Daily Bread in Uncertain Times
“Give us this day our daily bread” - Matthew 6:11
With everything that's been happening with Covid-19, the ministry has looked a little different. However, we’ve still been able to find ways to be proactive and responsive to families’ needs and to care for our young kid leaders scattered all across Grand Rapids.
The past three Tuesdays, we’ve mobilized small teams of stalwart volunteers to deliver food, Bible lessons and activities for the kids to do within their own homes.
God has provided exactly what we needed. I just wanted to share a few examples of how he has:
Donations come in at the right time
On the morning of Tuesday, March 17 (before social distancing became as intense as it has), I met with a pastor and shared what our response has been in this time of crisis. He chose to give us $1,000, right before we began mobilizing the troops to serve the kids. It was sweet because, later when we went to the store to purchase additional groceries, art supplies, and games, I had no reservation spending the money that was needed, because I knew we had $1,000 more than what we began the day with. We were able to purchase enough items to stock about 30 care packages, each providing an estimated 24 square meals.
The problem was, when I returned to the office, our communication director had compiled a list of 64 households with kids registered in the Community Kids system (plus others who were unregistered) that needed food delivered. I told her that we would just have to cut kids from the list.
Later, as we were putting the care packs together, someone from Crossroads called and said they had food leftover from a mobile food pantry that they wanted to donate to us. Thanks to that donation, we were able to make enough care packages to deliver to all 64+ families!
God provides just the right amount
As we started delivering care packs to the families’ homes, word got out and more families began messaging us, asking if they could have one as well. I kept saying “yes,” even though I wasn’t sure if we would have enough. I felt that God had us covered.
This became evident when one parent called me and asked if they could have a care pack with four specific things. They said, "Can I have potatoes?” I looked down in this bag from the food pantry, and it had potatoes! They asked, "How about eggs?" I looked down again, and there were two dozen eggs! They then asked, "How about onions and oranges?" I didn't even have to look down to see if we had them, because I knew we would. And, sure enough, we did!
At the end of the night, we still had enough leftover care packs to bring to the additional families who had reached out!
A Bible in the right language
Before heading out on those final deliveries, I decided to grab some Bibles. As I arrived at one home to deliver a care pack, I noticed the family had up a Puerto Rican flag. I looked down and realized one of the Bibles that I had grabbed was in Spanish. When I gave it to the lady, she started crying with thankfulness. She said she hadn't had a Spanish Bible since her childhood.
God continues to provide enough
God providing us with everything we needed continued over the next two weeks. Last week, after doing my route, I had some care packs left over and I left them in my car. Over the next few days, I ended up going to the houses of families who I hadn’t connected with in a while to give them out.
I kept doing this on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. When I got to Friday evening, I noticed my car was still full of food. I questioned why there would be so much food left when I had given out so much.
I thought to myself: Has someone been putting more food into my car when I wasn’t looking?
Maybe God was doing something similar to the loaves and fishes.
But then, I became skeptical and questioned, who knows? All I know is that I had just as much food left as I had before giving out the food.
Do you trust God in times of uncertainty?
Every step of the way, God has been giving the ministry exactly what we need -- even in the times of uncertainty and questioning. Although I’ve doubted God in some ways, all of these moments of provision have built up my confidence in him.
I got to thinking about Jesus instructing us to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread."
Do we really believe that he will give us exactly what we need each day? Will God continue to provide? Do we give like we know God will give us what we need the next day, or do we hoard, afraid of what the future might hold?
Yes, I think there is wisdom in stocking up, but also there is something about giving when your storehouses are empty that builds up deep trust in God.
Everyone is being affected in one way or another with the virus and with everything shutting down. In view of this, I would encourage everyone to pray the Lord's prayer each day and believe that he will give us our daily bread.
Thank you to all church partners, prayer supporters and donors who have helped us along this journey.