Stories

Preface

When we FIRST got home on July 23rd, I wanted to quickly type up a post before some of my thoughts and feelings got lost in all the chaos of returning, unpacking and readjusting.

WELL, I did type some stuff up, but it got put aside, picked up again, typed some more and before long, it was so not a picture-heavy post, but VERY VERY long and rambling and no one would EVER sit long enough at their computer or phone or iPad to read all that.

SO, it HAS to get divided up into multiple posts and you guys are stuck with us for a bit longer yet. It was going to be titled FINAL POST... not anymore. I/We feel so full of things we want to tell everybody, you're just going to have to deal with it or walk away. Whatever you choose is all good!

OKAY... the first paragraph is my actual first paragraph the day after we came home. Then are some real and true stories from our dear friends at Kiltonga Christian Centre in Northern Ireland. <the italics are mine, just to translate a few wee things into Canadian English;) >

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Alas, this will be the final post in Our Year Away...because We Are No Longer Away...We Are Home...Home ~ that word, Home, has another whole very introspective, philosophical, random and yet concrete, describable and yet indescribable vibe to it. BUT we won't actually go there right now. Can you already tell it is 5:00 am and I am suffering from just a wee bit of jet lag?

We can't wait to share some stories with you, as most of our posts, especially lately, have been picture-heavy. And there are some incredible stories that you must hear to help you understand how we are forever changed by our experiences this year.

First, some absolutely amazing displays of God in some very-real-life-simple-every-day-happenings-that-are so-NOT-to-be-taken-lightly-because-our-God-is-IN-every-thing-in-every-day...IF and WHEN we look for Him and listen to Him and obey Him. (Yeesh, this jet lag may really play havoc with my ability to communicate in any kind of understandable way...sorry!)

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to G.A., who I recruited to write these stories down for me, so you can hear them firsthand, and so that I cannot be accused of embellishing or getting the details all wrong (that has happened to me once...maybe twice...can't quite recall, it may have been three times ~ okay, I'm admitting here and now that I'm over 40 and the memory just ain't what it used to be ~ there! I said it!).

She did an awesome job with these...here she is:

The three bananas

When we ask for donations of food it is always for non perishable food.

The reason being we don’t always know when we are going to send out a food parcel.

On arriving at the Centre one morning I arrived to find someone had left several bags of food which included bread , fruit and other perishable goods (the fruit was 3 bananas).

I have to admit my response wasn’t the best.  I more or less thought the goods would be wasted as we didn’t have any requests for that day. How wrong I  was.

Unknown to me, an elderly lady had woken that morning and had asked God what he would have her do that day. She felt that she should walk to the shopping centre, and as she went round the store she should put in the trolley (shopping cart) what she felt God wanted her to purchase. This included fresh food stuff. She then walked up from the town to our Centre with the goods in her trolley, anonymously dropped them off and walked home – her job done.

I guess I must have arrived about half an hour after she had dropped the food off.

Within about 15 minutes of my arrival the phone rang....yes you’ve guessed it, a request for a food parcel. I don’t often get to deliver parcels to individual's homes, but this day I did – God wanted to teach me a little more about His ways.

When I arrived at the home to deliver the bags of shopping, the mother was so thankful . She said today she felt that everything was coming in on top of her and she didn’t feel she could cope. She had 2 teenage children that were always  wanting something to eat and she had nothing to give them. With all the fresh food (milk , eggs and bread) she would be able to give them something immediately.

What about the 3 bananas? God knew all about that woman’s situation, the pressure/oppression she was under, before  we knew about her. He had provided for her family through the obedience of an elderly lady and through the outreach of our Centre. He knew that there were 3 in that family – hence...3 bananas.

Remember the individual is important to God.

The pink suite of furniture

A lot of furniture and other items of household goods are donated to the Storehouse.

Some items are still fashionable but others are handed in because the owners have updated their home decor and no longer want the furniture.

On one occasion a pink 3-piece – 2 chairs and a sofa were donated. To be honest I didn’t think it would be suitable for anyone . We deal mostly with single men needing to be rehoused or young families – pink isn’t a colour that’s too popular with either of these types.

It was in good condition but a velvet frilly kind that would not have a wide audience.

It’s amazing how many times when we are living by faith that God shows us and reminds us that He knows the end from the beginning.

Meanwhile we received a phone call from a lady in Belfast who deals with vulnerable women. Still don’t know how she heard about the Storehouse but she got our phone number and asked if we could deliver a food parcel to a lady in a very bad situation, emotionally, physically. When we called to deliver the parcel we were to prepare ourselves and not be too shocked by her appearance.

I delivered the food parcel to an upstairs flat (apartment) The lady could hardly put one foot past the other. You wouldn’t have kept an animal in the conditions she was living.

Long story short, the lady was able to be rehoused. The Storehouse cleaned and furnished completely her ground floor, one-bedroom bungalow. She came with a couple of bags of personal items to a house that had everything from toaster, kettle, oven – everything you would need to have a fresh start – bed fully made up with new bedding, bed-side lamp, fresh towels, pictures and flowers, etc. All she said she wanted - if it was possible - was a pink settee (sofa)!

Do you know I have never to this day seen another suite of furniture like that one – it was very dainty and small, and of course pink. Her one-bedroom bungalow had a small living area that a normal suite of furniture would have swamped. The pink suite fitted perfectly.

A Lesson in Living by Faith

From time to time we would receive requests to help someone put money on their electric meter or help them to heat their home with oil.

The building we run Kiltonga Christian Centre from was a former leisure centre. A place that was designed a good lot of years ago, it isn’t energy efficient in any way and cost the local council a fortune to run – its overheads were huge. As a consequence, the oil we fill our heating tanks with doesn’t last very long at all – especially in the winter.

When the request for help came to us we were at a stage where we didn’t have the money to fill our own oil tank at the Centre. However, as our Director said, we couldn’t afford to not help this individual- this would be another step of faith. We sent the oil down to the individual who had a young family and no way to heat their home. By the end of that same day, the money came in to the Centre to pay for the oil. 

God, you are amazing – a God of plenty.

Remember how important we are to God and how he can use each of us when we are obedient to Him

I suppose the work of the Storehouse really started with one small family - a mother, husband and child who had arrived in Northern Ireland from another country. She tried her best to look after her young child whilst her husband spent, drank, etc. all the money he earned. Many times she had to drink cold water as she couldn’t afford to turn on her kettle, she didn’t have the money for electricity. All she wanted was to be able to heat a little water so her daughter could get washed in warm water before she went to school.

We tried to help her with food, etc. One Sunday church service, we highlighted the needs within our community. A gentleman came to us after the service and said he would like to give a sum of money which we were to pass on to the lady who we said was having difficulty even finding the money to boil her kettle.

Later that week I met the lady for coffee. As we chatted, I said that I had a sum of money for her. She said that actually this week things were going okay with her and she didn’t need the money. I explained that it was for her and if she didn’t need it this week, she should save it for a day when she might. She reluctantly took the money.

I didn’t meet up with her again for another couple of weeks. When we next chatted, she told me how she had left me that last day to go and do some shopping for food. She had everything on the conveyor belt and when she went to pay for her goods the shop assistant told her her bank card wasn’t working – they tried it again. How embarrassing. Then she remembered the money we had given her. Do you know that it was exactly the amount she needed? She found out later her husband had run up overdrafts at the bank and had cancelled his cards.

God knows the end from the beginning.