I have been meaning to type this for over a month, but haven't had time.  Even though it is old news here, I feel like God wanted me to share it....so here it goes!

First, some background here.  For about a year we have been receiving government help in the form of food stamps.  Okay, they don't do stamps anymore, just a credit card like thing.  Anyways, we felt bad about it at first, but after talking to some others at church, we felt that it was okay.  It has been a blessing and a real help to our budget this year.  Especially while my husband was layed off.  With 7 kids, they gave us an amazing amount of money, more than we had ever spent on food before.   

Recently, my dh has been reading about George Mueller to the kids.  It had been affecting both of us deeply.  I would be in the laundry room listening and crying!

So, now on with the story.....

We were sitting at our ex-Amish friends' house (just my dh and I, no kids :) ) for prayer.  After praying a while , my husband announced that God had been talking to him for a while about something and that he was going to share it even though he hadn't talked with me about it yet (yikes!).  He then proceeded to say that he felt that we were suppose to get off our government help.  I wanted to yell "no way" or "that's how we eat! "...a response similar to one George Mueller's wife had made at one time.  But I found myself saying that I had felt the same thing.  Now this was while we were still unemployed...so it was a little scary to say this!   So we kept praying.  The next day I told God that if this is just our good idea, we didn't want to do it, but if it was from Him, I wanted a sign. 

Sign #1....right after I said that, I was driving for about a half hour.  EVERY song on the radio station was about TRUSTING God.  On the way home they were not.  hmmm...could be coincidence.   So I asked again.

Sign #2... church the next morning, pastor had us open our Bible and read the passage about God caring for even the sparrow......then he looked right at me and said "Oh yea of little faith!'  Yikes.  He had no idea what we had been praying about.  The only person in church who knew looked at me and mouthed "that was for you!"  

By this time I was crying and I felt that I knew what God wanted us to do.  We even feel like we need to get off the government healthcare, too....but one step at a time, right?  So we took our pastor and wife out to dinner.  I asked him when he prepared his sermon.  He said " Monday, but God told me to change it this morning!"  I then proceeded to tell him our side of the story...as his mouth hit the table!  He shared some good reasons for not getting of the government help....but then said, "but by all means, if God is telling you to do something, do it!"

So that was it.  So we thought.  God must of thought we were a little dense and needed one more sign.

Sign #3...we got home from dinner to a message on our answering machine from an uncle I hardly ever talk to.  It seems that a cow of his had tried jumping a fence and broke her leg.  If we came up that afternoon and butchered it, we could have all the meat for free!   I got off the phone, looked at my husband and started laughing hysterically.  God had provided before we even needed it.  We had a freezer full of venison...now we had beef too! 

So here we are.  I called the social worker and told her we were done.  She laughed and told me that she doesn't get too many calls these days saying "don't give us your money".  So we are on a new adventure.  Trusting.  Waiting.  Wondering what God has in store.  But excited.  Because we can now say He did it, not the government.  

Disclaimer:  I am not saying that no one should be on government assistance.  I would not put anyone down for doing so.  Again, it was a blessing to us in the past. But right now, we feel that God is trying to teach us to trust Him.  IT is something that we can't have in our life right now. 

Carylee