The offering that keeps on giving

Dana Royces looked discouraged. All they need is $400 to get the work completed. "How can this be?" she thought. Jim, Head of Finance, just stood there with a sullen look. They had done all the cuts they could but money cometh not.

***
The pastor walked to the pulpit, took the mic and with no iota of excitement, he said, "We will now take the offering to support missions. We implore you to give to the work of the Lord. Remember, the Lord loves a cheerful giver." He dropped the microphone and went back to his seat among the elders of the church.
Uboho did a mental calculation of how much she had left. It was about N450. She'll spend nothing less than N150 to take keke home. She planned to buy a few things on the way home. She looked into her wallet and fumbled through the notes, looking for the least currency. She pulled out N20 and squeezed her palm tightly shut.
Meanwhile, the offering basket was making its way towards her. Stopping to receive cash from obviously disgruntled people; lots of others quickly passed it on, putting nothing into it.
Few heads away, Uboho changed her mind and decided to offer N200 instead. It was heartbreaking. Now she won't be able to buy some snacks on her way home from church. The basket was here already. She dropped the naira note into the basket and quickly looked away.
"What's missions fund sef?" she thought. "OK, it has to do with giving money to missionaries in faraway lands so they can preach. Anyway, that sounds like a good thing." Offering time was over and church service continued as usual.
***

Jim hurried into Dana's office and almost banged the door shut in excitement. "We have made more cuts. All we need now is $125. Dana smiled weakly. "Thank you, Jim. The Lord is good. We serve a faithful God." She bowed her head and said a simple prayer: Lord, send help.

***
Zngwothyi and his wife had been praying all night. A great and effectual door has been opened unto them in the small but mighty village of Tu. Tu is the headquarters of 8 villages. They worship AKUMU, the RAIN god aka God of fertility. For 3years, there'd been a drought in the land. Thus famine was encroaching. But just when all hope seemed lost, this missionary couple appeared.
They prayed to a different GOD and miraculously it began to rain two days later. "Who are they?" everyone kept asking. "Their GOD must be more fertile than akumu."
Zngwothyi and his wife wasted no time; the word was preached and souls were saved. However, there was a problem.
***

"...and the total amount of money collected for missions fund is N42,000." said the Church Treasurer as she closed her records. "OK. Thank you for that concise report, ma. So, about the church building project how much do we have? " As the treasurer gave the report, Elder Paul felt a nudge in his spirit. He bowed his head. He tried to discern what the Spirit of the Lord was impressing in his heart.

"Elder Paul, are you with us?" the Church chairman asked.

Elder Paul looked up. "Yes Sir." he said, smiling. "I think we should send the money to GMG as soon as possible." Engr Akpan laughed. "No, sir. We are asking about the cushioned seats we want to use in the church auditorium. We think the plastic chairs should be replaced. It will give the auditorium a face lift." More elders laughed. "Oh, I'm sorry. But about the missions fund, I think we should do so quickly." Elder Paul continued. "I had an impression in my spirit that we should give it to GMG Int'l as fast as possible."

The Church chairman looked agitated. "In the middle of a meeting this serious, you come up with that?! Treasurer, give the money to him. It's now his business."

The treasurer did as she was told. Elder Paul took it, bowed and left the room hurriedly. "I would rather please God than men," he thought. He shut the door behind him, took his phone out and dialed his friend, Mr Emmanuel.

***
"Hey Paul. Good day." Mr Emmanuel sounded pleased to hear from him. "Happy Tuesday, Emma. Please can you pick up a package from our worship centre?" Elder Paul replied. "A blessing?" Mr Emmanuel asked. "Sure. It's our missions contribution." "Oh, wow. Thank you. We don't get that so often nowadays." Mr Emmanuel dropped the phone and motioned to his secretary. "Get ready to send some money to our Head Office." And he was out in a few minutes.
***

Dana Royces was pleased. She smiled from ear to ear. The workers were gathered round her in a circle. She knelt down with her palms laid flat on the boxes. The boxes contained Bibles translated into Tun language. "Lord we thank you for this great miracle. At just the right time You provided. We thank You especially for the men, women and children you used. Out of their abundance and lack, they have given. Please Lord, bless them abundantly. Thank You for the completion of this Bible project. An amount as little as $125 wanted to put Your work to shame, but we have the victory! May the Tun people be richly blessed as they read Your word in their own language. Grant unto Your servants, Mr & Mrs Zngwothyi, the boldness to preach the word. May Your people have wisdom and revelation that they will grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.... " and they continued to praise God.

***
Zngwothyi and his wife were pleased. They looked on as the king, amidst a throng of excited chiefs leafed through the leather-bound bundle of joy; God's words of love written in their own language. They were proud. They were glad. Not less than 10 family heads were given Bibles. God be praised!
***

As Elder Paul prayed, the Lord spoke lovingly to him.

Heaven was rejoicing over the souls of men that had turned to the Lord. Mr Emmanuel had told him that his missions agency, Gospel Missions Group (GMG) had forwarded the money to the international missions agency, World Missions Int'l. The group had requested for financial support three months earlier. They had lots of financial restraints in their Bible translation project.

Elder Paul was stunned to hear that. All he had known about missions was just missionaries who suffer on the mission field. He didn't know that Bible translation was also very important in missions work. How couldn't he? It was such an obvious fact. "Thank You, Lord," he said.

***
'I'm happy to have this book. Thank you, mummy pastor." Ping said to Mrs Zngwothyi in the Tun language.
Mrs Zngwothyi smiled. "We thank the Lord and every single person who contributed to making it possible." she replied the 6 years old boy. She had painstakingly learned this language.
Ping looked lovingly at the book in his hand, and held it tightly to his chest. "Jesus dzi mein," he said; meaning Jesus loves me.

***

Sorry that it's such a long read. I hope you enjoyed it. It's fictional but this is my little way of letting you know that there is more to missions than what you know.

Please, give cheerfully and lovingly to support missions.

Giving to missions does a lot and as can be seen in the story above, your N200 can help to put a Bible in the hands of a young boy in a faraway land; a Bible written in his own language.

Pray for missions too.

 The unreached and unevangelized people today need Jesus.

You may say that there are lots of people around you who need to be evangelized so you don't have to reach an unknown people. Well, how well are you doing that? Do you give, pray and act to support your neighbourhood evangelism?

Are you committed to following up new converts in order to make them disciples?

Do you know that evangelism aids your personal spiritual growth?

May the Lord help us all. Amen