saykha said the following:

My mother’s ministry has outreaches a couple of times a year in a very poor and needy area.  The ministry usually provides food for the people in this area, and they minister to them.  I help out with some of these outreaches.  Every December the 16th, the ministry focuses on the children – they provide them with gifts, food and some treats.  Due to poverty in the area, the gift we give them in December is the only Christmas gift they will get.  Last year the arrangements were a bit different, and amazing, and I just have to share it with you.

A couple of months ago an organization approached my mother, stating that they would like to help with the outreaches we have in this area.  They were willing to give every child a gift for Christmas.  Knowing that there were many children and that it would be quite costly, the organization told my mother “not to worry, as they have many sponsors who will be able to help with the gifts”.  My mother then invited them to one of the outreaches, and the organization told the children that they will be getting them all Christmas presents.   Naturally my mother was ecstatic about this.  Not only would she not have to worry about getting presents for the children, she had now been approached by sponsors who will be able to help with the financial burden.  The outreach ended that day, and my mother left the job of getting the gifts in the capable hands of the sponsors.  The next outreach would be on the 16th of December when the actual gifts would be given to the children.

But everything didn’t go as smoothly.  In the months to come, my mother would try and contact the lady at this organization to see how things were going in getting the gifts from all her sponsors.  The lady was slow to get back, if she got back at all, and my mother didn’t receive any news from her.  She continued to try, but only received real feedback from them two weeks before the outreach.  After the long wait to finally reach the organization, they merely informed my mother that they could no longer help with the gifts.  It seems something had gone wrong with her sponsors, and they can no longer provide the gifts for the children on the 16th.  Naturally, none of us were very impressed by the situation.  The children were promised gifts, and it usually took weeks, if not months, to get as many gifts together as we needed.  When my mother’s ministry provided the gifts in the area, they would start a donation campaign and invite everyone they could reach to sponsor a small gift to a child.  The gifts would then be wrapped in a shoe box, with some sweets, and then given to the children.  As you can imagine, being dependant on the giving of the public, it took months to get enough gifts for the children.  When the lady at the organization informed my mother that she can’t provide the gifts as she had promised, it was already two weeks before the outreach.  We would never get enough gifts in time.

The organization that promised gifts, took down the names of the children that were there that day.  They had promised all of these children gifts – we had 200 names.  Knowing that fixing this situation would not be easy, my mother got going at organizing “Plan B”.   If we could not get gifts sponsored, we would ask companies for a cash donation.  We would take this cash and then buy presents for the children.  My parents decided to buy the children school bags and school supplies, as their parents could not all afford to buy this for their children.  At least, in this way, the gifts would be helpful to the children and the families.  To do this, they needed a very large amount of money:  about R75 000.00 (about $5000).  The companies were informed about the amount we needed.  We waited, and prayed, and the money started to come in … slowly.  A little more than a week passed, and the only amount we received was R15 000 (about $1000).  

But my parents decided to trust God and went in faith, and they went out to buy the stationary and the schoolbags, without enough money.  At the first shop (stationary shop) a man offered to pay half of what my dad had to pay.  We were amazed – no one asked him to help at all!  But God was moving.  At the second shop (schoolbags) they received a huge discount!  At the end of the day, my dad was able to buy 175 schoolbags, with stationary for each one.  With only $1000, we were able to buy supplies that would’ve cost us almost $5000.  With no money left they trusted God for gifts for the rest of the children (we had 200 names remember). God had to save the situation, and not allow any of the children to go home disappointed.

On the day of the outreach we all got ready.  Overall there were 175 schoolbags, stationary and  12 toys for the pre-school children.  We did not have enough gifts, and we knew there would be more than these 200 children there that day - the promise of getting gifts on this outreach will surely attract more.

I remember driving to the outreach.  I was talking to God and asking Him to supply enough gifts for all of the children that will be attending that day.  I asked that every child receive a gift, because He wasn’t a God who lacked anything.  I couldn’t settle that some of the children go home without a present – that wasn’t the God I knew.  So, I prayed on my way to the outreach in the car, and I arrived at the park where we usually held the outreach.  My heart sank a bit – the place was already packed with children.  There were so many, but I kept God to His Word – His word that He was more than able of handling something like Christmas presents.  

I went to my parents, standing with their team of Bible Students (who helped with the outreaches), and my mom gave me the task of handling the list with all of the names of the children that were there on the previous outreach.  This was the list with the names of the 200 hundred children they had promised gifts.  The parents of the children had to come to me to find out if their children’s names were on the list – only they could receive schoolbags.

It was chaos.  As the day progressed I had a que of children and parents around me, pressing on all sides.  They all wanted to know if their children’s names were on the list.  Most of their names were not.  As I had thought, there were many more children there that day, than on the previous outreach.  Off all the adults and children who approached me, not even half of their names were found on the list.  The place was packed, and every single Bible School student was running around like a madman ministering to everyone there.  My mom always organized it well.  There were dance groups entertaining children, play teams interacting with the smaller children, face painting, games for the adults and food and drink tables.  There were so many people involved in these outreaches, giving their time and money for the love of God.  And that day everyone was pushed to their full capacity – busy like frantic bees.  I couldn’t even see past the heads of the crowd around me, who wanted to know if their children’s names were on the list.

While I was looking up names, I was talking to God.  There were definitely not going to be enough presents.  Not even in the slightest bit.  God had to come through for us.  This was the only Christmas gift that almost all of these children will receive for Christmas.  We can’t send even one home empty handed.  God could not let that happen.

And you know what?  He didn’t let it happen.

While I was checking my lists, I realized that another que had formed on the other side of the park.  The que was mingling into my que due to a lack of space.  There were now so many people in the park, I was finding it hard to see a patch of open grass from where I was standing.  At first I thought it was just the que for the food tables.  The meal we give out at the outreach will be the only meal that most of these families will receive that day.  Naturally, everyone queued for the meals as soon as they were ready to serve the people.  But, it wasn’t the meal tables.  When I finally managed to break away from my overcrowded corner, I saw that a white truck had pulled into the park, and the people were queued around it.  There were people at the van, giving out boxes, and my parents were standing with them at the truck’s open back doors.

I decided that now was the best time to take a break (I had been checking names for almost 3 hours up till then) and I excused myself from my task to see what was going on.  As I squeezed past everyone, closer to the truck, I saw that there were children with open boxes, filled with sweets and toys rushing past me.  They were coming from the truck.  I couldn’t believe my eyes – almost each child had a box in their hands.  These boxes weren’t the gifts my parents had organized.  They had organized suitcases, and these were almost all given out, many children having not received any.

When I finally squeezed through to the front of the crowd, I saw that my parents were standing with the pastor's wife of our previous church which we used to attend about 10 years ago.  I call her the “Pink Lady” (she always wore pink) and she was hauling boxes from the back of the truck, filled with gifts and sweets, with other helpers.  There were so many – 2 gifts for every child at the outreach.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  I managed to get my mom’s attention and I asked her what was going on.  Like me, she was almost dancing with excitement.  The pastor’s wife had an outreach program every year as well.  She would ask people to donate toys and gifts, and then she will give them to wherever she felt the need was, without informing the people.  This year they had not had anyone specific in mind and decided to come to our park where she found us busy with an outreach.  We were all surprised to see each other there. When my mom asked them how they knew we needed gifts, they said that they hadn’t known - they just stopped at the park when they saw all the children. None of us knew - only God knew and He was working behind the scenes.

So, as I stood back, smiling, ecstatic and so overwhelmed by the faithfulness of God, I saw that every child had a gift or 2 in their arms.  And the boxes were still being unloaded.  God came through for us.  When we thought that hope was lost, He had already made a way to double bless every single child that day.  No one can supply like God.   We learned something about faith that day:  Because we went in faith, God supplied as we went.   All glory to God!

We need your stories!  Has God done something great for you lately?  Or even years ago.  Perhaps you would like to share your testimony of how you came to faith.  Maybe you found a news article talking about a miracle that God did. Whatever it is, we want to hear it and share it with the rest of the group so that we can all be encouraged together. The world is a dark place.  Let's shine our light of hope by reminding each other that God IS still active and working in the lives of His people.

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