A Text in time

In this time where text messages are almost obsolete with advanced technology, I have to give thanks to God for the text that saved me from being homeless.
I have been a born-again believer in Jesus since 1982 and I have seen many answers to prayer and miraculous occurrences. One that stands out in my mind happened earlier this year when I was about to be put out on the street.
In 2018, I left a dangerous place I was living with a roommate friend and her children in, with the help of siblings, who searched for and paid the deposit and first month’s rent for me to find a place. I was living there on my own for 2 months, in that one-bedroom apartment, but as I could not find work to pay for the place, I had to leave.
I recall asking the landlady – who I knew attended a full gospel church and claimed to be a ‘Christian’, if she could allow me to clean her home in exchange for the rent. She said,
“No no no – I can’t do that.”
“Why not? Isn’t the place yours? Don’t you need help? I charge the same amount that is the rent.”
“No no. (chuckle) It is cash you agreed to pay for rent not service.”
“Okay. Can I live out the deposit then?”
“No. I don’t allow that. People like to take advantage of me and you feel that I should allow you to do that just because I go to church, right?”
“No, I don’t. People take advantage of me too so I understand that, but just this once can’t you help out a sister-in-Christ?”
“No no Christ has nothing tuh do with dis. Dis is business. I cannot do dat. If yuh don’t have the rent by the 28th of the month yuh have tuh go. People looking fuh place to live and plenty asking ‘bout the place. Yuh came in on the 28th February so yuh have to pay the rent every 28th not the last day of the month as you thought or the first day. I don’t care what you accustomed to, I accustomed to doing it so and that is when I want my rent. So if you don’t have it by then, well then you have to move out. It’s simple as that.”
So after I looked all over for a church that would be willing to help me and found no one cared to even say no but one church who could only give me a $100TTD bill from their collection plate, I had to go back to where I was living before. This was humiliating but I had no other option as the people who got the place for me did not even check on me or care that I had no job to pay for it. So I had to humble myself and call in a favor of the roommate friend I was living with before, who had to ask a favor of a relative with a Hilux four-door pickup truck to get my things moved out.
I lived in that place two months and was as stressed to leave it as if I was there two years and the woman had the temerity to ask me if I left it clean!
She returned my deposit to me and I got into a very full truck with my friend and their cousin and a neighbor who helped us move the furniture in return for some expensive coffee that I had, and we drove back to my past home.
No time to think of the humiliation – for when I got my things moved back to there I learned that the roommate also had to leave. She could not pay her rent either due to a cheque that she could not get cashed in time. She was often getting paid late or insufficiently by her clients and then there was the fact that she catered on credit and was owed money by a guy who avoided paying because he was of ill repute and thought she would do nothing about him as everyone was afraid of him. He refused to answer the phone to pay up so she was also in trouble. Then she was threatened indirectly by someone we both thought we knew who said that we would not survive if I went back there. So all of this led us to the stressful search for a place before the end of the month.
The search continued for places to live and for people to help move the things out by truck or car. We packed up all her stuff and put my stuff on top of hers as I had less. We slept on the floor on our sweaters as everything was packed and we waited.
No one called or came to help. We went to see places and they were too small, smelly, stink, dangerous for the kids and two single women to live in, and to close to drug areas or busy streets or racial people.
I even went to a well known Pentecostal church with the name Faith Assembly International - which was travelling distance from the place I was but I was so strapped for cash I walked the miles till I got to it. I was hungry and thirsty and tired but did not stop to rest but sought the pastor or anyone in charge, asking for financial help and someone with a truck to drop me and my stuff but did not get them to leave their precious church service to help me out of a jam. Sandwiches were being passed in front of me and no one offered me any. There were several people in the service with trucks but the ‘powers that be’ who looked at me with scorn as if I was a vagrant refused to ask the pastor preaching to interrupt ‘the word’ to make an urgent request announcing that a sister needed help to move to avoid being put out to the street. I heard the voice of the Lord saying ‘they are not ready for my return’ and considered breaking down in tears and making a scene but thought better of it as I walked out – to the stares of hundreds of attendees. I left in tears, hurt and distraught. As I stood looking at the church and vowing that I would not return to it unless I felt He sent me, I called on God for comfort and help. I told him, “Daddy G, you promised you would never leave us or forsake us and would be a father to the fatherless and husband to the husbandless and you are not a man that you should lie. I know you love us and did not like that those who claimed to be your own would rather sing and dance and pretend to worship you when someone came in the building for help and they were not able or willing to reach out to me – just because I was not someone ‘important enough’ like a celebrity and known to them (even though I was a member there for years) and I had a Mohawk haircut, no makeup or jewelry and was wearing simple street clothes – a shirt, jeans and sneakers and not dressed-up in the church garb that they think saves them and makes them acceptable to you. Please forgive them and forgive me for any time I was a snob. I know if I held them in mind I would not be forgiven so I release them; in Jesus’ Name. Please don’t let me be put to shame.”
Sun was overhead and the day was passing by and we found nothing, till I saw a number in the classifieds that I had not noticed before, even though both of us scoured it thoroughly, while searching for every rental in the areas we could go to for the prices we could afford.
I saved the number in my cell and went back to my friend and told her what happened. She comforted me and assured me (and herself) that God would not fail us and we would get something in time.
Then I decided to text the number and ask if they still had a place for rent at the price advertised. The reply that came back was a miracle in itself because that place and the price was hot and places were going for more and when they said,
“Yes, the place is still available. I will meet you at the junction in 30 minutes to show it to you” my friend and I hugged and cried.
We met the real estate agent who happened to be a born-again believer and new to the same church that refused to help me. She showed us that place and then four others in the same price range until we chose the residence where we lived until we got something cheaper. This was a miracle of God – the transport, the text, the price and the way everything was handled – despite many hours of painful waiting - His provisions were all just in time!
Years later, I got an email telling me someone had made an apartment for me to live in rent-free, and I moved into it 5 months before writing this; but that’s another story!

We don't get to choose who acts right towards us, but we can choose Christ and His unfailing love.