SHOWERS OF BLESSINGS #9

(From my column “Looking Forward and Glancing Back” in the SGT monthly newsletter, April, 1987.  Bracketed information has been added.)

The spring of 1986 proved to be a wonderful time as God’s “Showers of Blessings” continued to pour out on Stained Glass Theatre. We had just seen God set us free from the bondage of debt, fill the theatre for the run of NARNIA, and give us two beautiful billboards on the Springfield roadsides. Could we ever expect more? Expect or not, God wasn’t through.

The next several months were filled with dozens of blessings. Our monthly financial pledge support began to grow almost overnight. New pledges (mostly unsolicited) soon took our support from a little over $100 per month to almost $500 per month. This amount met, almost exactly, our rent and utilities [for the building on Commercial Street].

Entrance to the building.

A rehearsal in the auditorium of the building.

Can you believe it? We couldn’t. We just kept praising God! Another unbelievable blessing that occurred last spring reminds me of an old expression I remember hearing my mother use, “Well, whoever would have thought it?” Indeed, who would have thought that a man would suddenly come by and tell us that he owned a doughnut shop and would like to give, that’s right, give us doughnuts to be sold at our concession counter. Unusual, right? But true. Bob Leasure, owner of Delta Dawn Doughnuts, has for the past year been furnishing SGT with doughnuts from his business to help us. That’s hard enough to believe without, as Paul Harvey would say, “the rest of the story,” which is that Bob later informed us that he felt God was blessing his business for helping us, so he wanted to do more. He wanted to furnish all the canisters of Coke for our fountain. Yes, it’s true, thanks to a wonderful Christian man and his family, we now have no cost for operating the concession counter. Yes, Mother, who would have ever thought it?

We want to say thank you to Bob Leasure and his family for their wonderful and unique support of SGT. We appreciate you so much. We pray that God will richly bless you for blessing us. Also, we would like to thank all those generous friends who support SGT with a monthly pledge. Your support is so important to keep the ministry at Stained Glass going and moving forward. May God bless you in every way! We thank you so much and we do remember you in our prayers.

Even in the midst of great blessings, life and ministry is not without times of testing. Such a time came to SGT last spring during the run of SAUL OF TARSUS [later renamed as The Damascus Road].

Ron Boutwell (Luke) and Pat Edmonds (Paul)

The cast closes Saul of Tarsus singing "I Know Whom I Have Believed"

Our dimmer board began to give us trouble and the lights would go out during a performance. The dimmer board was a very old, repaired “throw-away” from Southwest Baptist University. It was now too old to get replacement parts for, so we knew we were facing the necessity of purchasing a new board at a cost of $800. We agreed to trust God for the need rather than go back into debt. Within three weeks, all $800 had been given by our patrons. The next week, Terry marched into A.T.C. and paid cash for a new dimmer board. The employee at A.T.C., who was familiar with our past financial troubles, said to Terry, “Cash? Well, y’all must be doing pretty good!” Terry smiled and said, “Yes, I guess we are.”

I think you can begin to see, as we have seen, how obedience brings blessings. In the beginning, we told God that we would not go into debt. We did, and we suffered. God reminded us of our commitment to stay debt free and to trust Him to meet our needs. We obeyed and God has blessed us so wonderfully ever since. Praise God!

COMING NEXT: RETURN TO THE DREAM                           

See how the Stained Glass Players learn that something “too good to be true” may not be from God.