Teresa's Testimony

I would like to testify of the wonderful way in which the Lord has provided for me over the years.
In the early eighties the Lord led me to go to a Christian meeting at Hollybush Farm, Thirsk. As it was the first time I had ever been to Hollybush, I didn't know what to expect. The preacher was Don Laitham from Bath, and he spoke about tithing. Although I had been a Christian for a lot of years, I had never heard anyone preach on this subject. Don quoted from Malachi Chapter 3 v 8-10. Verse 10 says 'bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there be meat in my house and prove me now herewith saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.' The Holy Spirit really spoke to me that night and I came home with a determination to prove God. I was fascinated with everything that had been said and thought it was wonderful. After all these years I can still remember one thing Don said which was this. Don traveled many miles preaching, after he started tithing his car tyres lasted twice as long! After that evening at Hollybush I began to tithe, and however little money I had I always gave the Lord His first.
One year I can remember, the Lord really blessed us at haymaking time. A friend of ours had two or three fields of grass that he wanted mowing and said that we could have all the hay just for the making of it. We had so much hay that year, we couldn't get it into the barn so we sold two loads straight off the field.
Last year one of our farmer friends died suddenly and he must just have stocked up with coal for the winter. His daughter didn't have any use for this coal and so she gave it to us. There was about four tons of it. The Lord doesn't do things by halves!
Quite a few of the cows blessed us with twins instead of having  just one calf and we've been blessed in many other ways in between.
When our mother died in 1997, my brother and I inherited the farm and 11 ½ acres of land. Sometime in the eighties someone made the farm a listed building as it was built in the early 17th century. In 2005 the conservationists came around taking photos of all the listed buildings in the area to check and see whether they were being kept in good order. I had been getting a bit worried about the barn roof before the conservationists came round though, because some of the slates were slipping. As long as I can remember the ridge on the barn roof had a dip in it, this was because one of the main trusses was deteriorating. Also two main beams on the ridge were slowly slipping away from each other, the pegs must have given way. The result being that the gable end of the barn was slowly being pushed over.
This was the biggest challenge I had even had. I had always kept out of debt, but hadn't any money for a big job like this. The council duly sent us a letter stating that if we didn't do the work involved, then they would do it and send us the bill, whether we had any money or not!
There was only one thing we could do and that was to go and see if we could get a mortgage and pray. I've never had a mortgage in my life and certainly didn't want one then, especially at our age! Alison my daughter went with me to the Building Society because she used to work at the Abbey, so she understood all about mortgages. Well we got the mortgage, Alison, who has since become a Christian herself, said it was a miracle we got one.
In 2006, we got a roofer and builders  to start the job. The weather was another blessing, very hot that year, and it only took them from May to July to finish everything. We had the house roof done at the same time. Part of the gable wall on the barn had to be taken down and rebuilt. The builders said that the beam on the rigging was only held into the wall by about two inches, so it was a good thing we got it sorted before it all fell in.
 The boss of the roofers was a lovely man and said that he did lots of roofs for Christians Against Poverty. He wasn't a Christian himself but said that his  brother had been delivered from alcoholism. I used to witness to him a lot during the tea breaks. He was worried about whether I would be able to pay my mortgage, but I always told him that “my God shall supply all my need, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”(Philippians Chapter 4 vs. 19).
Last year at the beginning of April I received a letter from some solicitors in Birmingham to say that someone called Bobby had died and that they had found my name and address amongst his things and what relation was I to him? He hadn't left a will, had never married and hadn't any children. So I wrote back to tell them that he was my cousin. A few letters went back and forth, because the solicitors were seeking other cousins or aunts and uncles. We had to send birth, marriage, and death certificates as proof. It took a year to finalize everything. Cousin Bobby's estate amounted to half a million pounds. He'd been an engineer all his life building Land Rovers in Solihull. He had huge amounts of money in two banks. Of course the solicitors fees, inheritance tax, funeral expenses etc. came out of that, then the rest was shared out between all our cousins. Thomas my brother and I received a cheque each which paid the £35,000 mortgage outright and a bit more beside. This verse from the book of Proverbs 14 came to mind, verse 22, “A good man leaves and inheritance to his children's children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous”.
When I think back before we got a mortgage I used to jokingly say “we could do with a long lost relative leaving us something” never even thinking that would ever happen, but the Bible says that we get what we say doesn't it! (Mark 11;23)
The mortgage people gave us twenty five years to pay it back. I never asked the Lord for money, but asked Him to help us to pay it back quickly, because the borrower is servant to the lender and we should owe no man anything but love.
I just give God all the praise and glory for His wonderful wonderful provision and all His blessings which we receive from Him day by day.
 Teresa.

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