A (long) birthday story.

[bj]

G’Day SMS Forum readers… I thought I’d share with you about my birthday last Friday. (It’s Monday morning 8.00am here as I type this).
This year has been pretty tight for our family financially. This isn’t because my wife and I don’t have good jobs. It’s because early this year she decided to go to Thailand with a group from our church to work as a volunteer for a few weeks in July at an HIV/AIDS orphanage run by Mercy International for infants and young children. They depend upon self-funded volunteers to supplement their small regular, paid workers. Anyway my wife wanted to go because she thought that the “young people” going might benefit from having an older person be there too. She’s also a trained Pre-School Teacher/Administrator and has a heart for working with the very young.
We were just able to reserve enough funds for the cost of her trip in our yearly budget. However my daughter then decided to ask to go too! We thought that it would be an enriching, challenging experience for her so we agreed to pay for her too – she’s at university and has no money. They are both giving up their vacation time to do this.
Suddenly money got VERY tight. I had just started to get back into playing electric again after 25+ years of acoustic only. We were still paying off the 1952ri Tele that I’d bought late last year. The guitar lessons I was planning to take suddenly became unaffordable. The small amp I planned to buy to use at church instead of the heavy old monster that I’ve had to drag to and from the car on Sunday mornings was also forgotten. Lots of the everyday convenience spending that we did without thinking had to be curtailed. I knew the Thailand thing was more important so I didn’t mind too much. I felt like I was contributing.
Anyway… we made the last payments for my wife and daughter a week or so ago and the family finances have started allow a little bit of discretionary spending. My birthday came up on Friday. I turned 47. The family surprised me with a birthday card with an envelope containing exactly the right money for a Behringer GM110 amp – the very one I had wanted back before the Thailand trip was planned. I was so happy! I was given strict instructions from the family to order the amp that day. I expect to be able to collect it in the next week or two.
I feel so blessed that God has given me so much. I’m sure I’ll always associate this amp with the sacrifices our family made in the first half of this year so that my wife and daughter could serve Him in Thailand.
I’ll let you know about how the amp works out. Meanwhile, thanks for listening and best wishes from down under to my tele brothers and sisters around the world. bj

[Tylercaster]

Very heartwarming, God is blessing you already! :)

[Tom A.]

Originally Posted by Tylercaster

Very heartwarming, God is blessing you already! :)

AMEN, I just love these kind of stories. Hope you enjoy your amp.

[Brad]

I thank God there are people like you and your wife who are so willing to sacrifice to help others. I hope you enjoy the GM110. Be sure to read the manual carefully to fully understand how the effects loop ( I saw your other post ) works. I had a GM110 ( sold it as it just was not what I needed at the time ) and collected quite a few sample sheets for dialing in different types ( Vox, Tweed & Blackface Fenders, Marshall, Boogie, etc ) of amps. Email me your address and I'll be happy to send em to you if you like. Have fun with it! Take care & God bless.

[tom grossheider]

Happy birthday BJ, and may God bless you with many rich years.

[PraiseCaster]

We really need to hear those blessings that take place, while the war continues to rage. It really made feel all choked up to hear how you and your family have sacrificed to serve Him, and aint it Beautiful, how He see's it too! And He loves to bless His kids too!

God Bless you and your Family BJ! Thank you for sharing that with us all, and after you feel like youve properly broken that amp in, feel free to let us all know about it!