the one about an answered prayer

Well, this story deserves a blog post of its very own. It's the story about a completely unexpected answer to prayer this week. It encouraged me and I hope it encourages you too.

So, as you know, Phil has spent the last month looking for a job. While we're not standing in the soup kitchen line, we are being cautious about our spending. And something that's coming up is spring retreat. I am on the conference women's ministry team as the historian (a.k.a. resident keeper and maintainer of the scrapbooks), and part of my "job description" is to attend the events that are put on by the team. I'm also the photographer, and it's kind of hard to scrapbook if you don't have pictures, plus there are other responsibilities that each of us have. And besides all that, I really like going. Well, it was something that I prayed about the other morning on my way to school. I just told God that He needed to provide for me to be able to go in a way that wasn't going to stretch our budget too thin.

I've been working at, what I guess you could call, my old home base school the last 2.5 weeks. I've told a few friends there about our current situation and I know they are praying for us. I love that about them.

Friday morning I get there, head over to the teacher's desk I'm subbing for, and right away I notice a Panther Pawsitive. These are tickets that kids earn by being safe, respectful, and responsible. They are part of the school-wide positive behavior program. There was a sticky note stuck it with a message for me. I have no idea who my secret admirer is or at what point it was left in the room, but it made me smile.

Later that afternoon, I was invited by a couple other friends to go to happy hour with them. I've gone once before, but it's been a long time. I thought it would be fun to catch up with them, so I went. We hung out for almost two hours before they had to head back to school for bingo night. I got my check from the waitress and took my wallet out from my purse. When I opened my wallet, five $20 bills fell out on my lap. They were folded up together. It caught me by surprise and I immediately kind of looked around to see whose wallet they fell out of. No one else even had their wallet out. 

When I got home, I asked Phil if he had put money in my purse before I left for school. He told me that he hadn't. I know that money was not there on Tuesday when I was getting a few things at the store. So at some point, someone anonymously put $100 in my wallet. I'm 99.9% sure it was someone at school. I don't lock up my purse, and I'm not always in the room where I can see it. (Probably not the best practice, but when you're a sub, you don't usually get a key to a closet or desk drawer.) I have no idea who it's from. I have no idea if it's related to the notes that were left for me. All I do know is that that money is a direct answer to my prayer about paying for spring retreat. And it's a direct answer to some of your prayers as well. So, thank you. 

And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. ~I John 5:14