A goat and the Smelly Cat

Well, it was time to raise some funds to help buy the goat for the Kyengera orphanage (see the Kirabo Seeds post).  Last Friday night we had a plan to set up a table in a neighborhood with some baked goods to sell. In Charlotte, like other cities there are neighborhoods that have their own little main streets with shops and restaurants and it was the plan to setup our sale on North Davidson which is always bustling on the weekends.  We woke up Friday excited about our fundraiser. All the goodies were baked and we were ready to go by the middle of the afternoon.  However, by 4:00 it was clear that there would be no bake sale because of some heavy rain that lasted for a couple of hours.  We had planned to sell near some restaurants around dinner time so that we could catch people as they walked to and from dinner.  It was the perfect plan!  But, now the rain was ruining it. We were bummed.   Having the sale on another night of the weekend was out of the question because plans on the holiday weekend.  So what were we going to do?  We now had piles of cookies and several loaves of pumpkin and banana bread and chocolate chip muffins sitting on our kitchen table, not being much use for anything (not to mention the temptation to us!). 

We decided that I would take Jake and Elyse out there on Tuesday at lunchtime and pray for the best.  We weren’t nearly so excited at our prospects for business on a weekday lunch hour versus a weekend dinner time, but we had to try to get some of these things sold!  So, Tuesday came and we headed out to set up our table.  Of course, it was about 90 degrees at lunchtime and as soon as we set things up, the chocolate chips immediately started melting.  It was hot!  It was really easy at this point to wonder why we were even out there, and why we didn't just eat the goodies ourselves and make more for another Friday night bake sale, but I felt like after praying that this is what we needed to do!  Pretty quickly we had a few business men on their lunch hour walk by and say “Hi”, but they clearly weren’t interested in buying. 

Here’s where it gets interesting.  After about ten minutes, and all of us beginning to sweat, the owner of the Smelly Cat Coffeehouse down the street (yes, it really is named the Smelly Cat!) came by on her way to run errands. She stopped and asked Jake and Elyse what they were doing.  We explained what we were trying to raise money for and immediately she said.."I will buy all of it to sell in the coffeehouse!"...WHAT?  We brought everything over to the coffeehouse and she bought every last bit of it. Now, she never once asked how much we needed for the goat we wanted to buy.  The goat costs $70, and we had about $15 already toward the purchase.  Well, after offering a dollar per bag of cookies and $7 per loaf of bread, she ended up paying….$55!!  Exactly enough for the goat!  How awesome is that?!  This was God's plan all the time.  You see, if we had been able to have the sale on a Friday night I’m convinced we would have made more than just the cost of the goat.  But, if we had done it that way, God wouldn't have been glorified like he was on this Tuesday afternoon.  We got to see God's provision and love for those kiddos in Uganda in the flesh and in a way we could never have imagined.  He used the Smelly Cat Coffeehouse to provide the money to buy a goat for kids half a world away!

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.  Psalm 68:5

Yesterday I read a post by Josh Via titled Though He is High, He Regards the Lowly.  The scripture he shared was this one from Psalms and I thought it couldn't fit this situation any better.  We are so thankful that we got to witness God's provision for his children.  I will never forget that day as long as I live and I pray that Jake and Elyse will not either!

Though the LORD is exalted, he looks kindly on the lowly; though lofty, he sees them from afar. Psalm 138:6

Love
Tracy