Seven Pence
Around 2014, Tendai Chetse was a Zimbabwean student in the UK with 7p in her bank account. Seven pence. Not enough for a bus ride. Not enough for a packet of crisps. Seven pence standing between her and zero.
She was pursuing a postgraduate qualification — a step she believed God had directed her to take. But the finances hadn't lined up the way she expected. International student fees are brutal. Living costs in the UK are relentless. And Tendai had no family money to fall back on.
The Offering That Made No Sense
That Sunday, Tendai went to church. The offering came around. She looked at her phone — 7p. And she felt something she can only describe as a nudge: give it.
Everything in her screamed no. This was her last money. She had no food for the week. No guarantee of anything coming in. Giving 7p to a church that didn't need it felt absurd.
She gave it anyway.
"I remember thinking, 'Lord, this is everything I have. It's also nothing. If you're real, you're going to have to do something with this because I'm out.'"
What Happened Next
Within the following weeks, Tendai's financial situation began to shift in ways she couldn't have orchestrated. A scholarship she hadn't applied for was offered to her. A part-time role appeared that covered her living costs. A bursary came through that she'd been told was unavailable.
By the end of her postgraduate course, every bill had been paid. Not through a single dramatic intervention, but through a cascade of provisions that arrived one after another, each covering the next gap.
Tendai completed her qualification. She now works in her field, and she still talks about the 7p offering as the most important financial decision she ever made.
What This Means for You
Tendai's story isn't about the magic of giving your last money. It's about what happens when you act on something you believe God is asking you to do, even when the maths makes no sense.
Seven pence is nothing in economic terms. But as an act of trust, it was everything. Tendai didn't give because she could afford to. She gave because she believed someone was watching, someone who cared, and someone who could do more with 7p than she could with a full bank account.
If you're down to your last — not even enough to be useful — consider that God might not be asking you to solve the problem. He might be asking you to trust him with it.