God provides in mysterious ways

Even though I've been a Christian for 24 years, I never cease to be amazed how God continues to provide for my needs - especially the unexpected ways that God chooses to do so.

Although we don't earn particularly much while we are at the seminary, one of the recent upsides was that we were paid early in December, which was welcome seeing as it was Christmas.  Trouble is, I spent my entire stipend on petrol for my "Tour de SA" these holidays, compunded by the fact that there is now a six-week gap between December and January pay-days.

The upshot is that right now I am so broke, I cannot even pay attention.  And while we are not starving (thanks to the ol' credit card), we have had to make some drastic cutbacks to get through the month.  Like, for instance, only filling up Belinda's Camry and leaving my bakkie in the garage.

Imagine, then, my consternation when I received a midnight phone call a couple of days ago, to be told that one of my colleagues had broken down about 60km away from the seminary.  While there was never a question of me leaving him and his family stranded out there, the resultant usage of half a tank of fuel caused a degree of anxiety.

Thanks, then, to Ross and the seminary, who felt that since my fuel usage was "in the line of duty", in a sense, they made the generous offer to reimburse me for the fuel used.

I was however wondering why the trusty Camry, which was ticking over as regular as a metronome during our trip, had suddenly developed such a gargantuan thirst for 95 unleaded, but the answer came the next day as Belinda backed a farting Camry out of her garage.  Part of the exhaust had a massive hole in it - equalled only by the massive hole in my budget.

Tail between my legs, I trundled off to Hi-Q yesterday, to be told two lots of bad news - firstly, that the exhaust would cost me around R500 to fix, and secondly, that the part was not in stock - which meant that Belinda will have to live with her flatulent dipsomaniac vehicle until next week.

While all this was going on, I received an e-mail stating that my cellphone contract was up for renewal, so I decided to trundle off to Nashua Mobile to see what they could offer me for the next two years.  The renewal period has come just in time, too, seeing as my current phone doesn't swim too well (having fallen into the bath twice since I got it two years ago) and its thirst for battery power is beginning to rival the Camry's thirst for fuel.

Not being too much of a gadget freak, I was looking for a fairly basic phone, but deep down I felt that it would be nice to get something a bit more sophisticated than I've been making do with for the last six years.  Much to my surprise (and delight), Nashua offered me not only a Nokia C3 (which admittedly is not as fancy as the Blackberry, but will certainly do everything I want it to), but threw in a R2,250 gift card as well!

So how does this relate to God's provision?  Well, I cannot quote chapter and verse as it relates to this particular situation, but it just seems uncanny how every time I am faced with a situation where it seems that there is no way out, God somehow steps in and makes a way.  In this case I not only have the funds to fix the Camry's exhaust, but in fact will be able to give it a service (that is 3,000km overdue) as well!

God is SO good!