PAID IN FULL

Have you ever had a debt you could not pay?  As most of you know on March 5^th Vern had a stroke.  While Vern was in the ER I phoned our travel insurance only to find out he was not insured.  As I sat there looking at my husband in his hospital bed, I did not know if his stroke would leave him with permanent damage.  Now I had the added stress of  paying a hospital bill that I would not have the resources to pay. I try to walk a life of faith and yet there are things that can shake us to the core and make it more challenging live by faith and not by fear.  These last five weeks we have been stretched in so many ways.  Yet, we have felt the love and support of so many through this journey.  The notes, cards, phone calls, and skype calls have been such a source of encouragement.  Vern has been doing well in his recovery and we are so very thankful for each new day God has given us.  Shortly after coming home I started working on the financial aid paperwork and sent copies of bank statements, pay stubs, and other things that were requested.  We prayed and kept believing God to work out the details of all the hospital bills.  The total bill came up to $35, 097 in US funds which is almost $50,000 Canadian since the exchange rate is so bad right now.  For us that is a lot of money and not something we just had in a savings account somewhere. The hospital was very good to us in giving us a lot of financial aid.  But there was still a chunk of money we owed the hospital that we did not have.  However, even while Vern was still in the hospital people started to send gifts.  And a few days ago we got a phone call from someone wanting to finish paying off the rest of our bill. (It will take several weeks for all the different gifts to arrive and to actually pay off the hospital bill.) But all of a sudden, the words “Paid in Full” have become a reality.  We have been so very humbled and moved beyond words at the friends, former students, missionaries, co-workers, family members, a church, and even a couple of strangers helped to take the weight off our shoulders and blessed us with gifts.  Each gift brought us to tears as we would embrace, and thank God for each person and every new provision. This is our YEA GOD story, and many of you have been walking with us in it.  So, we just needed to share this God sighting in the midst of challenging days that we are all walking through.  God is still working and there are God sightings all around us.  

     This Easter weekend has taken on a new meaning like never before.  We have never been in a place to owe a debt of this size that we could not pay.  We feel the relief of that weight being lifted.  And yet this is just a financial debt.  Christ came down to do so much more then take on our earthly financial debt.  We have a debt of sin we could never ever pay on our own.  We are celebrating God’s provision of him paying our sin debt.  It is "PAID IN FULL"!  YEA GOD!!!! I don’t know where you are on your faith journey. But God has taken care of the biggest debt we will ever have and I hope you can celebrate this Easter being DEBT FREE of sin and celebrate your debt being “PAID IN FULL”.