Just In Time

Jerry is a friend of ours who manages The Athens’s Boat Club, a small private lake community. He wears a hundred hats, taking care of all the tens of acres of lawns, the pavilion, the streets and water supply, the downed trees, the gas dock, the administrative work and about everything else that takes place there. There is nothing he can’t handle.

A couple weeks ago he was weed-eating, while a short distance away, Manuel, Jerry’s right hand man, was cutting wood with a chain saw. Jerry disturbed a bee hive and was stung by a couple of angry bees. He had been stung many times before but this time was different and he immediately began to experience serious affects. His body weakened and he fell to the ground into a red ant bed. He tried to call to Manuel but his voice was not loud enough over the sound of the chain saw. One last time his forced himself to make a sound, knowing he was loosing consciousness and perhaps his life. And then a miracle happened. At that very moment just in time, the chain saw broke and Manuel was able to hear Jerry’s weak call as he slipped into a coma.

The paramedics arrived in record time and after a short hospital stay Jerry was back at work. He says it was a miracle, a TRUE miracle that the chain saw broke at the very second he need help. He shutters to think what would have happened if God had not intervened just- in- time.

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There have been many times in ministry that we have experienced our Just In Time God. Though none are quite as dramatic as Jerry’s incident still they are always reminders that God is in our business and He is the great provider.

This past spring was one of those times. Women’s Ministry Leaders were making decisions for the fall programs and we wanted them to know that The Amazing Collection was a viable option. We knew we had a small window in which to send promotional material to churches across the country who have never heard of the ministry or the studies we have produced, but we didn’t have a list of those churches nor did we know where to get one.

But our Just- In- Time God had already gone before us. Becca Shriver had graduated from college and was waiting to begin graduate school. AND she LOVED doing research! She literally fell into our ministry and began working immediately. I would have to laugh whenever I would pass her desk because she would have two computer screens going at once and could find anything and everything with lightening speed. Day after day she would do searches for the various denominations we knew would gain the most from the studies. So in a few days she had found all of the Presbyterian churches and also had contact names, emails and addresses. Then she would begin work on the Baptists, then Methodists followed by Independent churches and on and on until she had added thousands of contacts to our data base. She was with us just four months. She was invaluable. She was a God-send and she was just in time.

Habakkuk 2:3
The vision is set for an appointed time
But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.