Card Making

My parents told me our money came from God. That is because I grew up as a child of Wycliffe missionaries in the Philippines. Our income didn't come from a paycheck. Instead it came in the form of donations or "support" from people who believed in the work my parents did.

As I got older I came to understand what this world view really meant. We believed God had asked my parents to do the work they were doing. We also knew He had also promised to enable them to do their work. This meant God was ultimately responsible for supplying everything they needed. This world view is called faith. You trust that God will provide what you need when you need it. Scary right? But no, the strange part is that it wasn't.

Of course, our income varied from month to month--sometimes quite drastically. But my parents believed that whatever we received was what we would need. I remember several conversations I overheard between my parents. Dad would say something like, "well, there is $500 more than usual this month, I wonder what it's for."
And sure enough, a few days or weeks later, the entire air conditioning unit on our pickup truck would break. Or, someone would come trotting into our yard with a malignant tumor growing in their sinuses which required a trip to Manila and expensive treatment. Incidents that would have been impossible to remedy without that extra $500.

If you needed something, you bought it and God would provide the money. If you didn't need it, you didn't buy it, because that's not what the money was for. It was a a beautifully innocent and simple way to live. We never suffered, or even went without. But we were terribly creative with what we did have.

My brothers made bows and arrows and whittled their own sling-shots. To this day, if you put my dad in a room with some 2x4's, a little plywood, a hammer and saw, there are probably over a hundred beautiful and functional things he could make for you. (This was our house that he built) If you gave my mother a camp stove, a live hen and some raisins, she would be serving you cordon bleu by that night. And you better believe there would be cinnamon rolls for breakfast. That's just how it was: God provided.

Now? Well, I do earn a paycheck now, and I often miss that beautiful way of seeing God behind every purchase I make. But I don't buy cards. I don't need to, that's not what the money is for. Instead I make them and try to see His face behind every new design. And is is so Fun!