Sing for Your Supper

“Sing for Your Supper”

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

You’ve heard the expression, “Sing for Your Supper”, well, there was a time in my life when I had to literally sing for my supper. In fact, I had to sing for any meal!!!

It was the summer of 1983. I had abandoned all my comfort zones and found myself in Austria, not with friends or family, but with a team of nine other young people from Germany, Austria, Finland, England and America. We were there with Operation Mobilization to share the gospel with the Austrian people.

When I left the US to go to Bible School in Germany for 6 months, I left my comfort zone. Lifestyle, food, customs, language, all different than what I was used to. Though the classes were in English, there were students from all over the world. My first roommate was German and taught me some of the language we heard regularly when in town. During Christmas vacation I had the amazing privilege to live 3 weeks with a German family. The children, who spoke some English were not always there so I got more lessons in German. After Bible school I then went to work with a family in Austria for a few months. The parents spoke English, but the children and townspeople taught me more German.

Then our team arrived in Hollabrunn, just outside of Vienna and were forced to abandon more comforts we were used to. It was very late on a Saturday evening and we were very tired from travelling when we arrived at the place where we were to stay for the next two months. We were not prepared for what met us. It was an ancient house. Not only that, there was no hot water, no shower or tub, one little toilet closet (not even a bathroom), one tiny sink in the hall, and no refrigerator. There was a wash machine, if you could call it that, that looked like it was from the middle ages. No joke. There was also a kitchen but with nothing but counters in it. No sink and no stove! There were cobwebs and dirt in abundance! To say we were discouraged was a bit of an understatement.

God did a miracle in our hearts though. The next morning, we all went into our own little corners to have our quiet time and God met us there through His Word. Soon we had the place fixed up and were adjusting to the different way of doing things with what we had. A few days later God even provided us with two burners for which we were very grateful. We learned we could take showers at the local swimming pool, which normally was very costly, but a friend was able to get us in much cheaper.

So, what all does this have to do with singing for your supper? The term, to “sing for your supper” is an idiom which, according to Wikipedia Encyclopedia, means: To obtain something by working for it or by providing another service in return. If you don’tknow anything about Operation Mobilization (OM), their mission is to spread the Gospel. One aspect of that mission is through literature. Therefore, our team was given two things to get us started: A very small allowance and lots of Christian books, tracks, and Bibles. Because the money would not be enough for the month, we were then forced to go out and make contacts with the people. One way to do that was to go door to door and sing to the people then offer them some literature. When people actually took the literature, they would often give us a gift of money or food though we asked for neither. In this way, we literally and figuratively sang for our supper!

As far as getting to know the people, that wasn’t as easy. The Austrian people are mostly Catholic and strong worshippers of Mary. They have been taught to be suspicious and unfriendly to that which is different. Nevertheless, God’s Spirit was at work and we were able to break some of the barriers through special events such as: Singing, drama, classical music, an Indian evening, slide shows and more. It was never a large group that we attracted, but those who came were often really searching for the truth and some even came to know Christ personally. Unfortunately, the closest Bible centered church was in Vienna, one hour away.

The ten of us stepped out of our comfort zone and learned to work together. We sang for our supper and God provided in miraculous ways. We never lacked anything. In fact, we had an over abundance in finances and food. We had to give food away because the people gave us so much. What a lesson in trust I will always be grateful to OM for. The lessons learned during that time really came in handy as a single missionary in Austria and then in Canada, and also as a married couple in Hawaii and now on the mainland. We have never had to sing for our supper again, but God has always been faithful.

Blessings, mari