In the Old Testament, it was manna...
In the New Testament, it was loaves and fishes...
This weekend, it was spaghetti and meatballs....
Allow me to introduce you to Creator God: The Ultimate Chef. He is always ready and filling, satisfying the hungry tummies of his kids with good eats--at the very moment they need it most.
If you've ever been in a hosting or event planning situation, you know that if the food runs out, you have a CRISIS on your hands. Hunger pangs + disappointment of guests x Your own personal embarrassment + irritability stemmed from hunger = A hospitality nightmare. Oh...and it's 100X worse if such an experience takes place in a culture that places the highest importance on the giving/receiving of hospitality and the consequence of "losing face" (experiencing shame on your family) as a result of your mistakes.
Such was the disastrous possibility unfolding before my eyes on Friday night...
First, a bit of context:
Late in June, my boss came over to my desk one day, elated for a reason yet to be unveiled. His own excitement over the news he was about to tell me was contagious. I was instantly curious, Why the big smile?
"They want us to serve the Iftar meal at SALAM center," he told me.
Quickly, I pieced together the meaning and implications of this. My boss briefly threw this out as an idea some time ago--in a visionary context of future ministry possibility ("Wouldn't it be cool if...?"). As the leader of our church's Global Outreach department, his heart was to reach out to people of all nations (and you wouldn't think it, but Sacramento is an amazingly strategic place to do that...our city being one of the most ethnically diverse in America). My boss also has a special place in his heart for reaching out to Muslims--people whom, as a whole, are often misunderstood, feared and (tragically) rejected by many Christian groups.
Over the course of the six-month Global Pipeline internship that I just completed in June, our GP team had the opportunity to visit the SALAM center (a prominent Muslim mosque in our city) a number of times. NOT because we were unsure of our own beliefs or falling into syncretism (as some bloggers/naysayers might mistakenly assume), but because we genuinely wanted to learn more about Islamic beliefs so we could better relate to our Muslim neighbors. We wanted to build friendships with and reach out to these beautiful people whom God loves. We wanted to see the vision of Ephesians 2:14 become a reality:
What better way to express this peace, demonstrating the acceptance and love of Jesus to all nations than to feed them? There's just something powerful about sharing a meal together that breaks down defenses and ushers in LIFE, good conversation and (dare I say?) fun. After all, everyone loves a party...
The Muslim month of Ramadan provided the prime reason/season for a party. After all, in the Muslim calendar, Ramadan is considered the holiest month--a special season devoted to prayer and fasting. Although the fast lasts all day for 30 days, the feasting begins at sundown. The fast is broken with family and friends, as everyone comes together to eat as the day comes to a close. This "breaking fast" meal is called the Iftar and the SALAM center was hosting three such meals every weekend during Ramadan this year.
When the leaders of SALAM accepted our invitation to serve the Iftar meal for this past weekend (my boss had approached these leaders with the idea shortly after he and I discussed it), we knew it was a very big deal. And not just for us, but for them, as it took away a great weight of responsibility off their own shoulders to provide a meal en masse at the mosque. We would cook for 200 or so of our Muslim neighbors (plus however many volunteers we brought from our own church)--cooking all the food, serving it and eating with them. What an exciting opportunity we were given to truly serve our neighbors!
It was an event I'd been anticipating since last month, and solidly devoting (a ridiculous amount of) my work hours to for the past week (being both the assistant for Global Outreach and the coordinator of church events). From Monday to Friday, as I juggled all the last-minute logistics of event PR, volunteer scheduling and food prep/menu organization, one nagging thought kept re-playing again and again in my mind: What if we run out of food??!!
Of course, when I voiced this concern to my boss, he smiled and shrugged it off, reminding me of a little boys lunch feeding thousands and giant barrels of water turned into wine at a simple word.
"God will provide," he confidently assured me (me...the author of a blog entitled Faith Stories. Yes, I still need to be assured...)
Circa 9:30 p.m., however, circumstances didn't look so promising. What a faith test: "Being certain of what we do not see" is certainly what we needed to do, as we did not SEE any more food in our serving kitchen.
Oh, and I failed to mention that there weren't 200 people there as we first thought there might be (the week of, we bumped up our estimate to 350-400, just in case)...there were around 600 people there! What a HUGE difference! A dream come true from an outreach perspective. A logistical nightmare for an event planner (that dreaded running-out-of-food possibility...).
While the servers were serving away (8 tables of buffet-style serving and 2 tables of self-serve) the throngs of guests (two lines that stretched from one end of this huge room to the other...and out the door) kept coming and coming. Food disappeared rapidly. Shockingly so...
Meanwhile, behind the scenes in the service kitchen, about a dozen or so of us were "Martha-ing it up"--not so much anxious, as working very quickly in epic "problem-solving mode." Juggling requests for more food ("We ran out of pasta sauce! We need more meatballs!"), our kitchen team rushed around, pulling huge trays out of warmers and giant bowls of salad and fruit out of coolers and fridges.
We were only about a third to half-way through the line of people when we were struck with the sobering reality of just how little food we had in comparison to what we needed. (Mind you, we made a TON of food! Dozens of people from our church had been working in our church kitchen for five straight days to prepare food for this. Not to mention the 30+ people who brought homemade side dishes, each set to feed a couple dozen!).
I distinctly remember thinking "Well, I'm not gonna eat tonight..." (or any of our church volunteers for that matter), which of course, mattered little in the scheme of things. (I made a mental note to swing by Taco Bell on the way home--not the end of the world). I was, of course, far more concerned about the hungry bellies of those who had been fasting the entire day--food and drink (not even drinking water!). We NEEDED to feed them! We could NOT let the food run out!
"Do you want me to run to the store?" I asked my boss in a bit of a panic.
Although concerned, he shook his head. Volunteers continued to scramble around, double checking all the warmers, covered dishes, coolers and fridges in the kitchen to find ANYTHING we might have accidentally overlooked. We found a few unexpected items, but were still far short of what we needed.
"Lord, multiply the food!" my boss called out a light-hearted prayer up to the ceiling, laughing as he did. What else could we do, but laugh? No time wasted on regrets of how much we made or didn't make. We simply had to stay positive, keep serving what we had and trust God to come through.
Twenty minutes later, I noticed something strange. The line had dwindled down to only a few dozen...and there was still food. At this point, I decided to join the end of the line so that I could share my own plate of food over a conversation with some new friends. Mind you, when I got there, I was one of the first church volunteers to make a plate, so I didn't take much (a small scoop of pasta...small scoop of meatballs).
While looking around the hall for some new friends to meet, I made eye contact with a Muslim girl whom seemed to be around my age. She smiled and invited me to come sit with her. Instantly, we hit it off--sharing stories and getting to know one another. With my back to the serving table, I momentarily forgot about the lack of food that had been there. I felt terrible that perhaps my church volunteer comrades hadn't gotten anything to eat...
During a break in my conversation with my new friend, however, I turned around towards the serving tables, expecting to find a sobering sight (volunteers left to retreat to Taco Bell later, and certainly no seconds of our Muslim friends). To my amazement, however, I turned to find all the volunteers were eating--and they had FULL plates of food! What???!!! Where did that food come from? (It was the same exact food as everyone else--no hidden "volunteer only" stash...there was just more of it than could ever be possible!).
Less than five minutes later, one of SALAM's representatives went up to the microphone to announce that, now that all the church volunteers had eaten, SALAM's attendees could now have seconds.
Amazing...
Around 10:15 or so, there was a call for everyone to pitch-in with the clean up process. When my friend and I got up to help out, again, I turned to the serving table. Several pans of pasta, sauce (what? That was the first thing to run out!!) and meatballs were left over. Plus, there was still dessert...cupcakes galore.
Leftovers? Seriously??
Yes indeed. Even after 600 or so people had eaten FULL PLATES of food, AND had seconds, there were still left-overs...
I now understand why the Bible uses quantity words like "much more" and "far greater" so often (i.e. Ephesians 3:20..."Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine...).
When God gives, He does so lavishly. Abundant living 101...
Believe me or don't, but I am confident that we witnessed a miracle this weekend. And far greater than just the supernatural multiplication of food...
There was a wonderful spirit of joy, celebration and gratitude in the SALAM center on Friday night. By God's grace, His love brought down that dividing wall, reconciled Muslim and Christian neighbors together and opened the doors for new friendships to be built.
This weekend, like so many other times in my life, I was blessed to witness with my own eyes the incredible POWER of Yahweh-Yireh (Jehovah-Jireh)--the God who never fails to provide.
In the New Testament, it was loaves and fishes...
This weekend, it was spaghetti and meatballs....
Allow me to introduce you to Creator God: The Ultimate Chef. He is always ready and filling, satisfying the hungry tummies of his kids with good eats--at the very moment they need it most.
If you've ever been in a hosting or event planning situation, you know that if the food runs out, you have a CRISIS on your hands. Hunger pangs + disappointment of guests x Your own personal embarrassment + irritability stemmed from hunger = A hospitality nightmare. Oh...and it's 100X worse if such an experience takes place in a culture that places the highest importance on the giving/receiving of hospitality and the consequence of "losing face" (experiencing shame on your family) as a result of your mistakes.
Such was the disastrous possibility unfolding before my eyes on Friday night...
First, a bit of context:
Late in June, my boss came over to my desk one day, elated for a reason yet to be unveiled. His own excitement over the news he was about to tell me was contagious. I was instantly curious, Why the big smile?
"They want us to serve the Iftar meal at SALAM center," he told me.
Quickly, I pieced together the meaning and implications of this. My boss briefly threw this out as an idea some time ago--in a visionary context of future ministry possibility ("Wouldn't it be cool if...?"). As the leader of our church's Global Outreach department, his heart was to reach out to people of all nations (and you wouldn't think it, but Sacramento is an amazingly strategic place to do that...our city being one of the most ethnically diverse in America). My boss also has a special place in his heart for reaching out to Muslims--people whom, as a whole, are often misunderstood, feared and (tragically) rejected by many Christian groups.
Over the course of the six-month Global Pipeline internship that I just completed in June, our GP team had the opportunity to visit the SALAM center (a prominent Muslim mosque in our city) a number of times. NOT because we were unsure of our own beliefs or falling into syncretism (as some bloggers/naysayers might mistakenly assume), but because we genuinely wanted to learn more about Islamic beliefs so we could better relate to our Muslim neighbors. We wanted to build friendships with and reach out to these beautiful people whom God loves. We wanted to see the vision of Ephesians 2:14 become a reality:
"For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility"
What better way to express this peace, demonstrating the acceptance and love of Jesus to all nations than to feed them? There's just something powerful about sharing a meal together that breaks down defenses and ushers in LIFE, good conversation and (dare I say?) fun. After all, everyone loves a party...
The Muslim month of Ramadan provided the prime reason/season for a party. After all, in the Muslim calendar, Ramadan is considered the holiest month--a special season devoted to prayer and fasting. Although the fast lasts all day for 30 days, the feasting begins at sundown. The fast is broken with family and friends, as everyone comes together to eat as the day comes to a close. This "breaking fast" meal is called the Iftar and the SALAM center was hosting three such meals every weekend during Ramadan this year.
When the leaders of SALAM accepted our invitation to serve the Iftar meal for this past weekend (my boss had approached these leaders with the idea shortly after he and I discussed it), we knew it was a very big deal. And not just for us, but for them, as it took away a great weight of responsibility off their own shoulders to provide a meal en masse at the mosque. We would cook for 200 or so of our Muslim neighbors (plus however many volunteers we brought from our own church)--cooking all the food, serving it and eating with them. What an exciting opportunity we were given to truly serve our neighbors!
It was an event I'd been anticipating since last month, and solidly devoting (a ridiculous amount of) my work hours to for the past week (being both the assistant for Global Outreach and the coordinator of church events). From Monday to Friday, as I juggled all the last-minute logistics of event PR, volunteer scheduling and food prep/menu organization, one nagging thought kept re-playing again and again in my mind: What if we run out of food??!!
Of course, when I voiced this concern to my boss, he smiled and shrugged it off, reminding me of a little boys lunch feeding thousands and giant barrels of water turned into wine at a simple word.
"God will provide," he confidently assured me (me...the author of a blog entitled Faith Stories. Yes, I still need to be assured...)
Circa 9:30 p.m., however, circumstances didn't look so promising. What a faith test: "Being certain of what we do not see" is certainly what we needed to do, as we did not SEE any more food in our serving kitchen.
Oh, and I failed to mention that there weren't 200 people there as we first thought there might be (the week of, we bumped up our estimate to 350-400, just in case)...there were around 600 people there! What a HUGE difference! A dream come true from an outreach perspective. A logistical nightmare for an event planner (that dreaded running-out-of-food possibility...).
While the servers were serving away (8 tables of buffet-style serving and 2 tables of self-serve) the throngs of guests (two lines that stretched from one end of this huge room to the other...and out the door) kept coming and coming. Food disappeared rapidly. Shockingly so...
Meanwhile, behind the scenes in the service kitchen, about a dozen or so of us were "Martha-ing it up"--not so much anxious, as working very quickly in epic "problem-solving mode." Juggling requests for more food ("We ran out of pasta sauce! We need more meatballs!"), our kitchen team rushed around, pulling huge trays out of warmers and giant bowls of salad and fruit out of coolers and fridges.
We were only about a third to half-way through the line of people when we were struck with the sobering reality of just how little food we had in comparison to what we needed. (Mind you, we made a TON of food! Dozens of people from our church had been working in our church kitchen for five straight days to prepare food for this. Not to mention the 30+ people who brought homemade side dishes, each set to feed a couple dozen!).
I distinctly remember thinking "Well, I'm not gonna eat tonight..." (or any of our church volunteers for that matter), which of course, mattered little in the scheme of things. (I made a mental note to swing by Taco Bell on the way home--not the end of the world). I was, of course, far more concerned about the hungry bellies of those who had been fasting the entire day--food and drink (not even drinking water!). We NEEDED to feed them! We could NOT let the food run out!
"Do you want me to run to the store?" I asked my boss in a bit of a panic.
Although concerned, he shook his head. Volunteers continued to scramble around, double checking all the warmers, covered dishes, coolers and fridges in the kitchen to find ANYTHING we might have accidentally overlooked. We found a few unexpected items, but were still far short of what we needed.
"Lord, multiply the food!" my boss called out a light-hearted prayer up to the ceiling, laughing as he did. What else could we do, but laugh? No time wasted on regrets of how much we made or didn't make. We simply had to stay positive, keep serving what we had and trust God to come through.
Twenty minutes later, I noticed something strange. The line had dwindled down to only a few dozen...and there was still food. At this point, I decided to join the end of the line so that I could share my own plate of food over a conversation with some new friends. Mind you, when I got there, I was one of the first church volunteers to make a plate, so I didn't take much (a small scoop of pasta...small scoop of meatballs).
While looking around the hall for some new friends to meet, I made eye contact with a Muslim girl whom seemed to be around my age. She smiled and invited me to come sit with her. Instantly, we hit it off--sharing stories and getting to know one another. With my back to the serving table, I momentarily forgot about the lack of food that had been there. I felt terrible that perhaps my church volunteer comrades hadn't gotten anything to eat...
During a break in my conversation with my new friend, however, I turned around towards the serving tables, expecting to find a sobering sight (volunteers left to retreat to Taco Bell later, and certainly no seconds of our Muslim friends). To my amazement, however, I turned to find all the volunteers were eating--and they had FULL plates of food! What???!!! Where did that food come from? (It was the same exact food as everyone else--no hidden "volunteer only" stash...there was just more of it than could ever be possible!).
Less than five minutes later, one of SALAM's representatives went up to the microphone to announce that, now that all the church volunteers had eaten, SALAM's attendees could now have seconds.
Amazing...
Around 10:15 or so, there was a call for everyone to pitch-in with the clean up process. When my friend and I got up to help out, again, I turned to the serving table. Several pans of pasta, sauce (what? That was the first thing to run out!!) and meatballs were left over. Plus, there was still dessert...cupcakes galore.
Leftovers? Seriously??
Yes indeed. Even after 600 or so people had eaten FULL PLATES of food, AND had seconds, there were still left-overs...
I now understand why the Bible uses quantity words like "much more" and "far greater" so often (i.e. Ephesians 3:20..."Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine...).
When God gives, He does so lavishly. Abundant living 101...
Believe me or don't, but I am confident that we witnessed a miracle this weekend. And far greater than just the supernatural multiplication of food...
There was a wonderful spirit of joy, celebration and gratitude in the SALAM center on Friday night. By God's grace, His love brought down that dividing wall, reconciled Muslim and Christian neighbors together and opened the doors for new friendships to be built.
This weekend, like so many other times in my life, I was blessed to witness with my own eyes the incredible POWER of Yahweh-Yireh (Jehovah-Jireh)--the God who never fails to provide.
"The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want."
-Psalm 23:1
