“Do not be anxious then, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘With what shall we clothe ourselves?’ For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.” Matt 6:31-33 (NASB)

We were one of only a few couples who came into the Agape Force already married, especially in the earlier years. In 1975 Agape Force was still a ministry of young singles. But God called us and we went. We even had a child already, a baby girl, named Leah, who was a year old.

As I look back on those times, I realize how utterly dependent we were on God for everything. We had committed ourselves to, “Go into the highways and byways and compel them to come in”, and left the usual and conventional ways that people live and support themselves to be available to go anywhere and do anything that the Lord needed us to do. That was the key. We did not expect God to take care of us so that we could do our own thing. We were there always and only to do His will. We were certainly not opposed to working - on the contrary. We worked hard, but everything we did, we did “as unto the Lord”. We actually went to the gates of hell, places where most people dared not go, and our ultimate goal was always the salvation of souls.

So, to that end, we abandoned everything and lived completely in trust. This trust was based on our belief that if we worked to do God’s will, and obeyed Him, then He would meet our basic needs. There weren’t very many people who understood that level of trust or commitment back then. I think there are more now, but some still find these concepts hard to fathom.

After we had been with the ministry about a year or so, we discovered that we were expecting another child. We were in Houston so we checked around with the various local hospitals. We had no health insurance, of course, and no money to put down, but we found a hospital that would work with us and agreed to deliver our baby for what seemed to be a reasonable price. Nevertheless, we were going to have to come up with about $1,000.00 before the baby was born.

In faith, we made the arrangements and went to the Lord in prayer about this need. Then we simply went back to the work that the Lord had given us to do.

The Lord was faithful and began to provide a little here and a little there. As we got money in we would take it to the hospital and put a little more down; sort of like having a baby on layaway. Two very special and specific things happened though that I will always remember.

On one occasion, a lady approached my friend, JoAnn Durnal, at my home church back in San Diego and asked, “Do you know a guy named Jim Berrier?”

“Yes,” she said (JoAnn had a daughter who was also in the Agape Force) “I know him.”

“Well, I don’t.” the lady said, “but the Lord just told me I’m supposed to send him some money.”

“Then, you’d better do it,” JoAnn responded. And the lady did. You really know it’s God when things like this happen and someone who doesn’t know you hears from God and is told to help meet your needs.

Time passed quickly, though, and as our due date got closer, we were still a long way from having the hospital taken care of. All we could do was continue to trust.

Then, Charlie, another friend from our home church, sold his house and decided to send us some money from that sale. He sent $500.00, a huge amount of money for us in those days. When we got the money in the mail, we immediately took the check to the bank and cashed it. From there we went to the hospital and paid the remainder of what was required. We still had a little money left over, so we went out to eat, full of thankfulness and amazement at the faithfulness of God.

The very next morning we woke up to labor pains and a trip to the hospital where another daughter was born to us. We always called Jamie our miracle baby after that, but the truth is, that story was not very much out of the ordinary. As we walked through each day, God gave us what we needed to continue to work for Him. We believed with all our hearts that God meant what He said in His Word. If His commands to forsake all and follow Him were to be followed, then His promises about the birds of the air and the lilies of the field were also to be believed and walked out in faith.

Jim Berrier