God Sent an Angel
(A story about how God Protects His money)
There is a lot of risk when sending money overseas, and in the early 90s, I have had missing letters, opened letters, and money stolen. I learned very quickly though that placing cash inside a mailed letter or a card, even having it registered, will get stolen. And the person you are sending it to, will not get it.
A friend sent $300 to her sister back home in Manila but someone stole the mail, changed the amount to $3,000 and tried to cash the check. Fortunately, this dishonest and greedy person did not get any of the money. My friend did not have enough money to cover the full amount.
But God protects His money. In the past dozen years of sending registered mails with checks to local missions in the Philippines, not even one check was stolen or cashed by another person. I always prayed for God to keep His money protected and not go to the wrong hands.
Mailing dozens of registered checks to the Philippines is time-consuming so I was very glad when I learned how to do bank-to-bank transfers directly to the missions and schools. But, 3 years ago, the local missions had asked that I appoint a Philippine coordinator to send the funds to and who would give out the monthly stipends to the hundreds of adopted ministers under our non-profit organization.
I knew the risk of money getting stolen is great, so doing bank-to-bank transfers done by the coordinator there is the answer to our problem. I will send the monthly funds to her and she will do the disbursement. However, during the first month, there was not enough time for the hundreds of adopted ministers to open their own bank accounts. And so, the first monthly stipends had to be handed by our coordinator, Darlene, directly to each one. I had asked Darlene to please pray for protection. Here at home, I earnestly prayed, too. I prayed, “God, this is your money, so please send Darlene an angel to keep her protected and not robbed.”
Here is Darlene’s story about how God sent her a heavenly protector:
After her first distribution of stipends to the first mission there, Darlene wrote:
“I had just withdrawn around 300 thousand pesos ($6,700) from the bank. This was stipend money for the adopted ministers of Davao Mission. Florie Padilla, an adopted minister, was accompanying me to the mission and we were meeting outside the bank. And since Florie was not there yet, I went inside a restaurant near the bank to get something eat. I ordered fruit salad and mongo siopao.
The waitress came with two servings of fruit salad and 2 servings of siopao. I didn’t understand why two orders so I told her that I ordered only 1 serving of each. But the waitress looked at the chair across the table and said, “How about your companion, Ma’am?” I said, “I have no companion.” The waitress asked again, pointing at the empty chair, “How about him?” Again, I said, “I have no companion.” The waitress took the food away silently (but frowning) and kept looking back at the empty chair. Then I saw her talk with the other workers and soon then they were all looking toward my direction. Then I suddenly realized that they could be seeing an angel. Tears flowed from my eyes upon realizing that God had sent an angel to accompany me. I did not see the angel, but the waitress did.
Today, Darlene gives the money of the adopted ministers in 6 missions but she no longer handles the cash and does money transfers directly to individual bank accounts.
Psalms 34:7 “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and He delivers them.”
God bless you!
Reva, JR and Mary Grace