Manna Moments

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray “Give us this day our daily bread,” he surely had in mind the daily provision of food that God gave the Israelites in the wilderness. Every morning, they had enough manna for that day. They just had to go and collect it. If they collected more than they needed, it would spoil. It was God’s way of teaching the Israelites to trust Him each day to provide what they needed for that day. 

After returning from my sabbatical, I had to get caught up on several administrative tasks, like recording the donations and expenses from the 3 months I was away. While that in and of itself doesn’t sound very interesting, I do want to share some exciting results with you.

Before my sabbatical started, I wasn’t yet certain how many of my expenses would be covered by the sabbatical grant, and how much I would need to raise myself. After announcing my sabbatical, I received $2,400 in donations towards my sabbatical expenses. I just now calculated the total sabbatical-related expenses that were not covered by the sabbatical grant: $2,373. I had to double-check the math, but it all adds up. A difference of just $27!

This isn’t the first time that donations have been just a little bit more than my expenses. In each case, I am reminded of God’s provision, and how He always provides just enough, or maybe just a tad bit more (but never less!) than what I need. I call this a “Manna Moment” because it increases my trust in His provision.

2012: At the end of home assignment, I realized that the total amount I’d been given for personal needs, (after recent personal expenses were subtracted) equaled almost the exact dollar amount I needed to pay off my college loans completely!

2015: Right as my expenses were increasing, a long-time $100/month donor said they had to reduce their giving to $50/month. The exact same month that change took effect, I started receiving two new monthly donors (each giving $50) a month! So, in the end, I was receiving $50/month more in donations than I had previously!

2020 & 2021: I had to cancel my home assignment due to the pandemic. In both years, the amount of donations was just over the amount of expenses. 

But there’s more to my sabbatical story: there were 3 or 4 individuals who gave me some money (not going through the official donation process). I used those personal gifts to cover personal expenses (like buying books and a few board games). Again, I wasn’t closely tracking my expenses during sabbatical, so when I totaled everything up last week, I was again amazed to see that personal gifts were just a little bit more than personal expenses. God provides…even fun things like books and board games on sabbatical.