This week’s story is an excerpt from Founder & President Nancy Alcorn’s book “Echoes of Mercy,” about God meeting Mercy’s financial needs even from the beginning! We hope this amazing story encourages you and shows you that we can trust God for all of our needs.
Two months after posting our faith picture on the refrigerator, and right on the heels of the two offers for financial aid, I was invited to speak at a weeklong evangelistic conference in Las Vegas. The meeting was wonderful, but by the time it was over, I was exhausted. As I slipped into my plane seat, I closed my eyes and hoped no one would sit next to me.
“Excuse me.”
I opened my eyes to see a medium-sized man standing over me wearing blue jeans, a T-shirt, and tennis shoes. I moved to let him squeeze by and hoped he wouldn’t start talking to me. I was so tired all I wanted was to take a nap.
God had other plans. Even before this man fastened his seat belt, he turned to me and asked, “So how much money did you lose gambling in Las Vegas this week?”
I sat up almost regretfully. When someone asks me a question like that, I feel obligated to share what I believe. “I didn’t come here to gamble,” I said. “I don’t do that.”
He looked at me quizzically and said, “I’ve never heard of someone coming to Las Vegas and not gambling. What else is there to do?”
I spent the next two and a half hours describing my work and answering his questions. When we landed in Dallas-Fort Worth, he asked, “Nancy, do you have a brochure about what you do? I’d like to have one.”
I pulled one out of my carry-on and handed it to him as I headed toward my connecting flight. Since Mercy was so much a part of my life, I frequently talked with people about it and many times gave them our literature. Once we parted, I didn’t give our meeting much thought.
Four weeks later I got a long-distance phone call. “Nancy, I don’t know if you remember me or not. I’m the man who sat next to you on the flight from Las Vegas.”
“Sure, I remember. I gave you one of our brochures. Have you been back to Las Vegas?”
“No, I haven’t, and that’s part of what I’m calling about. Your story prompted so much thought in me the past few weeks that I haven’t been able to get Mercy off my mind. I had so many things I wanted to tell you that day on the plane, but we ran out of time. I don’t think I even told you my name.”
He went on, “I became a Christian just three months before I met you. In the past, whenever I was under pressure, I would go to Las Vegas and gamble. This last time it all felt so empty that I decided to go home, but when I got ready to leave, it was like there was almost a physical force holding me there. I couldn’t figure it out at the time, but I have finally come to the conclusion that I was supposed to be on that flight to meet you. I’m not used to this being led by God stuff yet, but every time I pray, I keep feeling like there is something I’m supposed to help you build. Are you trying to build something?”
“Yes, we already have land to build a maternity home.” He was silent for a moment, and when he began to speak again, he was crying. “Forty years ago,” he told me, “I was born to a teenage girl who had been raped. I never met my birth mother, but I’m sure, considering the circumstances, that if there hadn’t been a place for her to go, I would have been aborted.
“I was adopted when I was five days old and have always been very close to my adoptive mother. Last year she died and left me several million dollars. Ever since her death I’ve been looking for something special I could do in her memory that I thought would be pleasing to her. How much more money do you need?”
I took a deep breath and said, “A hundred and fifty thousand dollars.”
“You’ve got it.”
I was absolutely stunned. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. When I regained my composure, I shared with him all the events that had led up to this point. I told him how God had dealt with me to be willing to take in pregnant young women despite the fact that we weren’t really equipped to handle their needs. I described how we had acquired the land and about our faith picture and how the need was so great that we had been praying and believing for God to provide a way to build the home.
Although there were no strings attached to his generous gift, he did make one stipulation. He said it would be okay to tell the story of how the home was built but asked that I never reveal his name.
When I got off the phone, I let out a yell. One of my staff rushed into my office to see what was wrong. I was so overjoyed I could hardly speak. “We’ve got it! We’ve got it! We’ve got it!” I was almost dancing around the room.
“Got what?”
“Our new home! The rest of our new home is paid for!”
When the staff realized what I was talking about, we were all literally jumping up and down with joy. The residents had joined us by then and were ecstatic. We phoned all the members of our advisory board immediately to share the good news and even placed a few long-distance calls to some of our supporters to let them know how God had so richly blessed us. We were so excited that we could finally build the home.
You can purchase a copy of Nancy Alcorn’s Echoes of Mercy, by clicking here.