Strange but true

Group, Mar/Apr 2001 by Hotze, Denise

When I was first called into youth ministry, I worked at a small church in Texas with only two junior high kids in the whole congregation. As I began to build up the youth group by reaching out to unchurched young people, I thought to myself... It sure would be great if I knew how to play the guitar so that I could lead these students in some worship.

I began to pray about the situation, telling God that if he wanted me to be able to lead worship, then he'd have to provide me not only with a guitar but also with the ability to play it. I was pretty much broke at the time and couldn't afford a guitar or lessons, let alone both. I never told anyone about my desire to learn this new instrument. I wanted to leave it with God and wait for his answer.

A few months later, when I went to mail some postcards that I'd written to our students, I found a note in my P.O. Box from United Parcel Service, saying that they had a package waiting for me.

As I drove to the UPS office, I kept wondering the whole way there what in the world this could be. To my surprise, when I wept in and handed over my notice, the lady brought out two packages-one great big one and come.smaller one. Neither package had a return address. I remember thinking, How can this be? Doesn't CPS need the sender's address?

I took the Packages out to my car, and when I opened them up, there was a small starter guitar and a video titled Learn to Play the Guitar Overnight. I was blown away. I went home, watched the video, and learned how to play about three chords. I had a Petra Praise CD that included the guitar chords for one simple songexactly the three chords that I'd happened to learn from the video.

Although I asked around, I never discovered who might have sent the guitar To this day, I haven't any idea where it came from, but I give all credit, honor, and praise to God for providing me with this ministry instrument.

At the end of my first year, God had grown that group to about 30 kids. And what an awesome opportunity I had to share Christ through music!

Denise Hotze now lives in Georgia, where she works as the director of youth ministries for a national evangelism ministry.