Skinny cows

When Joseph rose to power in Egypt, it was all because he knew his cattle. The pharaoh dreamed about 7 fat cows and 7 skinny cows, among other things. God revealed to Joseph the meaning of the dream, and Joseph became the second-in-command of Egypt. The 7 fat cows represented 7 good years of harvests, better than ever before. And the 7 skinny cows represented years of famine that would wipe away the good years that had come before.

At the Nehemiah Center, many of the pastors joke about the early years as being "fat cow" years. The programs had enough funding to take pastors to the beach for trainings, eat well, spend the nights in hotels, etc. Now we are living in the "skinny cow" years of financial crisis in the world economy and also in the Nehemiah Center budget. Thanks to God we have been able to make ends meet, but there is little cushion or margin for error in the budget. We definitely aren't spending any extra on luxuries.

The courtyard at the Nehemiah Center

However, the years of skinny cows are the ones in which God makes key moves. In the story of Joseph, the famine extended to his homeland of Canaan, forcing his family to go to Egypt where they heard there was grain stored up. The famine forced his brothers to desperately return to Egypt after their first encounter to rescue their imprisoned brother Simeon and reunite Joseph with his little brother, Benjamin. The skinny cow years weren't close to over, so Joseph invited his father and their entire household to move to Egypt. The skinny cow years brought unity and reconciliation.

Asking pastors in Chinandega to support the Nehemiah Center

I've witnessed a similar thing happen at the Nehemiah Center. Over the past year I have been involved with a funding campaign to raise funds for the administration of the Nehemiah Center. People at the Nehemiah Center have worked extra hard to be good stewards of our financial resources, and we have decreased our budgetary needs in many areas. However, we have also had to open up and be vulnerable with the pastors we serve. For the first time in Nehemiah Center history, we asked local churches to contribute offerings to the Nehemiah Center without being directly involved in training. The local church has been rallying to the call and expressing their support of the Nehemiah Center through words and finances. It's not enough to sustain the entire Nehemiah Center, but it's a start. Without the financial crisis, we wouldn't have had the courage or desperation to go and ask for support. Nothing much would have changed, and things would have stayed as they were; separate, dependent, alienated. By asking the Nicaraguan church for support, we have learned to trust God more, trust our local churches more, and trust ourselves more. Together, we can do this.

The first Nicaraguan donation to the Trumpet Call campaign from Getsemaní church in León

Maybe the years of the skinny cows aren't so bad after all.