In the fall of 2012, Bismark Mensah, a recent immigrant to the U.S. from Ghana, was working part-time job as a "courtesy associate" at a Wal-Mart near Seattle, Washington. As he collected shopping carts, Bismark often found personal items that customers had left behind—keys, credit cards, wallets. But on an October afternoon he spotted an item that really grabbed his attention. It was a white envelope with a clear window in the middle that was bulging with cash. Lots of cash—like $20,000 in cash!<\/p>\n\n
Mr. Mensah could have used some of that cash. He came to the U.S. to study business administration so he could return to Ghana and help his mom expand her five small seamstress shops. And by making $9.05 per hour at Wal-Mart it will take him a long time to fulfill that dream.<\/p>\n\n
But Mensah says he never considered keeping the money. "My conscience wouldn't allow it," he said. "I couldn't even drive home if I did that." So, instead, he ran after the husband and wife who had left the cash. As it turns out, they were going to use the money for a down payment on a house. Mensah said, "She was like, 'Wow!' Tears are coming out. She took some money and tried to reward me. I said, 'No, no. I'm all right.'"<\/p>\n\n
Mensah received Wal-Mart's "Integrity in Action Award" and a promotion. Now he works full time for $9.19 an hour—with benefits. But for Mensah the real rewards are more internal. He had this to say about his job: "In the parking lot, people chat, tell you their problems, you see that a person is not happy. I tell them, 'God is in control. Everything is OK.'"<\/p>\n\n
Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Honesty and Integrity; (2) Service, Servanthood, Hiddenness<\/strong>—As we serve the Lord and others we may have no idea of the impact that our small deeds of kindness and service will have on others; (3) Sovereignty of God<\/strong>—Although we don't know a lot about Mr. Mensah's faith, it appears that he could give the money away because he was trusting in God to provide. As he tells customers, "God is in control. Everything is OK."<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[405,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3683,3941,3942,4147,4164,4190,4220,4264,4304,4321,4499,4786,4841,4952,4953,5027],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-42979","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-contentment","tax_ctp_tags-faithful-service","tax_ctp_tags-faithfulness","tax_ctp_tags-hiddenness","tax_ctp_tags-honesty","tax_ctp_tags-humble-service","tax_ctp_tags-immigrant","tax_ctp_tags-integrity","tax_ctp_tags-joy-in-service","tax_ctp_tags-kindness","tax_ctp_tags-motivation-for-service","tax_ctp_tags-refugee","tax_ctp_tags-reward-for-service","tax_ctp_tags-servanthood","tax_ctp_tags-service","tax_ctp_tags-sovereignty-of-god"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"\n