These stories are used with permission from Signs Publishing Company. More of these stories can be found in these collections: Ordinary People—Extraordinary God, Ordinary People—Faithful God, and Ordinary People—Generous God

Blessed by blessing

I was apprehensive and hesitant, and did not take any initiative until an advertisement appeared in a local community magazine for a religion teacher to represent three denominations. After much prayer, I attended a meeting with a group of clergymen.

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A good year

It was also the first year I was not playing Australiam football in the district competition on Saturday afternoons. A respect for the meaning of the Sabbath and my decision to follow Jesus made the change, which disappointed my friends and the team coach.

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God moved the boat

"I must have knocked the autopilot off while I was working on something," he explained. "I don't seem to have any manual control now.

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A school of trade

But would we do it again? We decided we would and within a year of offering ourselves to Adventist Volunteer Services, we found ourselves on a small tropical island in Vanuatu.

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Who stole the winch?

The old one was totally worn out and belonged to a past century. It took five to eight hours to pull up a boat, requiring six strong men to heave their hearts out.

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Your robbed me!

"You owe me money!" he demanded. I was shocked.

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God's cheque

One of her favourite texts was Philippians 4:19: "But my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus." She would tell us that this was God's "bank cheque" to every believer, and urged us to be faithful to Him and trust in His providence. I grew up and became a schoolteacher.

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God knows

I've heard many miraculous stories of how God has blessed people in sensational ways when they honour Him with a commitment of time and money. These seem far removed from the experience of my husband and me, where I sometimes wonder what the difference is between their faith and ours.

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Faithful in the little things

The prayer itself turned out to be the easy bit. The hard part is daily living that surrender.

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One thousand, one hundred

I scanned the positions vacant advertisements daily. So many jobs I was able to do, but none of them would work with the hours I wanted to do.

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