Finding Money in the strangests places

Deciding to move to Japan for year meant giving up financial aid money that we have been using for a large chunk of our living expenses while in school. My 10 hour/week PR job at BYU covers food costs, and my handy man job covers a few bills, but the mortgage, and health care and other big ticket items were all covered by scholarship, student loans, and grants. Not going to school during summer term has meant that money has to be found elsewhere. What has been surprising is the number of different ways we have come into money over the past month, and what is even more surprising is how closely the emergence of those money making opportunities has coincided with paying tithing.

First let me preface that the law of tithing is the Lords law of finance, which allows members of His church to learn unselfishness while funding the physical needs of the Church. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints pay 10 percent of their gross increase into a general tithing fund that is used by the church to handle everything from building construction to educational material. In fact a large portion of my education at BYU is subsidized through tithing funds. After each pay check I pay tithing to the bishop of my local ward and he in turn sends the money on to Salt Lake. A month ago, shortly after finalizing the decision to go to Japan, I found my self writing out a tithing check and wondering what I was going to do to cover the many expenses that we would incur between then and leaving for Japan. Besides the normal bills, groceries, gas, etc that we needed, we had to pay upfront for our plain tickets, pay passport fees, visa fees, international drivers license fees, and get the house ready for renters.

As I turned in the tithing check, I said a little prayer that went something like this. "Okay Heavenly Father, I'm paying my tithing. What ever you can do would be great." This is where the miracles started happening. That night Melissa and I went to Dinner at Beau and Shilea's house. They are friends from an old ward who attend BYU and have two darling daughters (Savannah, 2, and Mirian, 3 mo.). Beau occasionally does handyman work for a woman in Provo and that night he told me her sister had called him wanting some work done. He told me he was too busy and that he had given her my name. She called me two days later, and I have since done about twenty hours of work for her at a very good wage. That was just the beginning.

Two days later Melissa was in a car accident on the way home from the doctor’s office. She told me when I came home from school and she seemed fairly frustrated/irritated/ upset. However the car was only superficially damaged (a scratch, and a small dent, nothing structural), and it wasn't her fault. "You got in an accident?!" I said. "That's wonderful!" She looked confused, but I explained to her that since the accident was superficial and she wasn't hurt, that we could cash out the claim and use the money to pay bills, etc. We ended up getting quite a bit of money for the repairs, and I did them myself, which allowed us to put the money to more important things (groceries, mortgage, bills).

That same week a relative called us and told us they were sending Melissa a check as a graduation present. Still that week Melissa got a letter in the mail from her credit card company saying that her credit limit had been increases (which allowed us to purchase our plane tickets upfront on credit, so we can be reimbursed for them when we get to Japan). A week after that we put 'For Rent' signs out in front of our house.

That same day we received a dozen phone calls and had a wonderful young couple with a few children signed up to rent the house starting the day we leave for Japan. The money that came and will come from these blessings has helped us pay bills and get ready for Japan. However the blessings are still coming.

This Sunday a wrote another check for tithing and Monday night I got an email from an old boss telling me he had about four weeks worth of writing work for me if I wanted it. Of course I did. I now have full time work plus extra through the day we leave for Japan while a month ago I had a 10 hour/ a week job and no idea what I was going to do. I know that simply paying ones tithing is not a ticket to getting rich. I also know that the promises of the Lord are true.

Malachi 3:10 says: Bring ye all the tithes• into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house; and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

This past month I have felt the windows of heaven open above me and we have received blessings to the point that I'm not sure I have room to receive it. The lord did not give us all the money we needed. Instead he provided ways for me to earn it.