Mike sensed hunting and killing animals was wrong. "I decided to sell all my guns and become a vegetarian." This decision set in motion a series of faith-building events in his life.
I had left the church 22 years before but now felt the Holy Spirit speaking to my heart. An hour away from landing in Chicago, I decided to come back to God and surrender my life to Him.
As I re-started my Christian walk, I sensed hunting and killing animals was wrong. I decided to sell all my guns and become a vegetarian. I sold all the guns sold the first week, except one. Which takes me to God’s providence in my life and how it can affect people I never knew.
Scott’s job with the army took him to a town by an army base in Hungary. The town had an Adventist church and my son got to know the pastor. There were four widows with children in that church who needed help.
It was in May, a month after my last gun did not sell, that I decided to give it to God to help the widows and children that Scott told me about. In early June, there was a knock at my door. It was a friend and the first thing he asked me was, “Have you sold that gun yet?” Before this visit he had looked at the gun and decided he did not want it.
“I did not sell it,” I replied.
“How much you want for it?” he asked.
“Two hundred” I said, to which he countered, “How about $175?”
“I would have taken that for it before,” I told him, “but I’ve dedicated the gun for the needy widows and children in Hungary.”
He didn’t argue and paid me the $200, plus added another $100 for the widows, for a total of $300.
Scott was living near Frankfurt, Germany, and I contacted him right away to let him know I had $300 for the widows and children he met in the Adventist church in Hungary. The challenge would be getting the money to Hungary since he only went there when the army’s equipment broke down or needed service.
From June, and every month after, I asked him about getting the money to the widows and children; his answer was that he was still looking into it. When December came, I told him I wanted to get the money to the widows before Christmas. He told me to send the money to him by check and added that he and his wife were going to double the amount, for a total of $600. He said that he did not know when his job would take him to Hungary again but when he returned, he would get the money to the pastor. I left it up to God to get the money to the widows by Christmas.
On Dec. 20, Scott’s boss called him into his office and said that he wanted him to leave for Hungary the upcoming Sunday, Dec. 22. When my son called me with the news, I praised God! On his arrival in Hungary, he settled into his hotel and then headed to the Adventist church. The pastor was not there. Scott happened to have his number and called to let him know he had $288,140 forints, the equivalent of U.S. $600, for the church’s widows and children. What the pastor said next proved God’s timing is perfect.
The pastor asked, “Do you know where I am right now?” He continued, “I am at one of my widow’s homes and we were on our knees having prayer asking God to help her and her children.” If you know nothing about Hungarian winters, they are about the same as in Michigan. All this widow had were shoes made of plastic which did not keep her feet warm.
Earlier that morning, before the pastor showed up, two colporteurs selling books had knocked on her door and she told them she was an Adventist. They had prayer for her and her children. She had a pot of soup on the stove that she had just made and shared it with them.
“I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” (Psalm 27:25, KJV)
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8, KJV)
Friends, don’t stop trusting God. He is faithful!
Mike Lambert is a member of the Manistee church in Michigan. He and his wife, Dotti, are the Personal Ministries leaders and have presented healthy weight loss seminars for 26 years.
