We have shared before how the Lord has multiplied food for us, and it happened yet again this past Christmas. Each December we host several parties for the different groups of people we serve in Juarez. We buy dozens of turkeys when they go on sale around Thanksgiving, and we keep them in the freezers until right before the parties. Then we ask for volunteers to take a turkey home, cook it, debone the meat and bag it in Ziplocs so the cooks can use it for the festive meals. Since we put on at least four big parties at two different locations feeding hundreds of people, it takes quite a bit of coordinating to make sure we have all the food we need for our guests.
Well this time we had a major glitch. Most of the bags of shredded turkey got sent to one of our centers in Mexico instead of being divided between the two. When the crew at the second location went to the fridge to get the turkey for their party the next day, all they could find was two small Ziplocs of the meat left, nothing more. So the staff quickly made some frantic phone calls around. One lady said she could buy some rotisserie chickens; another lady was still cooking her turkey and could bring that one; and another man said he had two turkeys at home that he would cook and bring. At that late in the game, we hoped it would be enough. We also decided to buy cheese to make nachos for the children, since they like those better anyway, and that would stretch the other food for the adults. So the next morning we headed across the border with 5 roasted chickens, the cheese to make nachos and the cooked turkey meat we had been able to get at the last minute and brought it to the cooks in the kitchen at Las Alitas.
When it came time for the meal, I looked around as people were eating and it seemed to me that everyone was getting a plate piled high with food. It wasn’t until days later that I heard from Ramona what had happened. “I went to the kitchen after the party was over,” she told me, “and I saw all this food there. I asked the cooks, ‘Why didn’t you give out all the food to the people?’ They said, ‘Ramona, everyone ate, and ate a lot.’ ‘Well, what about all this leftover food?’ They assured me, ‘We gave out plates and plates of food, and people even took food to their homes afterwards.’ I looked into the huge pot of turkey stew and only half of it was gone. Then I opened the refrigerator and all 5 chickens and the extra turkey meat we had brought were in there untouched.
“So I told the ladies, ‘Let’s make burritos from the leftovers to give to the people begging on the bridge.’ We made dozens of burritos, and we even made plates for all the volunteers to take to their homes. But the containers of food still wouldn’t empty out!! We had to put food back in the fridge since it was time to leave. It took us the next day to use it all up!”
All the people that came to the party ate till they were satisfied. All the volunteers ate till they were satisfied. We fed people begging on the bridges and sent food home with folks, and still there were leftovers. What we thought was going to be a stretch, God turned into an overabundance.
Blessed be God!