Grace In Lack

“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4:19, NIV

October, 2025 gave me one of those quiet but life-changing lessons—one I didn’t expect to learn through loss.

On October 17, our stipend came in. Two days later, we traveled all the way to the city to withdraw it, spending ₱120 each just for transportation. Since trips like that don’t happen often, I withdrew everything, even my savings. By October 24, I organized it carefully—tithes, offerings, daily needs—and set aside ₱5,000 “just in case.” I tucked it inside my Bible for safekeeping, thinking it was the safest place I had.

A few days later, my partner and I planned to buy pillows. I opened my Bible to get the envelope—and froze. The envelope was still there, but the ₱5,000 was gone.

I cried. Hard.

I couldn’t understand it. I always had my Bible with me—house visits, meetings, devotionals. How could the money just disappear? My partner tried to comfort me, and then she remembered something from the youth fellowship days earlier. A little boy had handed her my Bible during church cleaning. She didn’t fully understand what he said, but she told him to place it on my bed. That moment hit me—I hadn’t even used my Bible that Sunday. Somehow, it had ended up in the church.

There were too many people around that day to even think of blaming anyone. And honestly, in that moment, the bigger struggle wasn’t the missing money—it was my faith.

We barely had anything left for food. We debated cooking rice, but we had nothing to go with it. My partner quietly said, “Maybe milk and bread is enough.”

So we went out to buy some—but three stores had no bread. The next one was too far. We decided to just head to worship instead, thinking maybe we’d find something along the way. We didn’t.

When we arrived, our brethren welcomed us with a smile and said, “We still have time—let’s eat first.”

He served milk and bread.

Exactly what we had just talked about. Exactly what we needed.

In that moment, everything clicked. God had already prepared the answer before we even finished worrying about the problem. I didn’t get my ₱5,000 back—but I gained something deeper: a real, personal reminder that God sees, knows, and provides.

On our way home, a store owner even gave us vegetables for free. It felt like God saying, “I’ve got you. Not just enough—more than enough.”

That experience changed how I see provision. Sometimes God allows us to lose something—not to leave us empty, but to teach us where our security really comes from.

And when all we have left is faith, that’s when we see Him move the clearest.

-Angeline Q. Bautista I 65th Batch 1000MM