Let's Make a Miracle

Yesterday I felt stretched in Dwaleni.

It wasn’t because I was chopping a bucket of onions with a butter knife.

It wasn’t because I had to come to terms that I simply CANNOT count to 10 in SiSwati.

And it wasn’t because I was covered in other people’s sweat and knew I was coming home to a base without water.

That’s pretty normal stuff.

I was stretched because I felt God challenging me to do my part the way HE wanted me to on that particular Thursday afternoon.

I think I always get to be a part of God’s work in the hugging, kissing and uncontrollable love department. And I always get to spend time teaching teams the culture and the ministry. But there are some moments where He requires more. Moments when God gives a gut-check and says, “LOOK AROUND YOU AND RESPOND!” 

Kinda like Mom’s famous brake-slamming seatbelt checks on Mustang Road.

I've been checked. And here's my response...

We started feeding in Dwaleni over a year and a half ago. We went from a handful of hungry kids to hundreds.  Orphaned and vulnerable children are flooding into the small property we feed from in tattered school uniforms, starving for spiritual, emotional and physical nourishment. I’ve never seen need that goes so deep as I see every week in Dwaleni.

My first visit to Dwaleni in January 2010, I was shocked to see over 100 children climbing on and playing around the big avocado tree. Last week, we were overwhelmed when about 250 children poured in with bottomless stomachs and hearts.

This week, we had way over 300 children. I typically assign myself to the gate they walk through to enter the property to welcome them, hug them kiss them and make sure each child knows he or she was noticed. Today I didn’t get to greet, much less see every child’s face as the waves of school uniforms just kept rolling in throughout the feeding.

Hope spreads. Home is contagious. Something is going right.

The group I’m here with, Ten Thousand Homes, is a non-profit organization that raises support for feeding programs, house-building and other opportunities to instill Hope and Homes in South Africa’s orphaned and vulnerable children. We pray every week for God’s protection on the children and communities we serve, and trust in Him to provide for the “least of these” with the resources we have been given.

Last week when the huge group of children showed up, they were welcomed Home by a loving, faithful team from New Hope Church in Wiley, Texas. After seeing the amount of children rushing in and the amount of food prepared, the New Hope team began praying and counting on a miracle of multiplication. Jesus used what His people had around Him, a few loaves of bread and fish, to feed thousands – with leftovers! Why wouldn’t He do that for these dirty, worn-down, abused, orphaned yet perfectly loved children?

He DID!

We filled every belly to the brim and sent children home with mincemeat moustaches and leftovers! It was a miracle! We’ve NEVER had leftovers before and we had never had that many children!

This week there were SO many more children.

And there was no multiplication miracle.

We ran completely out of food and had 67 empty mouths and tummies.

I was devastated. Speechless. I realized I was rocking the sleeping baby on my shoulder to soothe myself as I looked around and saw the ever-hopeful and never-complaining faces of the children who hadn’t been served and the patient volunteers praying with the children.

Hands and leftover change came together to buy enough bread to serve the 67 so no one left without receiving. It wasn’t the kind of miracle we saw last week, and I didn’t dance out of Dwaleni like King David was known to do. I was cringing on the inside and out, even while the children were filling my cheeks full of kisses and my hands with letters they had written me as they said goodbye.

Why, God?

Why would you send over 300 children when there’s not enough?

Why not another miracle?

Seatbelt check.

He IS Enough.

And there IS a miracle for Dwaleni that’s better than a “Remember that one time Jesus multiplied the food….” story. (If it gets better than THAT, I want some!)

I serve a God who has the power to do ALL things.

He can count every star while He’s blindfolded.

He can rearrange the Rockies with His hands tied behind His back.

The miracle for the orphaned and vulnerable children in Dwaleni is the power of the hands and feet He gave us coming together to provide.

God was at the drawing board- dreaming, speaking and breathing us into His most precious and prized piece of creation. He didn’t plan on some people having enough and some people having not enough. We have enough to make miracles.

The power in the Body of Christ coming together the way it was intended IS a miracle.

I’m trying to live a life worthy of the calling and to do my job well here – so I was planning on writing this blog about fundraising for a car. But, even without a seatbelt to call my own, God is giving me a seatbelt check.

The volunteers at the feeding were doing their job and living fully for the Kingdom yesterday. The kids were doing their job and living fully for the Kingdom yesterday.

Today my job is to respond with words and tell you about the miracle of provision He has set the table for…

You are the hands.

photo by Carly B

You are the feet.

photo by Carly B

 You are the back.

photo by Carly B

 You are the arms.

 You are the lips.

We are the Body of Christ.

When we all bring what we have to the table, there is enough.

What are you bringing?

It only costs $5 to feed a child for a month.

It only costs $500 to provide for a weekly feeding program for a month.

We are praying for a fence around the yard for their protection and provision for a playground to make a space for them to act like children and for an increase in food supply weekly.

Pray for Dwaleni.

Tell your friends, family, coworkers, church groups and neighbors.

Sponsor a child for a month.

Sponsor a feeding for a month.

Come meet the children and extend God’s love tangibly.

Build a fence.

Build a playground.

I hope this is a seatbelt check. And you’ll ask God how to respond.

Let’s make a miracle.