Alpacas, Chickens & Music Used by God: Part 1

The following story is from Taylor Eernisse. Taylor and his family currently live in GA, where they are preparing for their music ministry. For more information about what they are doing and where they are heading, you can visit their site here. Taylor has also included prayer requests, so if you feel led to pray for this family, by all means do so. Be blessed as you enjoy reading some of God's handiwork.

~Tiffany

I guess I'd better start off from the beginning for those of you who don't know too much. Four months ago, my dad and I lost our jobs, he after having worked as the restaurant manager of the local McDonald's for eight years and I as a crew person for two and a half years. One day he had a seemingly secure job, the next, he didn't know what in the world he was going to do. He was fired very unfairly, and was blamed for the misbehavior and mismanagement of other managers. Anyway, it was a huge mess, and I had no desire to continue working there for obvious reasons. This all happened just two weeks after I enrolled in CollegePlus!.

To explain how God prepared both my parents and myself for this occurrence, I must back up nearly three years to my 14th birthday, when I first began my job. At 14, I had nothing to spend my money on, so my parents suggested that I invest it in the alpacas that they were planning on buying. I agreed to do that, and paid a monthly amount to them for two years. I had no idea what I was going to use it for, but the Lord definitely had plans. Since I couldn't access the money I had put into them until we sold one, I wasn't able to start CollegePlus! when I first found out about it, and had to wait another year.

The end of that year (of course, this is general :P) found me receiving just enough money to pay for one year of coaching up front. This was the last week of August of 2009. Just over a week later, I lost my job. There is no WAY you can convince me to believe that it's just a coincidence that we sold the alpacas I owned the most of just a week before I lost my job. It's not a coincidence that the payments the people are making on those alpacas are JUST ENOUGH to pay for me to take two CLEPs a month, which is my goal for each month. God had everything planned out.

For a wider example of God's provision: as all of you who have checked out our website know, this was our second year of raising out broiler chickens. The Lord allowed us one year to get the hang of everything and provided the money we needed to make up for our losses due to learning things the hard way. :P This second year, He used the 400 chickens and 27 turkeys we had to give us the money we have needed to live on while my dad has been out of work. In one sense, it's surprising, but actually shouldn't be, but through this and some other additional ways (including neighbors dropping off truckloads of stuff out of the blue :D) God has allowed us to eat BETTER than we could than while my dad was working! If there's one lesson I've learned in this, it's that God ALWAYS provides for those who actively seek to do His will. I have no concerns as to where the money will come from for my various needs. He has given me ample funds for everything I have needed for CP!, even though I don't have a job. Just to illustrate this, just this morning I realized that I didn't have enough money in my account to pay for my test. Here's the really cool thing that shows God's provision: I had a check in my drawer that I needed to deposit. It was the alpaca payment that I am receiving monthly as a result of the investment He led me to make 19 days short of three years ago (:D). Isn't that cool? Just shows that the Lord has a plan in EVERYTHING, even, and actually especially, when we don't know what it is. 

This story, with prayer requests, will be continued in the next post.