Debbie Nelson, Upper Columbia Academy financial vice principal, pulled down a large three-ring binder marked with a bunch of tiny yellow sticky notes. She flipped to one of the marked pages. Pointing to the handwritten note at the top of the page, she told me, “Each one of these represents a miracle.”
Two weeks before registration day, Nelson met with Linnea Torkelson, UCA Alumni director, to discuss the Worthy Student Fund for the 2011 school year. The Worthy Student Fund is donated money that UCA uses to help students come to school whose parents cannot pay the full bill. It has been the reason many students are now attending UCA.
This year, however, they discovered that the Worthy Student Fund only had $60,000. When they added up the tuition needs of the students who needed worthy student assistance, they found the total amount needed was $400,000. That meant they had a difference of $340,000 left to raise. If they didn’t get this money, 30 students who wanted to attend UCA wouldn’t be able to.
Nelson made several calls trying to see if there were any resources out there, but had no success. Nelson finally had to make the dreaded calls to the families of the 30 students. Through tears, she prayed with the parents. They prayed that if God wanted these students to go to UCA then He would provide the money.
Nelson called several churches in the Upper Columbia Conference asking if they would be willing to assist students from their local areas financially. Many churches answered by accepting the call and adopted 20 of the students in need. There were still 10 students left that needed money in order to attend UCA.
No money came in and it got closer and closer to registration day. It looked like those 10 students wouldn’t get to go to UCA at all. Then, five days before registration day, Nelson got a phone call from an anonymous person saying they wanted to donate $20,000. A few hours later, another anonymous person called saying they would donate $5,000. Throughout the rest of the day, three more people called.
Within a 24-hour period, $35,000 had come in from five anonymous donors. All but one of those 10 students were able to come to UCA.
No one knows why God provided the money for everyone of those 30 students except for one, but maybe he has plans for that student at some other school. We can always trust God to know the big picture. These miracles are reminders that no problem is too big for God to handle and money is no object to Him. He will always provide for us.
