By: Christine Berglund

We are all familiar with miracles in the Bible. God miraculously feeds his people in Exodus with manna and quail for 40 YEARS. In 1 Kings, Elijah is fed bread and meat brought to him by ravens each morning and evening. In Matthew, Jesus miraculously feeds more than 5000 people with just five loaves of bread and two fish, and then there are 12 baskets of leftovers! God takes care of people’s need for food and water in miraculous ways throughout the Bible. We expect miracles in the Bible.

Does God still perform miracles? Do we still expect miracles today? Does God provide for his people’s basic needs for food and water? If you ask the volunteers in the Holy Cross food pantry, they will give you an emphatic “Yes!”

As March was coming to a close, many food pantry volunteers realized that our pantry was heading for a food supply crisis in April. Most of the food we give out in our food pantry comes from a local organization called Care and Share, but Care and Share has been struggling to get inventory. Donations are down at this time of year, and they had notified us that they would not be able to supply any meat for the entire month of April and many of their other staples have been out of stock as well. The volunteers recommended that we use some of the funds in the food pantry account to shop in order to supplement the groceries received from Care and Share. They couldn’t imagine turning patrons away or having only minimal items to offer. At the same time, we informed the congregation of the shortages to see if people would be willing to donate some of the most-needed items.

“This is when the miracles began to happen!”

God’s word tells us in Matthew 6:31, “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’”

It is our priority in the food pantry to be good stewards of the money we have, so we were trying to figure out where we could shop to get the most food for our money. One volunteer was literally awakened from sleep early one morning with the clear thought that we should reach out to a specific Neighborhood Wal-Mart that we usually work with to get supplies for our Thanksgiving Baskets. They have always been very helpful in ordering supplies in bulk for us, so we don’t have to go to stores all over town to get enough canned vegetables, for example. We also wanted to be considerate of their other shoppers by not cleaning them out of particular products that others may need. Lyn met with some Wal-Mart employees and shared our grocery wish list, and they promised to see what they could do. On April Fool’s Day, we were blown away with blessings when Lyn went to pick up our order. The employees at Wal-Mart were able to get many of the things on our list along with some bonus items, and when it was time to pay, they would NOT accept payment. They said it was their donation to our food pantry! When the food was weighed and inventoried, it was 550 pounds with a value of about $800. They gave us canned tomatoes, canned fruits, canned soups, and hot dogs! I wouldn’t normally get too excited about packages of hot dogs, but we are out of meat. Did God wake Lyn up and give her the vision to call that particular Wal-Mart? We believe so.

There were more miracles to come on April Fool’s Day! In the afternoon, we received a voice message from a Curves gym. The owner said that her Curves location does a food drive every March and they had just finished it and wanted to see when someone from Holy Cross could come and pick it up. I was in awe at how God answers prayers! This Curves location has donated before, but they had forgotten to let us know they were doing it again this year. When we picked up their donation last week, it felt like Christmas. Every box was stuffed with an assortment of items that had been donated, so we never knew what treasures we were going to find in each box. Wouldn’t you know it? The donations matched our needs almost perfectly – spaghetti and pasta sauce, tuna, cereal, canned vegetables, chili, and so much more! They donated over 1500 pounds of food! Not only that, but they had also collected monetary donations from their patrons that added up to almost $700!

 

Yes, God is still in the business of performing miracles! And it was no April Fool’s Day joke! He used the minds, hearts, and hands of some faithful volunteers in the food pantry, some kind souls at Wal-Mart, and many generous patrons from a gym to take care of his people and to supply their needs.

Philippians 4:19 promises, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

 

Honestly, we know that God is always answering prayers and performing miracles at Holy Cross. Many of our members and friends are regularly responding to our requests for food, money, and many other items for ministries all year long, and we thank God for you. Thank you for allowing God to use you and your blessings to bless others.