Here’s a wonderful faith generating story from Bill Hamon and his wife Evelyn (Link NLA) telling of some tough times during the early years of their ministry in 1958 when all they had were 8 pennies and they prayed for the 8 pennies to somehow be turned into $8 so that they could go down the road to their next ministry assignment:

“In the early years, my wife, Evelyn—”Mom”—and I traveled in ministry with our son, Tim. When he was a year and a half old, we were in Muskogee, Oklahoma, doing meetings in a small country church. The congregation didn’t have a pastor, and every night after I would minister they would place a basket on the altar and say, “We know you’re all poor and you don’t have anything, but if you could find something to give to the minister, that would be a blessing.”

After about two weeks of ministering there, paying for our own food, gas and other needs, we were averaging about 50 cents per night in the offering. Even in 1958, 50 cents was not very much money.  …”

Side comment: Now some of you younger folks may not realize how much the worth of a US dollar has changed over the years. I can remember going to lots of Saturday matinee movies at the picture show in the mid 50’s as a kid with my 50 cents allowance which not only got me in the door but also a small coke and a popcorn–and I got to see 2 movies, a couple of cartoons, plus a newsreel to help you get seated! So much for the good ol’ days.