Giving

What better way to start out the new year with a post not of my own.  Here is a true story of something that happened to my cousin's family.  I thought it was something worth repeating. 

Enjoy...

Hello Everyone,

There is a story that has blessed and changed Brandon and My life. It's so crazy that we really felt that we needed to share it with everyone to really show what small things really can do.

Saturday December 27, 2008 like normal, we planned on going to Resurrection Life Church in Grandville, MI. We started to debate if we should go because it was already 3 PM and Taylor had still not taken a nap and we usually leave the house around 5:30 PM to go to church. As many of you know, Tay is a huge sleeper and if he doesn't get a nap he is very grouchy. So we said okay, we will try and keep him up and go do some running around that we usually do after church. So we did all of our running around, made it to church still at 5:45 PM and went and had a seat in service. We learned about this new night of The Story and we both wanted to go look at the book you can purchase in the store about this new thing that they are doing. We both had thought it is a awesome idea and that we are going to start going Wednesday nights to hear that service. Once church was over and we were dismissed, we started to walk down the isle and a Tall Man pulled us aside and asked us if he could tell us this story.

At first we were like... "Okay." Thinking that this is a little weird someone we have never met just wants to tell us this story, but we listened.

This is the man's story...

One day he was laying in bed and God had spoke to him, telling to start saving $20 here and there when he had some extra cash, the man did as God told him and started saving his money. Once he would get $50 he would go bring it to the back and get a $50 bill and put it away. Once he got up to $200 God spoke to him again. God told him to bring that $200 he saved and to give it to his neighbor. He asked God how he could address this to his neighbors because he knew that wouldn't just take that money. God told him to say that he had been saving it for a watch but felt that they needed the money more than he needed this watch. The next day and Man and his Wife brought that $200 over to the neighbors and gave it to them and told them he had been saving it for this watch but felt they needed it more. The neighbors ended up telling this man that they were $200 short on their house payment that month. The Man felt awsome he said, it felt very good that God had shown him what to do and used him to help his neighbors make their house payment. Then the man looked at us and said I had been looking around the church service for someone in need and you two really grabbed my attention, he grabbed Brandons hand and put a 100 Bill in his hand and said this is for you. We both broke down crying in the chuch hall while he explained to us that we caught his attention and knew we needed help. Once he saw us crying he and his wife prayed with us and then asked us if something had just happened to us where we would of needed this money... We then explained to him that Brandon was just put off work with No Pay for 2 weeks. He smiled and said it's amazing how God works. We all introduced ourselves to eachother and they asked about the New Baby on the way and if it was our only. The Man gave Brandon his card and kept telling us, if we ever needed any help, to call him. When he handed Brandon his card it was a Business of a Tool and Tie Place, he smiled and said that he was blessed from God after he started giving with this company and are now very blessed with money but still save up their little cash to give to others in need. We all went our seperate ways after we Thanked them and hugged them.

We were still in such shock that this has happened to us. We have always seen those type of shows like the Ophrah Show where they "Give Big" and the Secret Millionaire and we would always say to eachother while watching then that if we had money to give that we would just to help others, but we never thought that it would happen to us. It was like the biggest blessing to us that it really opened our eyes, we always said we would give if we had the money but never thought to save that little extra cash for awhile and then give. It really touched both of us, we both could not stop thinking of this Man and what he did, it was just such a huge Shock and that it really really touched both of us sooooo deep. It's crazy to think about it, he could have picked anyone in that church that night and for some reason he was drawn to us and it's like God told him that we needed that money.

We wanted to share this with everyone, it really goes to show that even little things, bless and touch people so much. God will show you who is in need and will bless you back. Everyone needs some help sometimes and to have this done to us was huge. It made us want to start saving money right away to give to others to share that same experience with them who are in need. God does things for reasons and it has been stuck in my head that I need to write everyone that I know and tell then our story so that you could be a giver too and that God will show you who is in need and will bless you back for giving to others. I feel that he many have done this because we have said we wanted to do this but to have it done to us really pushed us that we are going to start giving and touch other peoples lives. December 27th and the Man... will never be forgotten, he has helped change our mind settings that evern the little things, makes a big difference.

Thank you for reading our story that has touched both of us, it has been in my head the last couple days and I really felt that we needed to share it with everyone because I think that God will bless anyone that is willing to help others. God does great things to people and blesses those to help others!

Emily and Brandon Brougham

12/29/08