If a teenager is handed $5 without any directives, it’s a pretty good bet it’s going toward a double cheeseburger or enough gas to get them to a friend’s house.
But as Betsy Marvin of Cornerstone UMC in Caledonia will affirm, if a teen is handed five bucks and told to ask God for directions, the possibilities are incalculable.
On the heels of a church-wide campaign, Marvin created a “Pay It Forward” mission for the Cornerstone youth groups — and the power of the Holy Spirit was visible in major ways.
Based around the parable of the master giving his servants “talents” to invest, Marvin gave each high school student five silver dollars, with the stipulation that they spend 20 minutes in listening prayer.
Marvin said there is a lot of power in simply asking God questions and clearing your mind and heart to seek answers.
“I read a book called God’s Guide, written by Mary Geegh who was a missionary to India in like the (1940s) and she practiced listening prayer,” she said. “So when I read hear book I thought, we just have to try this and figure out how to do this and listen to God for answers instead of just shooting in the dark.”
It took some students several weeks to discern a call, while others received answers more quickly.
Briana Hutchinson thought she knew what to do with the money right away, but it took a little while for it to come into complete focus.
“(She) really wondered if what she heard from God was right, because she was told to go buy a Bible — and she thought Bibles cost more than five dollars, so this can’t be,” Marvin said. “When she was at school it really bugged her. Should I have bought a Bible, should I not? God just show me the person who needs a Bible and I’ll go buy it.”
Then one day she was in the library and had a conversation with a boy who was going through a tough breakup — and that’s when she realized he was the person she needed to help.
She went to the local Family Christian Store, and saw a lot of Bibles for $30-40, before some smaller New Testament Bibles by the register caught her eye.
“The lady (at the register told her) ‘if you’re a member the Bibles are five bucks’. So she looks up on the computer and (the girl) is thinking she never remembered signing up to be a member, but somehow she was in the computer,” Marvin said. “So she was able to get the Bible for five dollars.”
Hutchinson highlighted certain verses and wrote a personal note in the Bible before she gave it to the boy the next day.
“(A few days later the boy) said he stayed up all night reading the Bible and everything she had highlighted and said he couldn’t remember the last time he had a moment with God,” Marvin said. “He went back to church and he totally just felt like he reached back for God because of what she did.”
Hutchinson was not the only person to experience a breakthrough.
Riane McConnell said she had a scattered vision of what she was supposed to do with the money. She saw images of a green house, a spade on a playing card and an Asian person among other things.
“I know (pause), trust me, to hear her tell it it’s very funny,” Marvin said. “Finally her friend (Leah Buck), who happens to be Asian, asked her if she was ever going to act on it, and she didn’t know.”
So the two of them set off on a road adventure one day, not knowing where it might take them. Sure enough, down one street was the green house, with a spade carved into the roof.
And across the street was an assisted living center.
“They walked up to the door and basically said ‘we are here to pray.’ Through a series of different people they got on the phone with the supervisor who was in desperate need of prayer, ” Marvin said. “So the girls just prayed with her and the woman was just in tears that these girls had come to pray when she so desperately needed it. The girls left the talents there as a reminder to the woman that they were praying for her and they plan on volunteering down there this summer.”
Marvin said the lesson that seemed to resonate with the youth is that God rewards joyful obedience in powerful ways.
“Just random, cool, freaky things because they gave it up to God in prayer,” she said.
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