I received the following email from Pauline a few days ago. Pauline is Gideon’s wife and Gideon is the Manager of Nice View Academy/Orphanage in Tala, Kenya.
Sister,
I hope you can recall the sheep that we had and passed on after delivering, leaving behind a ram. (You can read more about the sheep here and here.) When Gideon won the mother sheep in the church through a rotary that i told you about last December, he promised the church to take its offspring to the church.Now, when it became an orphan and had to bring it up with a bottle of cow milk until it was able to feed on grass , he was torn between taking it to church as he had promised or keep it for himself
He however later reasoned that he would be making himself a lier to God and the church for his promise and remembered the word of God that we must keep our promises however our prevailing situations. Yesterday he took the sheep and surrendered it to the hands of the pastor on duty thus fuilfilling the promise he made
Currently we have 3 servants of God serving our church and so with the offertory Gideon took to the church of the sheep,it could not be shared amongst the 3 pastors and so they agreed to have it auctioned .This unexpected idea excited Gideon who wanted to buy the sheep back but the challenge was that he did not have enough money. He gave the first offer and other people started increasing the money and reached an amount that Gideon could not afford. His friends were touched by Gideon’s faithfulness of bringing the sheep back to church that they added him money to ensure that he eventually bought it .This was done by 4 people i included and Gideon was blessed to get back his loved animal.I thank God that its now ours and it was dedicated for our rearing.Praise God for the wonderful experience of how God can use an animal to test our faith in him and how we can be trusted with our promises.A long story eh!
Gideon and Pauline
I know my brother Gideon doesn’t need, or ask for, a pat on the back for doing the Godly thing. He did what the Holy Spirit led him to do, fulfilling his promise to the church.
God will not tempt us (James 1:13) but He will test us (1 Thess. 2:4). We don’t do what’s right out of a want for reward, but rather our love for God. Gideon’s story though testifies to the generosity and blessings we receive because of the graciousness of God when we remain faithful.
Amen to the strengthening of faith in Gideon, Pauline, their church members and all who hear of this story.