How does a person go from making ends meet in a factory to flying to far flung corners of the world?

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My story really began around 2007/08 when a friend invited me to join him in Kenya. He was part of my old church and he turned up one evening and asked me if I would like to join him. He had been invited to preach there for some local churches via a friend. I said I would pray about it and ended up meeting with him and his wife every two weeks to pray for the nation of Kenya.

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I had a nagging concern though. How did I know that this was the sort of thing I should be doing. Was it the kind of thing God wanted me to do? So I asked him. I said  "You know I could probably scrape together the money for this trip in several months but I wouldn't know you wanted me to do it.  If you don't want me to do this then make it financially impossible for me to go. If you do want me to do this then make it financially possible in a way that I know it is a green light from you" I figured that was a pretty good litmus test. If I asked God to speak to me I would still have doubts as to whether I'd just imagined it. I recall that night specifically. It was a Friday night. 

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On Monday I was at work. During morning break in the canteen I got a phone call. It was from a loan company. I had taken out a large loan with them when I was refused a loan at the bank. After answering a few security questions the conversation went something like this.

"Mr Johnson. The reason for our call today is because we have been doing a review of your account with us and we noticed that you are paying a high interest rate. Because your repayments have been reliable I have been authorised to offer you a better deal. We want to offer you a choice of two options. Firstly you can repay your loan on a new lower interest rate which will save you money monthly or secondly we can offer you a check for the amount you would save which will be for £1,000"

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Some weeks later we had arranged to meet up and book the flight tickets. We didn't get around to it. I turned on the radio to hear the news that rioting had broken out in Kenya. They had just completed their presidential elections and there were allegations of rigging. Thousands of people had taken to the streets. There was a huge stand off between police and rioters/protesters. Buildings were smashed, looted and burned. It spread throughout the country very fast. Large gangs, sometimes in the hundreds or even thousands were running through areas attacking and killing anyone they found of a rival tribe. The whole situation threatened to descend into civil war. 

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Within a few weeks it had all blown over but not without over 1,000 dead, mostly through inter tribal conflict. It was a real heart wrenching situation. I thought about the money I had sitting in my bank account and wondered if I should use it to help somebody. I believed God had released these funds to pay for the trip {which we were now going to delay for several months to ensure it would be safe to go}. Was it right to use the money for something it was not intended for even if the reason was ethical. After praying about it and how to help I decided to help a local pastor whose family survived the attacks but lost his main source of income. I sent some money in stages to make sure it was going to what I was sending it for {There is such a ridiculous level of corruption in the country you just have to be sensible}.

 

So that was it. The money I had for the mission trip I was giving away. But that's not the end of the story. 

I was at work early one morning and spoke to God. It wasn't a particular religious sounding prayer. I just spoke like an ordinary person would. I said, "Well, I did what I think you wanted me to do. I believe you gave me that money to go to Kenya and I'm giving that money to help some and so I'm trusting you. You can get the money back to me again."

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That was on Monday. On the Wednesday I got my pay slip and opened it. I knew how much I was supposed to get so I was quite surprised to see a very different figure on there. Not lower but higher, considerably higher. I wondered, could it be? My hourly rate had been increased. I got a calculator and worked out how much more I would be getting over a four week period after taxes and my net increase was exactly the same as the amount I was sending out every month to help someone in Kenya. I was amazed. It wasn't the time when we all have our annual pay increase. This was a seperate increase. 

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