Giving that Matters to God

By Esther Schaeffer, serving in Burkina Faso

Two young Christian leaders in our church in Bobo-Dioulasso recently started up a ministry to help at-risk children and orphans. After I visited their project several weeks ago, the Lord laid it on my heart to donate a file cabinet and some soap to their work. I had bought the soap from a woman in one of my Bible study groups to help get her small business going. And the file cabinet was not doing me any good anyway; my papers are strewn across my desk and on every other available surface, so it was no great sacrifice to rid myself of it.

So I loaded these items into my car and decided to drop them off on my way to my Saturday afternoon Bible study that’s in a neighborhood near the ministry center. Well, the road was horrible, and the metal cabinet bounced around in the car making me think it would break a window. Once I drove into the neighborhood, I realized that I wasn’t quite sure which road I should take. So I began driving around, but it seemed like I always picked the worst road. I searched and searched, but since it was a new center no one seemed to have heard of it.

True Giving Costs Something

I finally had to give up and get to my Bible study, arriving late, tired, and somewhat unnerved. Worst of all, I knew that after Bible study I would have to go back into that neighborhood and try again to find the place, since I couldn’t keep all that stuff in the car for another week.

One of the women in my study said she knew about the ministry center so we went together, back over the bad roads. Finally, we found the place and unloaded the donations.

As I headed for home, I was still upset, grumbling about how something so easy could be so hard to do. Suddenly, the Lord said clearly to me, “Will you offer me something that costs you nothing?”

Wow!  What answer did I have to that? “Lord, I will not make an offering to you like that.” Then I realized that my cost in this gift was the hassle, time spent, stress, and driving the bumpy roads. When I could view my efforts as something done for Him, I began to be thankful that I could offer to Him that which was most precious to me—my time and energy.

What You Can Do

When you give, you enable Christ’s light to shine through workers like Esther Schaeffer. Be Light—give to the Great Commission Christmas offering.

Read another inspirational article about Being Light, this one by Peggy Drake, RN, who also serves in Burkina Faso.

Pray for Alliance workers the world over.

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