God proves His faithfulness by solving impossible problems!

We just lost a church member who was a dear friend to me, loved by everyone who knew him and in terms of his role in the church seemingly irreplaceable. If I were to list who the daily operation of the church most depended on, I would list our dear brother Ed way above myself, and I am the pastor.

Now, let me minister truth to myself by way of a personal  testimony of God's faithfulness.Years before I entered full-time ministry I had a lawn maintenance business in Florida. I made a good living and had many ongoing financial commitments for my family. As a business owner, I enjoyed many advantages, but I had often told people that the down side was that I had no plan "B", if I was unable to work for a day I was fine, but if I was out of work for a week or two, I assumed all would be lost, at least financially.

Well, God has a way of making us eat our words for His glory and our good. I was in a very serious auto accident which kept me out of work for months. My one full time employee did the best he could and it was winter so my customers were fine with a reduced amount of service. However, as spring approached the accounts began to suffer and additional employees proved more trouble than they were worth. I considered a quick sale of the business to be a good option that would keep the bills paid and possibly pay for a portion of Seminary, as I was just finishing my College degree by attending night school.

I put my business in the paper, advertised it for what was considered the going rate and had several calls. I finally had a "Christian" man call with much interest. After some calls, a couple ride-a-longs in the truck and some oral negotiations, we agreed that he would purchase the business for a certain cash price on a certain date. As it turns out the date came and went and he was a no show. A couple weeks later he showed up with a contract for a lesser amount including my financing the purchase rather than cash. Needless to say I thought the situation was hopeless as it was probably too late to find a new buyer, but I decided I would not sell, just because he had been dishonest with me.

I had had several calls from a business broker while my add was in the paper, but the fees they charged were not much less than the total asking price of the business. After this disappointing fall thru with the earlier buyer, I received one more call from the broker and thought I would humor him. As it turns out small business owners are notorious for not claiming all their income on their taxes. The broker explained that they had buyers from England who desired to move to the US, but needed to invest in a company that showed a certain amount of income on the tax records. So rare was a small business that had reported all their  income that they promised me about 2.5 times my asking price, if my numbers were verifiable. Of course compared to that number, their fee was very reasonable.

Well, things checked out and within a few weeks I had a check for much more than I had been asking and was able to finance my Seminary education and many moving and living expenses which would have quickly exhausted the funds the earlier deal would have provided, even if it had worked out as agreed.

What is my point? I have no idea how my church will fill the gap left by the most irreplaceable person we had and I know his wife and family feel the same about his role in their lives, but God is in the business of solving impossible problems for His glory and our good, so at least in this moment, I look forward to seeing how He works! If I get a little panicky later, I can always re-read this post!