[You may pass over this post once you see its length. I wouldn’t blame you. But if you do, you’ll miss a chance to glimpse how a faithful and loving Heavenly Father cares for His children who strive to love him faithfully.]
In summer 2021 we took our first-ever family vacation with just the 4 of us. Until then, our only vacations with Kelly, the boys, and me, had been paid for by others as we joined them.
As a cash-only family who doesn’t even have a credit card, we were careful to save money in every area of our trip, especially bringing as many of our own cooked meals as possible. We loaded our van with a week’s worth of groceries and frozen casseroles to ensure we’d only eat out once each day.
Our trip was absolutely amazing and soul-restorative. We planned to return one day.
So last year we began budgeting for another vacation this summer. We followed all the same money-saving ideas as our previous trip, but ate out even less this time and chose fewer costly activities— more time resting and playing in nature.
Unfortunately, a new trip expense this time was a car rental. We’ve used the same mechanic for years. He’s a trustworthy man who frequently doesn’t charge us enough. [I refused to leave the last time I saw him until he raised my bill.] When I told him about our upcoming drive, he warned me not to take either of our vans (14 and 16 years old with 217,000 and 209,000 miles, respectively). If he says it, I do it.
But a rental car large enough for our family, our luggage, and all our food, costs a lot, even with a good online deal!
And we had to pick up the car on Saturday in order to pack and leave at 3:00am on Sunday. When we returned home the following Sunday evening, we knew the rental store would be closed. So that would cost another day’s rental.
9 days renting a 7-passenger car! 💰💰💰😅
Another change from our 2021 trip was the cost of EVERYTHING. My amazing wife had a spreadsheet detailing expenses, both our planned ones and the ones we’d already incurred preparing for the trip, like rental car, groceries, lodging, etc. My anxiety grew as I saw how much we’d be spending on this long awaited retreat into the mountains. Isn’t it ironic that vacations intended to *reduce* stress often create it?!
So I took my anxiety to God the Saturday morning before we left and quickly lifted up a prayer in my digital prayer journal.
“Would you please provide some extra money to our family in the mail today?”
Kelly and I knew how much we needed this trip. We knew how important it would be for all of us, but especially for her and my mental health. She’d picked us a new condo where we could just sit out on the balcony and let God’s nature refresh our hearts while the boys played on the riverbank below.
Yes, we believed this trip was within the Lord‘s will for us, even though it would be such a large expense for our family. But, goodness, it was going to cost us!
Despite my prayer for some extra money, Saturday came and went without any surprise check in our mailbox. 😕
In fact, instead of releiving my stress with some unexpected income, God had seemingly allowed my stress to increase *exponentially* Saturday morning with a Car Rental Debacle.
The small rental store two minutes from our home didn’t have the vehicle they’d promised. Their only solution was to take a smaller vehicle, drive almost an hour to the airport and exchange the small car for the larger one we’d paid for.
We arrived at the airport only to find short-staffed employees unable to keep up with an ever-growing line of customers. The whole ordeal took almost 5 hours. A 3-day discount ($150) off the total rental bill was our only consolation.
“That’s your answer to my prayer, Lord?! Saving us $150 after losing 5 anxiety-filled hours when we should have been preparing to leave?! I hate to seem ungrateful, God, but that doesn’t feel like a great answer to my prayer!“
Sometimes dear friends surprise me with unexpected gifts online, sending it via social media or from their bank accounts to mine. I kind of thought Jesus would answer my prayer like that at some point during our trip.
But He didn’t.
“Oh well. We have the cash. We won’t bring a penny of this vacation back home with us in the form of debt. And we did receive that $150 credit on our car rental. Not quite the answer I wanted, Lord, but I’ll take it.”
***
Most every family stresses a little about their family vacations, don’t they? Isn’t that like a rite of passage for parents, spending more than they’d like in order to make memories for their children?? Nothing sounds too unique about this story so far.
***
Let me back up about 10 weeks weeks earlier…
Kelly had just accepted a job at our boys’ charter school. Honestly, the pay’s not great but she loves teaching the children and loves being so close to our boys. She’s one class over from our youngest and is outside on the playground with him during two daily recess periods. And when she decided to accept the position, she surprised me with a suggesting I finally do the thing I’d prayerfully desired for years: completely stop receiving any pay from Renovation Community. No salary. No Clergy Housing Allowance.
Nothing.
Any money given to the church in my name would be set aside for expenses from a trip I have to make every other year and another trip every four years.
We didn’t rush the decision. We prayed, slept on it, discussed, prayed some more, and slept some more. No, this didn’t feel like an impulsive decision. After all, it’s an idea I first brought up to Kelly at least 3 years ago. Finally in June I told our Treasurer that, effective immediately, I didn’t want to receive any more pay of any kind from the church.
And 6 weeks later we were taking this expensive trip we’d planned a year earlier. The cost of a family vacation “hits different” after you’ve told your employer you’ll work for free.
There’s this Bible verse in the Old Testament that preachers are notorious for using when they’re in a church capital campaign: “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” (Malachi 3:10)
I’m not a fan of how that verse gets used to manipulate others’ generosity or guilt them into giving. And yet I do believe that ancient verse (written to a specific people, with a specific set of circumstances, for a specific time) rests on a *timeless and global* principle: God is faithful to provide for His people as they trust in Him.
“Tithe” comes from a Latin word meaning “tenth.” And in the Bible its often also linked to the idea of “firstfruits,” the idea of giving God the first grains or fruit to ripen, the first animals from your flock to be birthed, etc. In an agrarian society, giving away the “firsts” was risky.
Ancient peoples hand-harvesting a field wouldn’t harvest grain or fruit if it wasn’t ready. And obviously not every grain stalk, vine, or branch ripens at the same speed. Obviously all pregnant animals don’t give birth on the same day.
But what if, between the time you gave God your “first fruits” and the time you harvest everything else or the time your other animals give birth, a natural disaster strikes your area? What if a hailstorm or flood ruins the remaining crop that was *almost* ripe? What if flooding, or lightning, or thieves, or fast-spreading disease take your remaining animals before all this season’s births happen?? If you’ve already given away your firstfruits, what will you live on?
I had the opportunity to ponder those ancient (yet modern) questions as I drove my family 799 miles. You see, for 11 years Kelly’s been a stay-at-home mom, averaging only around $100-$175 per month in a side job teaching an early morning workout class. Essentially, we’d only lived on my income all this time. We haven’t needed *much* since our expenses are low in a Parsonage where all bills are paid. But still, the just-under $23,000/year I’d received has always been tight.
Becoming a “Two Income Family” would mean we could finally make up for “lost ground.”
But Kelly could no longer teach that early morning workout class once the school year started. And now we felt the Lord guiding us to give up all of my income. So here we were… on a vacation… STILL with only one income for our family.
799 miles there.
Laughter (and some squabbles) from the back. Directions and conversation from my beautiful Navigator in the front. “Look! Cows!” And prayers in my head…
“Is that promise in Malachi true, God?! I *think* we heard you correctly, God! I don’t think this was *our* idea, God! Our church and the hurting people we serve need my salary more than we do, God! I trust you, God! Heal the parts of me that don’t trust you, God! I could use some water from those ‘floodgates,’ God!”
799 miles.
The vacation was great. The times of refreshing were sweet. The memories will last a lifetime.
799 miles back home. Laughter (and a lot more squabbles) from the back. Recounting our favorite parts of the trip. Directions and more conversation from my Navigator. “Oh! Baby cows!” And prayers in my head…
“We’re coming back to reality, God! I don’t want to go anywhere if you don’t go with me, God! I put my family’s financial security in you and no one else, God! If Kelly hates this new job and wants to quit then I don’t know what we’ll do, God! You’ve been faithful in the past so I know you’ll be faithful in our future, God! Oh, PLEASE be faithful, God!”
799 miles.
***
We arrived home Sunday evening. After unloading the car, I left to pick up our dog. For several years one of Kelly’s friends has watched our dog and we’ve watched their dog. We pay them and they pay us. Kelly’s friend charges other families $35/night but kindly charges us $25/night. Our dog spent 8 nights and 9 full days with this friend. So I assumed she’d tell Kelly it would be $200, if not a little more. But she surprised us and wouldn’t accept any payment.
$200 saved.
Early Monday morning I received a text. A wonderful group of people mail our family a monthly $150 gift. We never asked them to start sending us money, they don’t owe it to us, and we’ve never asked them to continue. In fact, at Kelly and I understand that at any time God may direct this group to begin sending their money elsewhere.
It turns out their June check never arrived in the mail. We honestly didn’t notice it hadn’t arrived (and wouldn’t have said anything if we *had* noticed). But their careful Treasurer did notice and texted me. After confirming I never received the mail, the Treasurer said they would send their August check for $150 and include an additional $150 from June.
Another $300 received.
Hours later on that same Monday morning I returned the rental car. More complications. And the refund we were promised wasn’t there. The local store said they couldn’t adjust it but encouraged me to call Customer Service.
Yeah, I’ve heard stuff like that before. I wouldn’t get my hopes up.
But, again, I was wrong. The rental company credited all the promised refunds, plus more, back to our card after paying our initial rental fee of $647.69. Our new total bill was only $350.02.
Another $297.67 saved.
If you’re keeping track, that’s $797.67 in refunds, unexpected free dog boarding, a missing gift that could have been gone forever, and another gift we aren’t owed. [Goodness, that’s mighty close to 799, isn’t it?!]
Yes, I do believe God heard my prayer that Saturday morning before we left home.
I’m sure Kelly and I will never be rich following the path God has set before us. [And that’s probably for the best, given Wealth’s strong and toxic pull on my heart as a youth.]
But who needs riches stored away when your Heavenly Father has wealth beyond measure and gladly gives you what you need when you ask?! We only need what He wills us to have. No more. No less.
***
Kelly ocassionally leaves little encouraging sticky notes in the boys’ lunch boxes. Later, she puts those same notes on the Parsonage garage door for the boys to see as they leave for school each morning.
And then a couple days ago she added this written prayer to the door for us all to see every day. It reads,
“Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
Thank you for this day.
Bless us as we work, study, and play.
Be present with us in all we do.
May we bring glory and honor to you.
Amen”
That last part is what the Branigan family is trying to do each day as we work, study, and play: bring glory and honor to God.
And the rest?
We trust to Him.
Because He hears our prayers. And because…
He is faithful.
***
“As the pastor’s wife, I have often told youngsters a story of the boy who stood on the shore and waved to a ship at sea. A man beside him said, “Don’t be silly; the steamer will not change its course because you wave.” But the ship turned, came to shore, and picked up the boy. From the bridge he shouted, “Sir! I am not a fool! The Captain is my father.” We also know that He who steers the universe on its course is our Father, and that He hears our prayers.” —from the book “The Pastor’s Wife,” an autobiography of Sabina Wurmbrand, wife of Pastor Richard Wurmbrand. Both were arrested (Richard, also tortured) for their faith in Communist Romania.