top of page

The Cattle on a Thousand Hills



October is Pastor Appreciation Month. In honor of ministers faithfully leading their flocks, this month will feature true stories from the pens of pastors.



Praying over the Ruins


One afternoon I walked through the woods to a place where a foundation for a Christian day school had been laid years before. It, too, lay in ruins. I knelt on some of the blocks and prayed, asking God to raise out of these stones a building that would bring glory and honor to His name.


Another day, another board meeting. One of the members addressed the others with a paraphrase from the Bible. “Brethren, if this is of God then we would not want to fight against it. If it is of men, then it will come to naught.”


And so, the board voted to start a Christian day school, only it would have to “float its own boat" (meaning, the church wasn’t going to support it financially in any way).


Wow! Now what! I certainly didn’t have the money to fund a school. Then I remembered a wealthy elderly aunt. I knew she had given money to a Bible school and college, so I wrote to her, explained the situation and asked if she would like to help in this endeavor.


The next morning when my wife came downstairs for her devotions, God was waiting and had something to say to her. She sensed He was grieved and sad. He seemed to say, “Why did you ask your aunt for money for the school? Why did you not ask Me?”


When I came down later, she shared all that God impressed on her heart. We knelt by the couch and asked God to forgive us and please help this aunt refuse. We made a covenant with God and each other that morning that we would do the work if He would pay the bills.


One giant step forward.

We now saw how utterly dependent we were upon our God --exactly what He was aiming for!


The day came when my wealthy aunt sent a reply letter. My wife and I hugged each other, rejoiced, and sincerely praised the Lord. My aunt had refused our request for money!


“Okay, Lord, now it’s all up to You!”


Trusting in His promises and in the limitless resources of our Lord and Savior, we stepped out by faith and began to build.


We needed a school principal and God graciously provided one. Then he and his family needed a place to live. We found a nice mobile home for sale, checked it out, and said, “Let us pray about it.”


One evening, right at that time, we were taking the principal and his wife to a revival meeting. As we drove through the country, the principal noticed some nice, black Angus cows in a field. “We just need someone to donate about ten of those cows to the school and we could pay for the mobile home,” he joked.


“Yeah!” we all laughed and agreed.


We went on to the revival meeting. After the service a lady came to my wife and said, “We heard you’re starting a school. I wanted to tell you that we’ve fattened ten cows and have already sent them to market. I’ll be bringing the money to you when we get the check.”


And we learned…God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.


Your turn. Have you experienced a situation where God supplied a need in an unusual way? Tell us about it in the comment section below.


 

 


 

Comments

bottom of page