God's Answer to Prayer About a Homeless Man who needed Special Clothing for an Interview

I want to share a story from yesterday that shows me how God cares about every detail of our lives. Just before the luncheon began yesterday, someone dropped off freshly dry-cleaned men's shirts in our clothing room. My friend Lia (who has managed the clothing for the past year- just one example of the many volunteers who God has brought into this ministry who doesn't attend this church) hung up the shirts, and said she couldn't help notice that they were especially nice quality shirts. She said that she (and her helpers) continued to organize the rest of the clothing when she came across one umbrella among the bags of donations. Lia said that she thought to herself that this was the first umbrella she had ever seen donated to our ministry since she has been volunteering for over a year, and she decided to put it safely in the storage closet rather than leave it out on the open tables with the other stacks of clothing donations - where the men freely choose what they need.

Just before all of this went on in our clothing room, Steve talked to me on the morning bus ride about a very important interview scheduled for Tuesday. Steve has been coming out to our church for a few months and has truly been seeing God's hand on his life as he is slowly stepping out of homelessness (he now lives in room in a YMCA). This interview is huge for him, but he expressed his concern that he look professional for the interview. He said that he picked up a nice suit from our clothing ministry at the last luncheon, but did not have any clean dress shirts. As always, I never know what clothing will be available, so we both agreed to pray that God would provide.

I will admit that with everything going on yesterday, I never got around to talking to Lia or anyone in the clothing room about Steve's need for nice shirts. At the end of the day yesterday, Lia came up to me and told me that she had a story she wanted to share with me.

She told me that Steve asked her if by any chance there were any clean dress shirts that he might wear for an interview on Tuesday. She asked him what size he was and he told her 18", 36/37"; and she looked at the shirts in the dry cleaning bag and they were exactly his size! Lia said that she couldn't believe that they were the exact size (how did that happen?), and that Steve was so happy and said these shirts were an answer to prayer. She said it was 'kind of weird' because he then said to her "There is just one more thing I wish I could have but I'm sure you don't have it. I'm afraid it might rain on Tuesday, and I wish I could have an umbrella." Lia said her mouth just dropped and she said to him, "Wait right here...", and returned with the nice compact professional umbrella someone had donated! The one day that an umbrella was donated (since Lia has been volunteering), someone specifically asks for one. She said "No one has ever mentioned or asked for an umbrella before, and I'm not sure why I put it to the side." - God is amazing and does care about every detail of our lives, and I thank Him for showing us and Steve and Lia that He is with us and cares for us...even - and especially - in the details of our lives!