the beginning of God’s weird provision for us–the washer and dryer

Kim and I started this wild and wonderful journey through life together in June of 1990.  Well, that’s when we siad our “I do” and I kissed the bride.  I was a fledgling youth pastor, and she was a Elementary Education major with a few more semesters to complete.  We lived in the beautiful town of Greensburg, PA.  Our church secretary had a connection with a guy who had an apartment that he would rent to us on the cheap, and we were set.

It turned out that the apartment was inexpensive because of its location–on the third floor of his funeral home!  Yep, God opened the door for us to live in a wonderful 2 bedroom apartment above Barnhart’s Funeral Home.  We liked it there, even though Mr. Barnhart never called me by my name.  He referred to me as Johnny Reb.  And the funeral home part wasn’t too creepy, except for the times when the parking lot was being resurfaced and we had to come and go through the basement, where he did the embalming.  That was kind of creepy.  But we never had to turn our heat on in the apt.  The funeral home always felt like a balmy 85 degrees, and heat rises.  Mr. Barnhart was kind to us, never charging us for utilities, and even ran cable into our apartment and gave us a dead guy’s tv.  He took pity on me one day when he stopped in and found me watching The Andy Griffith Show on our 9″ black and white set.

Providence and Provision.

Fast forward to a couple of years down the road.  We’re getting ready to move into our first home, and had no washer and dryer.  The local Christian radio station was hosting “Christian Day” at Kennywood, the amusement park in Pittsburgh.  In addition to the lip sync contest (that our youth group got hosed on the precious year–some dude “sang” Ray Boltz’s Thank You and beat our girls, who had a hyped up choreographed version of a Petra song) they were giving away a super home stereo unit, complete with a multi-disc cd player and a library of music.

I won the stereo.  No kidding.  I never win anything.  My daughter Lilly wins stuff all the time. Pretty much any give away that she enters.  If you see her putting her name into the box, you might as well walk away…

But that day, I won.

I collected my prize, and thanked God for his provision.  I was ecstatic.  We love music, and our new home would be rockin’.  The only problem was we didn’t have a washer/dryer.  So we’d be rockin’ wearing our dirty clothes.  There was no laundromat in the Derry Area, which is where we lived.

So I took that new stereo, headed over to Sears, and traded it in on a brand spankin’ new washer and dryer.

Providence.  God’s provision.

Over the years we have seen a steady stream of unexpected but much needed provision.  From the circumstances surrounding the birth of our first three kids to vehicle and home repairs to adoption funds…big things, small things, absolutely necessary things and totally frivolous but fun things…God has provided.

It’s good to think back to the times and places that God has dropped a blessing on us.  In fact, that’s one of the disciplines that we practice as a family.  We want to remember, to remind ourselves of God’s faithfulness, of his goodness, of his great care for us.  We’ve had a great life, and God is our provider.

Whether you’re a hymn-singer (Count your many blessings, name them one by one…) or a cutting-edge new music person (Brian and Jenn Johnson’s Love Came Down) any way you slice it, God has blessed us.  We need to remember that, to hold on to the hope that God will come through.  He is Jehovah Jireh, the God who Provides (Genesis 22:14)

2 videos for your viewing pleasure…

and here’s a song we’ve started to sing at midtown…