Some people get a bit wigged out when I get “all spiritual”. Well, this particular post is “all spiritual”. It’s undeniable.

A week ago, we had a very sad meeting with our staff of The Keep. We told them that the money was gone. We let them know that we did not have enough money to pay their salaries for next month. We’ve been covering expenses (electric, water, supplies, etc) from profits for a while now, but we haven’t made enough to pay salaries. It’s all been out of pocket. Well, the pocket was empty. Hence the meeting.

We told the staff it would take a miracle to keep us open. We asked them to pray along with us, and we would seek a sign from God that we were to keep going. It was God, after all that dropped miracle after miracle on us to even open the place, but if it was His timing to shut down, we were prepared for that.

Three days later, I was on Skype, and an old friend asked for our bank account information, saying he wanted to wire us money. I was surprised and humbled by the gesture and by my friend’s charity, but at that exact moment, I was multitasking, so I didn’t think too deeply about it. Then he told me the amount, and my spinning brain ground to an immediate halt. The donation was the single largest donation we’ve ever received from anyone. No single person or corporation has ever donated more, and this was from a friend of relatively modest means. It was enough to cover staff salaries for about the next eight months.

The thing that’s the most interesting about this situation is that I didn’t tell anyone other than our employees that we were in financial trouble. I didn’t post it to the web, and I didn’t go publicly asking for help. We just prayed for a miracle, and a sign that we were on the right path, and it came decisively and suddenly. It was crystal clear. So The Keep will stay the course.

In the mean time, I’m fully confident that the work permit issue will work itself out as well.