In some overseas countries where I have lived and worked, I
have seen some extremely difficult living challenges that many people must face
on a daily basis. However, none of them are more difficult than for the people
that the Lord has now most recently put into my life—the people of the Log
Church of Kenya and the surrounding community.
The effort to find something to eat is an almost daily
struggle for most of the people in the small community where the church is
located. It is a rural area, and it is even an agricultural area, but despite
these facts, there is not nearly enough food.
One of the principle reasons for this is that, despite it
being in the countryside, there is quite a large population. For many
generations, the family land holdings have been repeatedly divided up among the
children of the family, giving each adult child with his new family only a very
tiny plot of ground on which to grow food.
Most people have a garden, but these small food plots cannot
produce sufficient amounts of food for the entire year. It is especially
difficult for the people in the times leading up to the harvest season, since
by this time, any food reserves that they may have has been depleted. It is
this time that the people refer to as the “hunger season.”
The situation for the church is even more extreme than for a
typical family, since they are trying to provide food for not only for the 32+
orphans, but also for the people who help out with the orphans. Indeed, they
try to provide for all who come to the church looking for food. The piece of
land that they have at their disposal for growing food is a plot of about 60 X
100 feet.
As I have shared before, and for reasons that I do not
completely understand, these are the people whom God has given to me. He has
said to me, “Feed them.”
Quite honestly, when God said this to me, I did not want to
feed them. After living away from my home most of my life and serving others,
in my retirement years I was frankly ready for some ME time. I had plans for my
retirement. I was glad to be back on my farm and not keen to begin a new work
overseas.
A Grocery Store Shopping Trip for
5000 People
In some ways, my thinking was like the disciples when faced with a crowd of 5000+ hungry people. Instead of taking it upon themselves to help the people, they said to Jesus, “Send them away into the surrounding countryside and into the villages so that they can buy something to eat.”
In some ways, my thinking was like the disciples when faced with a crowd of 5000+ hungry people. Instead of taking it upon themselves to help the people, they said to Jesus, “Send them away into the surrounding countryside and into the villages so that they can buy something to eat.”
In response to that, Jesus said to the disciples, “You give
them something to eat!”
The question that the disciples then put to Jesus was
typical of how we would usually think of meeting a need of this type. They
asked Jesus, “Shall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give
it to them to eat?”
They wanted to know in dollars and in cents how much money
would be needed to fulfill that need.
I don’t know why they came up with that figure of two
hundred denarii. A denarius was usually considered a day’s wages, so that
figure would be about the wages for eight months of work. Jesus and his
disciples, along with others who traveled with Jesus, held a collective purse,
so whether this was the amount of money in their treasury at the moment, I do
not know. But for some reason, this was the figure that they threw out at
Jesus—two hundred denarii worth of bread.
However, even this amount, substantial as it was, would not
buy enough bread even for “each of them to get even a little.” That was how the
disciple Philip put it (John
6:7).
But the disciples had missed the point. And when Jesus spoke
to me, I also missed the point. I hope I am beginning to learn.
A Meagre Lunch that was Given
Another of the disciples, Andrew, now spoke up. Somewhat
apologetically he informed Jesus, “There is a boy here who has five barley
loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?”
I would like to know how Andrew knew about this boy’s lunch,
but he did.
Jesus said, “Bring the lunch here to me.”
I also wonder what Andrew thought Jesus would do with such a
meager meal, and I wonder what the disciple said to the boy when he went back
to him to ask him for his small lunch. I do not know, but I doubt if Andrew
told the boy that Jesus was going to use the food to feed the five thousand
people sitting on the grounds around him. That would have sounded preposterous.
I think that Andrew probably told him something similar to what
the two disciples said on another occasion when Jesus sent them into the city
of Jerusalem for a donkey. This was at the triumphal entry when Jesus planned to
ride into the city a week before his crucifixion.
When some men asked the disciples why they were taking the
donkey, the disciples simply said, “The Lord has need of it.”
I think that Andrew told the boy something similar to this:
“The Lord has need of your lunch.”
I hesitate to speculate too much, but I also think that when
the boy was giving his lunch to Andrew, he probably thought that it may have
been because Jesus was hungry after having taught this large crowd of people
for so long, and had need for something to eat.
But even if the boy did not think this, he apparently
willingly gave his lunch as an offering to Jesus. He did not give it to feed
the five thousand people, since that would have been a ridiculous thought. If
eight months of wages would not buy enough bread to give each even a little
taste, what would a small lunch of five small loaves of bread and a couple of
fish do?
The boy did not give
his lunch to the 5000 people. Rather than this, he gave his lunch to Jesus—this
is the important point.
The Great Feast that was Received
Of course you remember what happened next. As documented by
all of the gospel writers, Jesus said to the disciples, “Have the people sit
down in groups of about fifty each.”
When the people were sitting down on the green grass, Jesus took
the five loaves and the two fish that had been the lunch of one lad, looked up
to heaven and said a blessing over this small offering. Jesus then broke the
loaves and gave the portions of the loaves to the disciples to distribute to
the crowd.
The people all ate, all 5000+. Each ate not merely a little
bit, as Philip had said two hundred denarii would not even give, but all the
people ate until their hunger had been satisfied. When everyone had finished,
the disciples went around and collected all of the food that remained. The
remaining food filled twelve baskets.
How could this be?
It was a miracle of course, enough so that the people who
witnessed this said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the
world!” (John 6:14).
Did the Boy Feed All of These
People?
But how did it become possible for the small lunch of one
lad to be multiplied to the point where it fed 5000+ people? Was it because
Andrew went to this boy and appealed to him to feed all of these people?
Did Andrew show the boy all of the hungry people around him, and “would the boy not give his food to feed these needy ones?”
Did Andrew appeal to the emotions of this lad by showing him photos of the hungry people who needed something to eat?
Did Andrew show the boy all of the hungry people around him, and “would the boy not give his food to feed these needy ones?”
Did Andrew appeal to the emotions of this lad by showing him photos of the hungry people who needed something to eat?
This is the manner in which most relief organizations
function: A photo of a child with wide eyes who is in need, and an emotional
appeal for donations to help the child. Video footage of a desperate situation
and another appeal to our emotions.
“Give to this need!”
“X amount of dollars will accomplish this amount of work or
feed this many people!”
All of us have mailboxes (and now email inboxes) full of
these sorts of appeals. The needs are real and the money to meet those needs is
an actual dollar and cents amount.
“Will you not commit $25.00 or $100.00 a month to feed this
child?”
“Can’t you give up your daily cup of coffee so that this
child can eat?”
It is that perspective that is presented to us. It is put upon
us to meet these needs. If we do not
meet them, who will?
The Lesson of the Lad’s Lunch
But by trying to meet the needs in this way, I think that we
are missing the lesson of the lad’s lunch. If we think that it is by our
salesmanship and by appealing to the emotions of potential donors that we can
raise the amounts of money that is required to meet the need, it would have
been good for us to be sitting next to the boy on that day.
Andrew did not ask the boy to feed the people. The lad gave
the lunch to be brought to Jesus. The lad gave his lunch to Jesus!
God is not really expecting us to fill the needs of those
around us. Quite simply, we cannot do it. This is the way that I feel about my
involvement with the orphans and the other people of the Log Church of Kenya.
I cannot fill
those needs. I have only a meagre lunch. But what do I have, I can give to
Jesus. It is Jesus who will take the
little that I give and it is Jesus
who will fill the needs.

Jesus is using these gifts to feed the people.
The Balance Sheet
From our perspective, we focus on the dollars and the cents
that it will take to do a certain amount of work. For instance, at the present
moment we are trying to get enough money so that we can build a sleeping room
for the girl orphans at the church. We want to build them a nice building of
bricks instead of a mud building. It will be much better for many years to
come.
To build this, we have gotten cost estimates. These estimates
come in actual, real numbers. They are rational numbers, integers that can be
placed on a number line that expresses their value. They are not some imaginary
polynomial whose value is unknown. To purchase the materials requires an actual
number of Kenya Shillings.
When faced with such a need, we tend to be like the disciple
Philip.
“We have only two hundred denarii. What is that when faced
with such a need? It could purchase no more than a few bricks.”
Philip missed the point. He was looking at what he could do instead of believing what the Lord could do.
But the Lord said, “Bring me the boy’s lunch.”
Two Small Pennies
It reminds me of another story in the Bible when Jesus and
the disciples were observing people putting money into the treasury of the
temple. As they watched, some wealthy people came to put in large amounts of
money. From the context of what is written, it seems that they were making a
great display of how greatly they were contributing to the temple.
But then a poor widow came. Very quietly and not wishing to
be noticed, she dropped in two small copper coins, two mites—a very
insignificant amount.
It is what Jesus said about all of this that interests me.
“This poor widow has put in more than all the others.”
Jesus used the word “more.” This is a quantitative word. It
means of greater value. It is used to
determine the value of real numbers on a number line. Ten is more than one. Ten
is of greater value than one. On a number line, ten is placed to the right of
one, because it is of greater value.
Jesus did not say of the widow in a patronizing way, “Bless
her heart, she gave what she could.”
That is what we might say about a child putting in two pennies in the church offering plate, while at the same time trying to see how many 20’s might be in there and perhaps even a 50 or two.
That is what we might say about a child putting in two pennies in the church offering plate, while at the same time trying to see how many 20’s might be in there and perhaps even a 50 or two.
No, Jesus said that she gave “more” than all of the
extravagant gifts of the wealthy people.
God’s Number Line
On God’s number line, the two mites that the widow dropped
in the treasury would be placed to the right of the sum of all of the entire
amounts that all the others had dropped in. That is because what the widow put
in was of greater value. It was more than all the others.
On God’s number line, the lad’s lunch of two fish and five
small barley loaves would be placed to the right of and eight-month pay check.
This was because the lad’s lunch was of greater value.
The reason that it was of greater value was because Philip
was looking at what the money could
do. But with the boy’s lunch, he saw what Jesus
could do.
Not Emotion, but Devotion
It is for this reason, that when I tell of the work and the
needs of the orphans and the church people in Kisii, Kenya, I am trying very
hard not to play around with your emotions. I could show many photos of poor
children and tell you what will happen to them if they do not receive some help. I
could try to make you feel guilty if you
do not do something.
It is not a simple thing to avoid, since I actually do want
you to get to know the people and it is true that the stories are
heartbreaking. I will show photos and I will tell stories, but I will try to do
it only in an informative way, not an emotional way.

Two hundred denarii will not do it. An eight month pay check
will not do it. The need is so great that it will take as much as the value of
a boy’s lunch. It may take even as much as two copper coins.
The lesson of the lad’s lunch is that Jesus is simply asking
us for an offering to be given to him. The quantity is irrelevant. What is
important is the purpose. It is an offering to Jesus. After that, it is Jesus
who will do the work and who will fill the need.
It is not emotion
that will fill the needs of the orphans, but devotion.
Devotion to Christ.
**************
Numbers 11:21-22:
But Moses said,
“Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, ‘I will give
them meat to eat for a whole month!’ Would they have enough if flocks and herds
were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea
were caught for them?”
The Lord answered Moses, “Is the
Lord’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true
for you.”
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