When I was 16 years old I got my first big job.  I was working as a teller at a bank.  I remember the day when the manager brought me into the bank vault.  I was stunned to see all the little bricks of cash.  At 16, I figured with a suitcase full of those little bricks of money I could feed the whole world. 

Then God introduced me to the poor.  They were my customers and they were on social assistance and they were coming into the bank to cash their Government welfare cheques.  The problem, however, was that the bank gave me a rule I had to respect.  All bank accounts needed to have a minimum of one dollar in them, or the bank would have to close them.  These poor people had less than one dollar in their bank account and they wanted their whole cheque cashed; they didn’t want to deposit any money, so a little girl invented a solution.  She would take one dollar from her bank account and put it in their bank account so the poor people’s bank accounts would stay open.  I was concerned that if the bank closed their bank account, they would not be able to cash their welfare cheques.

For a little while no one was aware of my perfectly legal “micro financing” strategy.   I was using my own little bank account to work this out, so I couldn’t imagine anyone would have a problem with it.  Except I had not anticipated that the customers I was helping would insist on waiting in line to be served by me.  The customer line up got all disorganized because some people insisted on waiting a little extra to come to my cash.   Some days I would smile at Jesus because I was using my hourly wage up putting one dollar in different bank accounts.

It didn’t take too long for my supervisor to figure out what I was doing, and I was removed from cash and asked to type instead.  One day the bank manager announced to the supervisor while I was typing that he had a list of bank accounts that he wanted her to close.  They were accounts that had less than one dollar in them.  So I stopped typing immediately as I realized those were my customers! …the ones I was trying to help!…I don’t have a great memory but I remember this day vividly because I am convinced that day Jesus used a young teenager to help a good man get wise.  I jumped out of my chair and said “If the bank didn’t charge so many fees, they would have one dollar in their bank account.  They are on welfare and if you close their bank account how will they cash their cheques and feed their families?”

I remember the bank manager stopped and for a moment there was complete silence, the kind of silence that makes people uncomfortable.  I had never really spoken to the manager about anything significant.  To my great surprise he told the supervisor to freeze the fees on the accounts and leave them open and he walked away giving me a little smile…God’s smile!  He understood God had used me to advocate for the poor.  And a powerful man responded with wisdom.

I am not a teenager anymore and I have discovered many wonderful ways our money can love God.  Did you know that leprosy, for example, can be cured with some drugs!  When I learned that I said to my husband, “Let’s be like Jesus and heal a poor leper”…and so we did.  Jesus healed people and today there are so many children born with cleft palate and it’s such a horrible, painful disfigurement that makes it difficult for little children to talk and eat and smile, but there are amazing organizations that train doctors to intervene with surgery.  With a little money from people who care, doctors in developing countries can heal a poor child, and put a big smile on their face!  So one year for Christmas that was the gift we bought, a smile!

Then I met a lady who was helping orphans in Africa by collecting funds so that they could go to school and I have had the privilege of helping a child go to school!  And right here in the developed world there are people who are poor and are struggling and we can help them too with our donations to the food banks and missions that are providing shelter and food.

Let’s use our money to help our neighbours.  Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it for me.” Matthew 25:40