THE REALITY OF ALMS GIVING!

Some weeks ago I was about paying for my shopping at the automated checking out point when I was told that I didn’t have to pay for the items because I had a membership card that has now been updated because of COVID-19, to make the shopping free for myself.

On getting home later that evening, a man and a woman (both White) met me by the Bus stop and asked if I could help them with some money to buy food stuff at a nearby shop.

Things about begging in Europe is that (1) beggars often tell you exactly what and how much they are asking of you and (2), beggars feel more comfortable approaching the Black dudes and (3) Beggars often offer you a help or entertainment , like giving you a free magazine or playing the guitar or dancing, before asking you for aid.

All that I had on me as Cash was the money I would have spent at the Shop. Two bills. I gave the guy one bill and turned to move when my spirit within me said I should go back and give the remainder.

I handed him everything and walked home happily. I said happily because I felt the peace instantly that God had kept this money for the couple by refusing me to spend it at the shop. I got the ministration, instantly – What have I that I had not received?

Everyone, or let’s say people in Europe know it’s a season of lack and austerity. Many guys have not worked for more than four weeks and not just work, but they have lost neighbours and friends to COVID-19 and are still in the awe. It’s not what most people back home understand. They just want money.

I have also been indoors until lately. Just indoors watching television and praying. You go outside and there’s actually nowhere to go. Few shops open and you pick up glossaries and rush back in with masked faces. SMH

Anyway, a phone call came in and I picked it up – in my jail. It was the voice of a rich Ghanaian woman. She’s got solid investments in Ghana and I know she’s rich and Godly. I have met her severally.

She asked how I was coping in the jobless season of this COVID-19 and I said I was fine, Ma. A woman of few words. She told me she’s put a palliative pound in my account and I should enjoy it and stay safe. Before I could finish thanking her, she’s hung up.

I used to volunteer as a Classroom Teacher in an Irish institute not too far from where I live. I did that once a week for two years. It’s a School for young Adults with Autism, Dyslexia and other Learning disabilities. Her son was one of my students.

She thinks she owes me a reward for giving my time without salary to teach her son or maybe her son talks good about me at home. I don’t know what, but I wasn’t volunteering just for her son. I found joy in doing what I did and I learnt a lot there as a research student . I also have a younger brother with learning disabilities.

Well, I know she had my account details because she took it off me sometime last year, when, again, she blessed my kids with some money, because I told her I was travelling home.

I open my Barclays Bank app on my mobile phone and lo she’s credited me happily with pounds. If you are good at maths (I am not), then you will understand the biblical arithmetic of : “Good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over shall men give back unto you…

“That was the best way to explain the relationship between the money I gave to the beggars at my Busstop and the money the Ghanaian woman paid into my account as a cushion for the COVID-19 lockdown.

– What do you have that you’ve not received from the Lord?

By Iyiachukwu G C ACHUKWU

MY TAKE:

In the coming new times anyone who does not give cannot receive. The condition of receiving is giving. This is a compliance to the law of balance. In that millennium man will be schooled on how to live in honor of God. Even the family members who think it is their right to leech on relatives with nothing in return won’t be sustained. Of course, with the restoration of true sense of family all these aberrations will consequently disappear!