not seem plausible that I would chose to
send an email to ask for money after all these years.
That bit of information was very enlightening to me. It brought to light
a
scenario that up until that point I had not considered. So I quickly made peace
in my mind with those I had placed on my “questionable” list. This information
prompted me to make a few calls to some of the non-responders, however I still
received a “no” to my request. No worries. I was not discouraged.
In the end, I got exactly what I needed to save my home.
Some people sent me $10, $20, or $50 while others sent me hundreds. One person sent me $1,631.76. I thought it was a very odd amount. So when I called to thank them for their gift, (gratitude card also followed to them and the other 16
of my benefactors) I asked why that amount. They said they had just collected on a
debt and just passed it on to me. The point I’m trying to share
here is that it’s not so much about how much each person gave me, but more
about the fact that they gave something. The lessons I took away from this
situation were many including that I needed to work on my "pride" fault. But the single most important lesson I got was this. When people are in need, they won’t turn down any help, no matter
how small. Those who chose not to help may very well have their reasons for not
doing so and that’s ok. Just as important are those who chose not to respond at
all. Whatever their reasons are for not responding I have released them. Fact
is, God used who He needed to use to bring about the results I needed. I sent
out over 30 requests, only 17 people rose to the call. I just realized that the
number of people who sent me money is the same as the number of years I’ve
lived in my home and the date of my birth – 17, which when simplified is the
number 8 – new beginnings. How fitting is that – wow.
Bottom-line is I am forever grateful to those who gave but
more so to those who did not. Their actions showed me that they were just as
much a factor in this equation as those who did give. Maybe it was not for them
to give to me at that time, or maybe they were disobedient and missed the
opportunity for God to bless them for their obedience. I guess I will never really know for sure,
but what I do know is that there are 17 people out there who are forever in my
prayers and for which they will reap the benefits of their obedience for sowing
into my life. IJS – I got Issues, what about you?)i(
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