One of the many miracles in my life started in the spring of 1980 in Abingdon, Virginia.
My first husband, a deputy sheriff, abandoned me and my son, age 10, and a daughter, age 6, leaving us without money for food and gas. When I tried to hire an attorney for assistance, none would help me until the Commonwealth Attorney took pity on us and took my case. My ex-husband had left town with one of the county prostitutes after he “crossed the line and went to the dark side,” becoming a criminal. In the South at that time, if you committed socially unacceptable behavior, you were not accepted back into the community, so his only option was to leave.
We were left with a penny and one dime, which obviously wouldn’t buy us food and gas for the car. Then a letter came from the bank. An audit showed we’d overpaid on a loan and a check was included that would cover our needs till I got my next paycheck in two weeks. Prayers of thanksgiving followed. It was a miracle!
Later, my car alternator was broken and the car had become hard to drive. I was now homebound, so I felt a strong urge to clean out my daughter’s closet. I packed one bag of hand-me-downs for a friend the next street over. When I called her to tell her about the clothing and that I couldn’t deliver the bag to her because my car didn’t work, she put her auto mechanic husband on the line. He told me to drive the car to his garage, because it could make it one block. He worked on it and said that the strangest thing had happened. He had stored an alternator in a corner of his garage for a year, not knowing what to do with it. It fit perfectly in my car! He only charged me $4 for the belt. Prayers and tears of gratitude poured forth as I claimed Philippians 4:13, ”I can do all things through him who gives me strength.”
Houses at that time were not selling very well, but my attorney had had the foresight to have my ex-husband sign over the house to me before he left town. When I put it up for sale, another attorney bought it in three days, making it easy for us to move back to California. It was one more miracle!
The years ticked on, with bumps in the road, and I worked hard to get out of the apartment and into a house. I managed to invest in the Canadian stock market and make enough profit for a down payment on a house that had not sold in a year. Christmas of 1984 welcomed us into our actual home. Just before moving in, the house had flooded from a broken bathroom pipe and the sellers’ insurance paid for all new carpet inside. It was another miracle!
I held down one full-time job as an emergency room nurse and two part-time ones – being a flight nurse in a helicopter and reading medical charts for attorneys prior to discovery. It all helped pay the mortgage and household bills. I thanked God that I’d completed my education before getting married.
But the most memorable miracle of all was finding my current husband. I prayed for one and made my request specific, coming boldly to the throne of grace. God was to put him on my front porch because I wasn’t going to look for the “right man.” I’d been unequally yoked with my first husband and wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice, thus I wanted Jesus to choose in my stead.
And then there he was in October of 2000, in my Sabbath School, this kind-looking, sharp-dressing man with a quick smile and sense of humor. I recognized him, since he was the twin of my former La Sierra Academy biology teacher. A comment I had made in Sabbath School about my love of persimmons made an impression on this member to share the fruit with me. Behold, he came to my front porch with bags of the delicacies. I knew, like Gideon of old, that my fleece had been dry.
I prayed for strength and direction and asked him out to the Christmas concert at the church, which he accepted, on the condition that I go with him to a Palm Springs Foley program. We dated and subsequently married in 2001 in a small backyard wedding.
I claim Joel 2:25 that says, “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten.” God gives back what was taken from us and that is truly a miracle!
We’ll celebrate 24 years of our miracle this year and are blessed beyond words.
Virginia Minder has been a member of the La Sierra University Church since she and Wally got married in 2001; she currently volunteers at FoodPantry+ and Destination Sabbath School.