"God! Help us; help our Church!"
"God! Remember our Pastor; give him strength!"
"God! Help us realize our dream of building the Church!"
Finally, God began to move. He had heard our desperate pleas. A woman from the congregation sold her long hair to a wig shop and gave the money as an offering. I was deeply moved by her gesture. Then during a service one day, an eighty year old lady approached with tears. She handed me something and said, "Pastor! I want to help. But I have no money. All I have is this bowl and a spoon. I want to offer these to God.
"If this is the only bowl and spoon you have, how are you going to eat afterwards? I cannot accept them." I said.
"It is all right," she replied. "I can place the rice and other food on a strawboard and use my fingers to eat." I was deeply moved and hurt at the same time. "Would God not accept these worthless things from me?" she asked. "I know these will not help or mean much, but I really want to offer something to God."
Just then a businessman from the congregation rose up and said, "Pastor, I'll buy those from you." He then paid the Church $12000 for the old woman's rice bowl and spoon. Whenever I think back to those days, I still think about that old woman and long to see her. That was a breakthrough event that changed the course of the Church construction. God's calculations - unfathomable from human thinking- awaited us.
*This story was taken from Pastor David Yonggi Cho's (Korea) book 'Ministering Hope for 50 Years.
