More unexpected answers to prayer
Going unpaid and a brief renovation update.
August 2024
Shujijn had thrown out a fleece, was asking for a sign from God. Advised to fence the corn at the aged-care centre so it wouldn’t be eaten by the wildlife like other corn had been, he’d decided to use the opportunity to see if it was time to close down the financially crumbling aged-care centre that he had been managing. (Check out the start of the story in the previous post here.)
He didn’t fence the corn.
We waited. The heads grew.
We waited. The heads started getting plump.
We waited.
My husband, Shujin, regularly checked the corn, thinking maybe just another week and they might be ready. One day when he was checking the corn, animal tracks could be seen in the dirt alongside the corn, a sure sign that we weren’t the only ones waiting for this corn to ripen! But nothing was eaten, yet. We waited.
While we waited for the corn to ripen I was waiting for my house to be renovated. We’d made some progress, at least I thought it was progress, but in the end, it only gave us more work!
We had guttered the kitchen and bathroom but needed to pull up the flooring in the kitchen that had been glued onto the floor. Hammering the crowbar between the blue vinyl squares and the floor, Shujin started pulling off the flooring and what we found wasn’t what we’d hoped for. Water damage.
The entire kitchen floor under the flooring was weak and water damaged! The damage extended up the walls. Shujin got out the chainsaw and started cutting out the entire floor. Remember, our whole house is built with “sandwich boards”, there is no frame. So he cut through the boards and I lugged the pieces outside.
We were left with a big mess of splintered wood scattered across the dirt below, and a few cement footings. The dirt below was damp, not dusty-dry like it had been under our bedroom floor. Why the dampness??
Next was the bathroom and we proceeded to do the same thing, using the chainsaw to cut out the weakened and water-damaged floor. We ended up with the same mess and the same damp dirt. From what??
Completely removing these floors felt like 10 steps backwards, maybe a hundred! But it had to be done. Now our renovation project just got a whole lot bigger!
Perhaps it was the size of the project, or perhaps it was the awful humid heat that made it unbearable to work, or perhaps it was the stress that Shujin was under at work, or more likely, a combination of all three! Whatever the case, my Prayer House got less and less attention. It sat, almost untouched, and time ticked by. All I could do was wait for Shujin to be able to work on it again.
Christmas was so far away though and summer wouldn’t last forever, We’ll get back into it next month, I’d reassure myself. There’s still many months before the end of the year. We’ll be living in here by Christmas.
So I waited for my house, and we waited for the corn.
The corn, of course, got results first.
The time finally came to harvest the first heads of corn.
Being the Doubtful Thomas that he was, and really wanting to be absolutely sure about his test, Shujin prayed.
“God, I know I asked that the wildlife not touch the corn, but now I really want to test this. I ask that the corn also not be bug-eaten either.”
The neighbour’s corn that had been planted in the same field had been eaten.
The uncle’s corn that had been planted just 2 minutes down the road had been eaten.
If this corn didn’t get eaten, Shujin would take that as a sign that God didn’t want the aged-care centre to close down.
From first glance, the corn hadn’t been eaten, however he could see there were bug bites up the stems and even in the husks. Shujin started picking the ripe corn, taking the first harvest. Not one head of corn had been eaten by wildlife. But surely the bugs had gotten into the cobs?
Taking the harvest inside, he started peeling back the bug-eaten husks. He peeled the first cob of corn, and found that inside it was untouched. He peeled back the husks on the second cob of corn and found that inside it was untouched.
He pulled back the husks on a third and fourth cob of corn and kept finding the corn inside untouched. With all the bug-eaten husks, only one cob of corn had a few minor bug bites, the rest were untouched.
Did God answer his prayer? Knowing that this was just the first harvest, Mr Doubting Thomas didn’t seem completely convinced that the remaining corn wouldn’t get eaten still.
While Mr Doubting Thomas was calculating all the negative probabilities still to come, and scientific reasons why the corn hadn’t been eaten thus far, I was standing in awe of an amazing answer to prayer! God spared the corn! God protected it in order to reassure us that He did want the aged-care centre to remain open. What seems humanly impossible for us, is always possible with God!
Another Board meeting was held. Another financial report given. Funds had gotten so low that there wasn’t enough to pay wages AND bank loans, lease fees, and other monthly bills next month. But all the board members unanimously voted NOT to close down. They gave no solutions for what could be done though!
No one, that is, except one. A resident had recently joined the Board. Seeing the financial state of the place must have been quite a shock to the poor dear! She loved living there, as did all the residents. Really not wanting the place to close down, she offered to fund the deficit.
Shujin declined the offer. He’d much rather her keep the money, and help fund residents when they needed to move into another facility if/when this one closed down (Oh yea of little faith!! Or, was that being responsible??). But she was adamant. Shujin still didn’t want to take her money.
Earlier in the year Shujin, his uncle (Chairman of the Board) and his cousin (who had worked in high levels in the corporate world) sat down to try work out a solution for how to make the place financially viable. The cousin’s solution was to sack everyone and he and Shujin work there without pay until they were making money to pay themselves. It was a flat NO from me.
This was not some family business that everyone has invested in and we were trying to keep afloat! This was just a not-for-profit venture that was started (with a very poor business model!) and we’d ended up in the mess that others created.
That plan didn’t go ahead.
The uncle approached his son once more. Would he come and help? He agreed. He would step in as manager (pending Board approval!). What a huge relief to Shujin! And what an answer to a prayer we thought could never be answered! It had been the suggestion from our daughter, Missy, that we should pray for someone to come and take over Shujin’s job, then we would know he could quit and get out of this terribly stressful job! But we thought no one would ever be willing!
If all went ahead, there would be big changes—there needed to be be! The cousin’s plans were to sack all staff bar Shujin who would work in the kitchen and do maintenance. The two of them would be the only staff.
The catch was that they wouldn’t take a wage until there was money to take.
Shujin agreed to work for two months. Unpaid.
Strangely, I was OK with it this time. God would provide. God provided the cousin to replace Shujin! God protected the corn, thus far! And I firmly believed that God wanted to keep the place open.
I knew He could provide.