All We Have (Giving Our Last Two Coins To Christ)

He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow giving two mites. So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.”

Luke 21:1-4

The news hit like a ton of bricks. Tearing down any hope for Haiti to be a safe and thriving place anytime soon. We got the call early in the morning on March 31st. Our Haitian family was on the run and our home village was under siege by two notorious armed gangs.

I was here in the US waking up in my warm bed next to my husband and picking up our daughter who had just woken up from the sound of voices on the phone. I just felt so helpless and at the same time so blessed. Blessed that it was my husband getting a call from Haiti, rather than me getting a call from my husband still in Haiti.

For a few days we scrambled together ideas of how we could help and figured out a way to send aid to the people we love who have just had their whole lives uprooted. It was a blur of hours upon hours of messages, emails, prayers, and posts.

I was so busy I didn't even cry for over a week. Until, one morning I just sat on the kitchen floor and began to weep. Suddenly the weight of it all felt like a crushing burden too much to bear. I'd heard news of things like this happening in other places not far from Mirebalais, but I wasn't prepared for it to happen, to us, to our home.

Losing Everything

If the situation remains as it is now, then we've lost everything in Haiti. Our land, our almost finished house, our mission base, all of the places we love and have fond memories of exploring together. The already rescheduled trip to take our daughter to Haiti in the summer seems less and less likely.

Not only are we facing so many losses in Haiti. But as my husband prepares to go distribute aid with our team, he stands to lose his job here in the US. After months of job interviews and working odd jobs he finally secured a job that is a good fit for our family. However, because of needing to travel 2-3 times a year to manage our ministry he is facing being let go.

Since 2020 life has felt like season after season of losing. Month after month of hard news and dying plans. But even these losses that feel so huge to me right now, are nothing compared to what others have lost. I realize this and I count us blessed in terms of what we've lost because at the end of the day we aren't sleeping out in the rain on some mountainside like many in Haiti are.

A Drop In The Ocean

To me, the aid that Espwa Demen plans to distribute feels like a tiny drop of water in an ocean of need. On several occasions I've thought; "What impact can our giving really make? We may give them food for today, but what about tomorrow?"

Honestly, even as we've gained support and raised around $2,400 in three weeks I have been feeling so discouraged. I have often in the past felt like my serving was not making a difference, it's even worse now.

Then yesterday the thought came to me "what if it was your daughter?". What if it was my daughter who was homeless and hungry and thirsty and out in the rain in some wilderness with no possibility of going home any time soon? If that was my daughter then I would be grateful for even just one more cup of water to give her.

So, yes, our ability to help is small in comparison to all of the need. But every drop of water in the ocean is important. Every drop together makes it what it is. And every cup of water is something to the thirsty. We can each provide one cup of water...

Giving Her Last Two Mites

I was in prayer pouring out my sadness and fears to the Lord. When the passage came to mind of the widow and her two mites. In the story people of wealth and importance were making an offering to God. They gave, what would be to most, an extravagant amount.

Then this widow walks up. Probably shyly. Not well dressed. Not well off. And she puts two small coins in the offering bowl. Jesus watching, says; "Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.

What good would 2 coins do? Who would that pocket change help? Maybe no one. Maybe it would simply bless the giver as she would now rely on God to meet her needs having no material wealth to depend on. Or maybe Jesus, being a multiplier, would cause those two coins to become 2,000.

We don't know. Because it doesn't matter. All that matters is that we allow God to break our hearts for what breaks His and then we open our hands and relinquish whatever it is we have to give.

Give Like There Is No Tomorrow

Honestly, I'm afraid of not having a steady income to rely on. I'm afraid for my husband to go into the war zone that our village in Haiti has become to distribute aid. Over and over again in my life I've been faced with my greatest fears. Over and over again I've had to let go of what I want to accept what is needed.

In light of all of these very real fears I am even more afraid of building a palace of comforts in this temporary world and missing God in the process.

It's going to cost us. It will cost us material possessions, comfort, safety, and all of our self reliance. This path of choosing to bring our last two coins to the alter day after day, will cost everything. We've begun to see it.

This is our duty. This is the path we have been given to walk. Yours may look a little different, dear Christian. But if your heart is not breaking for what breaks His heart then you have not yet found the path of the savior.

Following Christ leads to reckless abandon and extravagant sacrifice. We do not owe God 10% of our income. Rather 100%. It's all His. Let him lead you on how to use it for His name's sake.

No Scar? (a poem by Amy Carmichael)

Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,
I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star,
Hast thou no scar?

Hast thou no wound?
Yet I was wounded by the archers, spent,
Leaned Me against a tree to die, and rent
by ravening beasts that compassed Me, I swooned:
Hast thou no wound?

No wound, no scar?
Yet as the Master shall the servant be,
And, pierced are the feet that follow Me;
But thine are whole: can he have followed far
Who has no wound nor scar?

James 2:15-16

If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?

Proverbs 11:24-25

There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, and there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in want. The generous man will be prosperous and he who waters will himself be watered.

Proverbs 21:26

…the righteous gives and does not hold back.

Let us give like there is no tomorrow. Whether it be giving our plenty to those in need. Or simply placing our last two coins on the offering, not knowing how we will make ends meet tomorrow.

1. Have you experienced putting your last two coins on the alter?
2. How have you seen God provide for your needs against all odds?
3. What have you given up to follow His call to meet the needs of a suffering brother?