by Melina Gallo
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?” Matthew 6:25-26
Jesus tells us not to worry about anything because God provides. He provides food and shelter for the sparrows, and He is faithful in caring for us.
Centuries ago in Bethlehem, a young widow named Ruth found herself in a strange country without a job or family to provide for her. Before Ruth was born, however, God had good plans for her life. She found herself working in the field of a kind and generous man who instructed his laborers to leave the grain that fell on the ground during harvest so that widows and foreigners could pick it up. He made sure there was plenty of grain for Ruth to gather, and he did not seek to take advantage of her. She later married that man, and became the great-grandmother of King David.
Sunita lives in India. Like nearly one billion adults around the globe today, she was illiterate. She was also HIV positive. Her husband had died of AIDS and Sunita was bedridden, hopeless, and unable to care for her three young children. The stigma of HIV further isolated her from her community as she waited to die. However, God provided.
A team from a local church's HIV/AIDS project found Sunita’s family and began caring for them. They helped her get the proper medication, and as she regained her health she joined one of their literacy classes. Today, she has learned to read and write, and earns a living working for the same HIV/AIDS project that helped her. Her life has been transformed through God’s provision.
Just as God has provided for Ruth and for Sunita, He has provided for me. Four years ago, I heard God’s voice calling me to become a missionary. It was not a thundering baritone coming from a cloud, but scripture that leapt off the page, circumstances and timing that were providential, and a huge harvest moon, orange and heavy, suspended in the sky, helping me to see that just as he cares for the planets orbiting in the universe, He cares for me.
God called me to help train church leaders worldwide to share the love of Jesus through the gift of reading and English as a second language (ESL). He has sent me to reach those around the world who cannot read His word for themselves: Women who are not allowed to go to school, families who are too poor to pay for education, people with disabilities who cannot access learning opportunities, and refugees who are unable to communicate in a new language.
God has also given me the grace to go out and ask people to give money to this mission. It has been humbling and exhilarating. God has moved the hearts of people I barely know to give generously, he has shown me that some of His children who are poor by the world’s standards are rich in their capacity to give. I see that it is God who is providing all of it. He provides the generosity in the hearts of those who give, he provides the resources for them to share, He provides the people who will tutor new readers, and He provides the love that draws souls to him.
As I talk with people about giving, some share their faith with me, others share their lack of belief, their confusion, or indifference to matters concerning their souls. Through it all God provides opportunities to shine His light and love into their lives.
He has provided for the sparrows, for Ruth, for Sunita, for me. He is faithful to provide for you too.
Melina Gallo, Ed.D., is a missionary with Literacy & Evangelism International (LEI). She helps equip churches around the world to provide English as Second Language or Literacy classes to their communities. Interested in training to be a literacy tutor? Click here to download a flyer about LEI online classes or visit LiteracyEvangelism.org Please submit any questions or comments for Melina in the contact form below.
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