Chapter 63

 

Faith in Action

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“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall

find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”

—Matthew 7:7 We had not been back to this church since the

early 80s when they started supporting our

ministry. Linda and I were very excited about the

opportunity to give an update of what God had been

doing for the last twenty years. We were also looking

forward to getting reacquainted with some dear friends.

Having left Belize for a six-month furlough, we

had three goals in mind for spending this time: one was

to pray for a vehicle for our ministry. We were driving

our daughter’s car, for which we were thankful, but

we needed one of our own. We continued to pray and

trust the Lord to fulfill this need.

We packed the car and headed off to Aubrey,

Texas, about an eight-hour drive. As we arrived,

the church looked much different than we last

remembered. It had been about twenty years or more

since our last visit. A small building which still stood

to the right was the old meeting place. Now we saw

that a massive and beautiful church building had

been erected to the left. This is where services are

held today. The attendance for the Sunday morning

church services used to run about one hundred fifty

persons, and now it had grown to over five hundred.

The hosts for our visit were Bill and Joann,

whom we had known for all these years; they are

our liaison at this church. We had the privilege to

lodge in their beautiful home for one night, and the

hospitality that was shown to us was so generous

that we didn’t want to leave. Thank you Bill and

Joann for your kindness and love for others.

Sunday morning came quickly with a delicious

breakfast that Joann had prepared for us, and then

off to church where we were to set up our display of

Belize.

I met with the Pastor and he explained to me what

was going to transpire that morning during the service.

After we had prayer together it was time for service to

start. The congregation joined in praying and singing

and then the time came for me to give an update.

I had ten minutes to speak, and I packed into those

ten minutes all that I could. After finishing, I headed

to my seat, which was way in the back row. As soon

as I sat down I was aware that I had forgotten to say

something and, before realizing it, I was standing up

in the aisle shouting and waving my hands in the

air at the Pastor. “Pastor, wait a minute! I forgot to

mention something!” It felt like all five hundred sets

of eyes turned around to see who was shouting from

the back row. The Pastor shouted back at me and

said, “Yes, Brother Ayers, what is it?”

“Pastor, I forgot to mention that we need something

to drive.” The Pastor announced to the congregation,

“You heard him, he needs something to drive.”

The Pastor preached, gave an invitation, and

dismissed everyone. We headed to our display and

waited to shake hands with the congregation. The

first couple out of the doors came directly to our

table; the wife did all the talking. “Bro. Ayers, we

have a vehicle we would like to give you.” “Yes!”

I said excitedly. She explained, “It is a Ford.”

“Yes!” I answered. “It is a 2003 Ford Escape.” I

happily replied, “Yes!” yet again. She continued to

say, “We will have it here at the church tonight.”

With slight disappointment I replied, “We won’t

be here tonight. Can you bring it about three

o’clock this afternoon?” “We want to clean it up,”

she told us. “Do not worry about cleaning it,” I

said with a smile. “Okay,” she said, “we will have

it here at three o’clock this afternoon.” Then they

quickly left as fast as they had come. Here we

stood amazed at what God had just done! We were

excited and eager to see our new vehicle that He

had so miraculously supplied!

When we met up with our hosts and told them

all about how the Lord had supplied a vehicle, they

were delighted for us. We also told them that we had

to be back at the church at three o’clock to receive it.

They told us not to worry, we would be there.

We all piled into our vehicles, and went off to

lunch together with our hosts and the Pastor and his

wife. We all had a great time of fellowship and a

delicious meal, but the main thing on our minds was

that 2003 Ford Escape the Lord had just given us! All

I wanted to know was what color it was. Our favorite

color is white. Will it be white or some other color?

Many questions were running through our minds,

and it would not be long until they were all answered.

Praise the Lord! It was almost three o’clock and

we headed back to the church to get our 2003 Ford

Escape. Our hosts were with us and they entered into

the church to see the action. Here we all stood in eager

anticipation! Slowly, a beautiful WHITE 2003 Ford

Escape drove up! We were all smiles! The husband

was driving the Escape and his wife pulled up behind

him in another car. He got out of the Escape and left

it running. His wife got out of the other car with the

title in hand which she signed and gave to me. We

shook hands and gave them a big thank you, and they

were gone in what seemed like in an instant! There

we stood in awe, beside our new 2003 WHITE Ford

Escape. Words cannot describe how we felt at this

moment. Our host came out of the church and we all

had a good time rejoicing. We loaded up our brand

new 2003 WHITE Ford Escape, which was full of

gas and the AC blowing cold, and we were ready to

head to our next church. Thanking our hosts, Bill left

us with these words: “I have heard of faith all my life,

but today I saw faith in action.”