Testimony by Janine DiGiovanni

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6

Anyone that knows me knows that I have a problem with patience….my attitude is usually hurry up, gotta have it, give it to me now, oh never mind I will just do it myself! Sometimes I think I try this approach with God and he is slowly but surely teaching me that it doesn’t work that way in his kingdom.

This summer I came home during the hot spell we had and my house was 90 degrees. I called my friend who does heating and air-conditioning and he came over to give me the bad news. He could bypass the problem currently so that I could have cool air but I wouldn’t be able to turn on my heat without replacing the part. I immediately said “do it! How much could that little part cost”? He then regretfully told me that they no longer make this air-conditioning system and that if he can’t find the part left over somewhere I would have to replace everything to the tune of $4000. During this same time my husband’s car died and we had to purchase him another one to commute to Frederick. The morning we signed the loan papers I got the call that the part was nowhere to be found and that I would have to replace everything. My normal reaction would be to go ballistic and be emotional and rant about where the money was going to come from. I would normally have pulled out all of my banking records and got cracking on how I was going to pull this off!

For some reason the above verse “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Came to mind and I practiced something I am not sure if I have ever used before…..PATIENCE…..I relied on God that he was going to come through for me instead of the other way around. Later that month my brother-in-law Robert who is an electrician said maybe I could replace the parts inside of the motherboard if they are generic….when he pulled the board out he replaced what he had however he was pretty sure the computer chip was the problem and there was nothing he could do for me. Meanwhile we had the cold snap and my house was 50 degrees. For 6 days we were vagabonds going to my mom’s house and my mother-in-law’s house to keep warm. I was frustrated and frazzled with packing and moving and trying to keep my kids from falling apart at all the changes.

Then when we went to the young lives program last Thursday, Julia was listening to my story and said well we need to pray about this right now! She began to pray miracles over my heater along with Lisa and Kim. That following Monday my friend John came back to hook up the heater and to see if what Robert had replaced had done any good. No one really believed that it would work; in fact I had already packed my bag to stay the night somewhere else! The only thing I can say is that Philippians 4:6 kept playing over in my mind and I felt more peaceful than I had in a long time that things were going to be ok. The next thing I knew we had heat and we haven’t had any problems since! Each day that my house is warm I am reminded of God’s love, promises, and faithfulness in all aspects.

Janine DiGiovanni