Luke 21:1-4
1-4Just then he looked up and saw the rich people dropping offerings in the collection plate. Then he saw a poor widow put in two pennies. He said, “The plain truth is that this widow has given by far the largest offering today. All these others made offerings that they’ll never miss; she gave extravagantly what she couldn’t afford-she gave her all!”
I have been living in Gainesville now for about three weeks. I have been working in our new Encounter department creating new manuals and developing our current projects, and improving our leadership styles to maintain excellence in this department. This has been lots of hard work sitting in conference rooms and hashing evey little detail out, but we are confident that all this work now will more than pay off for the betterment of our department later.
During all of this work in the office and away, I have been living off of nothing, really. I moved here to work before all of my support came in, therefore I am just scraping by and living on a prayer for every little need that I have. Sometimes including where my next meal or rent check will come from. The other Sunday I went to a church in the area with a friend. I was enjoying the service and when it came time to pass the offering plate…it hit me – I needed to put something in that plate. Now hear me out, I literally had one dollar in my wallet and that was supposed to last until some other check came in the mail for me, not really knowing when or if more money was going to come. That dollar was supposed to last me indefinitely for my whole life needs. And yet I felt the Lord tugging at my heart to put that one single dollar bill in the offering plate. BUT WHY, GOD?!?! One stinkin dollar was all that I had, so why couldn’t I keep that?! Then the Lord reminded me of Luke 21 and The Widow’s Mite.
When God asks us to give, He doesn’t care about how much we have to give, but He asks us to give our all. We are all called not to give out of our excess, rather our ALL. Because in that story, the woman who gave her two measley pennies was considered the largest offering. She gave straight from her heart, knowing that all things come from the Lord and He will always provide for her needs.
I know that I needed to be reminded of that fact, and maybe some of you need to be reminded of that today. The Bible talks a lot about the blessing of being poor. Ever wonder why that is?! Without having to worry about the burden of money, worshipping that idol or all the trouble and pain that having lots of money causes, we are able to rely on the Lord FULLY for EVERY need. In my opinion, the poor widows I met in Africa we more rich than I will ever be. They might not have anything but cornmeal to eat for the next long while, but they are more thankful for that food than I know how to be. EVERYTHING we have is a gift and blessing from the Lord. EVERYTHING. Are you maybe starting to understand that yet?!
Feel the urge to donate to my tax detuctable missionary fund or my immediate need to pay bills and survive here in America?
Ways to donate:
1. Mail a check to payable to Adventures in Missions with my name as staff in the memo line and send it to
Adventures in Missions
PO Box 534470
Atlanta, Georgia 30353-4470
2. Donate online by clicking the SUPPORT ME link to the left of this blog
Adventures in Missions
PO Box 534470
Atlanta, Georgia 30353-4470
3. Become a monthly supporter of $10, $25, $50 or $100 for the next 12 months (either online or by snail mail)
4. Mail a check to me personally to assist in my immediate need to pay rent, utilities, food, etc. to
Ashley Peterson
1715 Hastings Court
Gainesville, GA 30504
5. Invite me to speak at your Church, small group, sunday school, etc.
6. PRAY FOR ME – Part of ‘raising support’ means that I need a prayer support base as well. This part is JUST AS important as raising funds. :]
