Page 25 - Living Epistles

This first one we lovingly call "the one diaper miracle." We had four dollars in
our pockets, and our son Timmy was still in diapers at that time. We had one
diaper left for him, the credit cards were maxed out, there was no food, the
rent payment was two weeks behind, and the auto insurance was to be
cancelled the next day. Jose was down on his knees in the tiny storage room
which had been made into his office. His prayer was,"Lord, remember that
Timmy has one diaper left." Mary, meanwhile, had gone out to get bread,
peanut butter and jelly, as well as check the mail. Jose was still on his knees
when she burst through the front door waiving a check for $ 10,000.00! One
of her aunts had sadly, and very unexpectedly, passed away. Her nephews and
nieces had been designated as inheritors of her will. All credit cards were
immediately paid off, as well the auto insurance and two months worth of
rent!

On another occasion we had totally ran out of money and food. Mary woke up
with a confident feeling that the Lord would provide lunch even though we
only possessed flour and oil, just as the little widow in the Biblical narrative
of Elijah the prophet. Having cooked unsavory pancakes, she stepped out
through the front door to feed our dogs. Lo and behold, the grass was littered
with unopened cans of food, a huge can of peanut butter, and a bag of beans.
All of them were slobbered over with the dogs' saliva. It was an Elijah raven
miracle. This time, however, the ravens were the dogs. They had brought us
the food!

A third miracle had to do with dirty laundry! Our efficiency had no washing
machine or dryer. Mary would take the laundry to Cochiti Pueblo, where the
Lord gave her a chance to build relationships with our pueblo neighbors. Once
again, we had no money and nineteen loads of laundry filling up the bedroom.
Precious friends of ours from Santo Domingo pueblo, have two little girls
which on numerous occasions they would drop off to play with our kids. This
time they insisted on giving us twenty dollars for baby sitting. We came to
realize that this was the Lord providing us with laundry money.

Grabbing our nineteen bags we went to church that Sunday, planning to
afterwards go and do the laundry. During the service, Jose felt prompted to
get the family and leave from church. As we walked out the front door, a
parishioner that we had never met, beckoned to our oldest daughter with his
finger and said, "come here little girl." Jose, as any father would do, froze in
his tracks, shocked at what could be going on. Alexandria, slowly walked back
to this man. He proceeded to pull out twenty dollars and gave it to her. The