Ocean Springs Trip

I have often quoted my pastor from Messiah Lutheran (they sent and supported me in seminary,) by saying, “You can’t out-give God.” I believe that. I know that God doesn’t “help those who help themselves,” but rather, “God gives grace to the humble.” God will never forsake his people. I believe that when we trust God with anything and everything, especially our finances, we will not be disappointed.

I’ve said it before, quoted from someone at a Bible study I once attended; “God will not forsake his people. We trust in God and give to God. He can make Manna rain down from heaven, if necessary, to feed his people.”

Now, I have seen it.

Yesterday, we were perilously close to running out of food. A person from the Food Distribution ministry went to Wal-Mart and bought $2,700 worth of food. That food ran out at 1:00 p.m., and the tables that were piled high with food when I first arrived now are completely empty. It is amazing how much food they share with people who need it.

Anyway, I have been grumbling (like the Hebrews did about the Manna in the desert) about the quantity of corned beef we have been fed. Corned beef hash, hot corned beef, corned beef sandwiches. But I will not complain any more, because I have seen where it comes from – God.

You see, God has given us everything we have. God even owns the sheep on the hills, as they say. Tonight, the kitchen staff decided we needed a salad to go with the chili for tonight. So, they headed off for the local store. On the way out, they found out that we were out of baby food. “We can’t have salad when they are out of baby food,” one volunteer said. So, they used the volunteer’s salad money to buy baby food for distribution. While they were at the store, a truck from a local restaurant showed up at the church with salad lettuce (with carrots, etc.). On this very day, the kitchen staff left with an agenda to feed us and decided to give it away to children, and God brought the very thing they were looking for to feed us. You can’t out-give God indeed. I’ve seen it. God will never forsake us, even after a hurricane.

Oh, and when they spooned out the salad on my plate, I never knew about the miracle that had placed the salad on my plate. I even thought, “well, I hate salad, but OK, I will eat it.” How often do we, not knowing what God has done for us, accept and respond to God’s miracles and grace like that?