from To a Different Drum
Even as I was rejoicing at the way the Lord had met my personal needs, I was aware that Wednesday was looming up, when I would have to put cash down for purchasing rice for the first conference--$1,000 in local currency that I didn't have. Getting out all the money I possessed, I found as I spread it out on my bed that it had dwindled quite a bit, to about ten dollars! Not much to start a conference on, I thought. But I knelt down and prayed, 'Lord, you are the one who can multiply the fishes and the loaves and feed five thousand people; now this is all I've got, ten Taiwanese dollars, to feed about 150 young people for ten days. I've got to have a thousand dollars by the evening, Lord, to buy the rice. I ask you to give this for Your glory.” As I got up from my knees, I had not the foggiest idea where the money would come from, but somehow I had assurance that it would come, so I didn't panic as I might have done.
In a matter of minutes a telegram arrived from Sun Moon Lake, where some missionary friends from Hong Kong were having a vacation. Today they would be coming down to Taichung and were wondering if we could have lunch together. Oh, and she had her four children with her. Oh no! I thought. This telegram wasn't exactly one of those miraculous answers to prayer. In fact it just presented me with another problem---what was I to feed them?
I went back into my bedroom, where the money was still spread out on my bed. Again I knelt down. “Lord, what do we do now? I don't have any money for eating out, and I sure don't have any food here to offer them.'By now even my supply of steamed bread was getting very low, and there was no rice left in the house.
While I was still there chewing over my situation, there came another telegram from the same woman. “I forgot to tell you,” she had wired, “I want you to go over to that restaurant where we had such good food before and order the best dinner they have for us all. We're treating!”
Immediately I thanked the Lord that the fishes and loaves were beginning to divide! And, believe me, I did order the best dinner that restaurant had, and plenty of it. I knew that in a Chinese restaurant, if you couldn't eat everything they would pack it up for you to take home, even the rice!
Later, as we were enjoying our meal together, my friend turned to me and said, “My daughter and I were talking together as we came down the mountain and we both felt you have some problem, some need that you're not telling anyone about. Is that true?”
Reluctantly I answered, “Yes, it's true. Since you're not from Taiwan, I guess I can tell you. I've been robbed.” And I proceeded to tell her how serious the situation was.
“Well,” she answered as she was getting over the shock of my story, “we had already decided that we would give you this Taiwan money instead of changing it back into Hong Kong currency. We won't be needing it any more since we're flying out of Taipei this afternoon,” and she handed me the packet of money. I could see right away by the size of the packet that it must be at least a thousand dollars in Taiwan currency.
“This is very un-Chinese,” I said, 'but may I open it now?”
“Of course,”
I opened the package and counted out exactly one thousand Taiwan dollars---just the amount I needed to pay for the rice for the first conference.
When I arrived at church that evening for the prayer meeting, the president of the youth group came up to me wearing a very worried expression on his handsome face. I had confided in him about the robbery, trusting God to show His faithfulness to this developing young leader, the only Christian in his family.
“What are we going to do, Grandma Han?” he moaned. “We've got to give the money for the rice right after the meeting---where are we going to get it? We'll just have to admit that the money was stolen and call the whole conference off.”
“Oh blow it!” I blurted out, unable to contain my excitement any longer. “Don't wait till after the meeting, give the money to them now!”
“But where do you expect to get hold of all that money?”
“I'm getting it right out of my handbag,' I said, and pulled the fat packet out for him to see. “Here!” I said gleefully. “Go give it to them!”
“Where'd you get this?” he asked, worry now turned to astonishment.
“Well, I didn't rob a bank, you can be sure,” I chuckled. As I told him the story, we had a time of rejoicing together, praising God that He had gotten us over the first hurdle. At least we would have rice for the first conference, and our faith had been strengthened to believe He would now supply the needed things to go with the rice.
Meanwhile, my own situation was once more looking grim. The restaurant food gone after two meals, I was facing an almost empty cupboard again. But the Lord was not unaware of my needs. Again He used His people to share for His sake. While I was out calling on some young folks, urging them to attend the conference, the Lord laid it on several people's hearts to give me something to eat. Then another lady had made some jam. She was quite pleased with her first effort at jam-making and insisted that I take home a jar. Actually I never quite figured out what flavor it was supposed to be, but I think it was the best jam I've ever eaten since it was given in true love and at a time of need.
But the pressure was still on---electricity and water bills were coming due in just a few days. Ai ya! There was no end to it. To top it all off, the next day was Communion Sunday, when there would be the customary special offering. After the service everyone would go up to the front of the church to put their special offering in the big offering box, and what would I do?
Next morning I sat through the whole service arguing with the Lord about that little bit of money in my pocket, with the result that I have no recollection of who preached or what was said. My mind was working hard---should I give this money or shouldn't I? And then You know, Lord, this is all the money I've got, and besides it really isn't Your money! Your money was stolen. Thus I tried to reason my way out of giving those few dollars. But I had no peace. Finally I realized that since this was not nearly the amount I usually gave, I had better go up and put all of it into the box. And that's what I did. That day I could singe the offertory hymn, All for Jesus, with all my heart. My pocket was completely empty.
Immediately after the service I was approached by a young couple, she slim and petite in her straight Chinese gown and he neat in his waist-length windbreaker and crisp trousers. “Grandma,” they said, “We were praying for you this morning, and it was just as though the Lord told us we should give you something. Please don't feel offended. We felt you must have a special need.” Rather new believers, they had never given me anything like this before, and were very apologetic as they handed me an envelope and hurried away.
Just then another older woman from the Mainland made her way over to me and thrust an envelope into my hand, saying she must give it to me. Before I could say a word she was gone. When I got home and opened the envelopes, I found the contents came to about $250 local currency---magnificent interest for the ten dollars I had given to the Lord! I had not had so much money of my own since the time of the robbery two weeks earlier!
That afternoon I had a visit from a schoolteacher, and as we were talking she asked if I could use some rice. Could I! I'd been out of rice for days, but of course I didn't tell her that. I just replied, “Why do you ask?”
She went and fetched a big bag weighting twenty jin, or about 44 pounds. Starvation would not stalk my door, of that I was sure, for this amount of rice should tide me over until our financial secretary returned and I could again draw money. Some time later I explained to my teacher friend how the Lord had used her in my time of need.
Just when I was rejoicing at the way the Lord was caring for my big needs, I began to run into a succession of niggly little problems. Of all times for it to go out of whack, my watch stopped, and nothing could persuade it to run again. Just when I needed it most! But as I was out visiting at the home of another Chinese schoolteacher, something called her attention to the fact that my watch was not running, and she asked me about it.
“Oh,” I replied lightly, “something just snapped in it the other day, and now it won't go.”
“Well, you surely don't have time to bother about repairing watches with two conferences on your doorstep and all the other things you're doing. Here, take this watch and use it till you have time to get your fixed.” She had no inkling, of course, that I hadn't a cent for watch repairs.
The very next day my electric fan went dead. Since it was a very hot day, probably the hottest we had had all summer, and I was having a meeting at the house in the evening, I felt we couldn't get along without something to move the air. I thought about borrowing a fan, but finally decided I would first see if I could do anything to fix it myself. That afternoon, all alone in the house, I knelt down to ask the Lord for wisdom to repair the fan. I assure you, I know nothing about a fan's anatomy, but I opened it up and looked in. Then I fiddled with a few things here and there, ignoring completely the little inscriptions written for my instruction, unfortunately in Japanese. Finally I dropped in some oil where I thought it might do some good, and in the space of about ten minutes “Operation Fan” was completed as far as I was concerned. I closed her up and turned her on. To my amazement she worked, and continued to do so better than ever!
During all these days of seeing the Lord meet my needs I still had a really uneasy feeling about my servant, Iu-lan. Since the thief had left the money for her wages, I paid her right on the dot of time whenever her salary was due. Not once, however, did she ask me where I got the money from. But if I came home with something I'd bought, she would immediately ask, “Where'd you get the money to buy that?” Strange. I had determined, of course, not to spend one cent of that salary money on anything but her wages, and since this also included a food allowance she was never short of food. But I hadn't enough hard evidence to accuse her of the robbery; so we just carried on with our touch-and-go housekeeping.
One incident really was a trial. I came back from a meeting one day to find Iu-lan waiting for me at the gate, very upset. “There are some people here,” she said. “I don't know who they are, but they just walked in and took over your bedroom, and have put your bedding on the tatami in the living room.”
“What!” I exclaimed. “Well, who are they?”
“They're two women, not too old. I think they are from Taipei. I've never seen them before.”
As we walked into the house and I looked at the two American ladies seated in my living room, I realized that I had never laid eyes on them before either.
As politely and discreetly as I could, remembering that we might be entertaining angels (though somehow I doubted it) I asked, “Who are you?” They told me, but this didn't help. I'd never so much as heard of them before, and though they mentioned the mission organization they were connected with I'd not heard of it either.
“How did you know about me?” I ventured now, wanting somehow to get to the bottom of this mystery. They had found my name, it seemed, in an old directory listing Taiwan missionaries. And apparently feeling that no further invitation was needed, they had moved right in. It looked as though I would be sleeping on my own living room floor!
Whew! I shot up a prayer. “Lord, give me grace and help me now, for I don't know what to do. This one beats me!”
Whew! I shot up a prayer. “Lord, give me grace and help me now, for I don't know what to do. This one beats me!”
Of course, in no time Iu-lan came asking the obvious question, 'What are we going to do for food?”
“Just wait,” I said quietly. “We'll stall off a bit and see what happens. Maybe they'll suggest taking me out to eat.” But it wasn't to be; rather, the ladies began to hint about the hour for supper. I didn't answer. I just continued busily preparing for the meeting I was to take that evening. But I thought plenty! This surely is going too far. These gals act like they plan on staying a while; I've never met people like this before. The nerve—what kind of upbringing did they have anyway!
When I'd cooled down a little I tried casually to pry out of them some information about their plans, though I really would have liked to put it right to then, “Hey, when are you leaving, anyway?”
I don't know when I have ever been so rattled or annoyed in all my life. I was so upset that it was good news to hear someone at the front gate. “I'll go!” I called to the girl—anything to get out of the house for a bit.
I opened the gate, and there stood a young boy with a large wooden tray. He was the grandson of a woman I had gone to see that morning on her 80th birthday. We had had a lovely chat, read some Scriptures and had a time of prayer together; but before leaving I had apologized that I would not be able to attend her birthday feast that evening. “I'm sorry, but I have a meeting tonight, Granny, so I came to wish you happy birthday this morning instead.” I gave her a little gift and left. Later, when the family were setting out the food for her feast, Granny had thought of me. “Grandma Han can't come we should send some food over to her.” And they had done so, nothing skimpy either but a portion from each one of the luscious dishes, and even some rice. Here it was, steaming and smelling so good, right at my front door. So my mysterious visitors and I were to be fed that night after all, not by the ravens but by a lad on his bicycle.
Taking a little forethought, I suggested that Iu-lan not put all that food on the table for supper. “We don't need all this,” I told her, “and we'd better save some for tomorrow because who knows how long these people will stay.”
The ladies stayed on for three days, and left as they had come; no explanation, not even a thank-you note. I've never seen them or heard from them again.
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