Despite all the bad news we hear going on in the world, the Lord is busy and active working out His plan and taking care of His children. Sometimes He lets us see that in a dramatic way. Last month we held a retreat for the Confirmation kids from a parish close to the Lord’s Food Bank in Juarez, Mexico. The youth arrived Friday evening looking sullen, bored, and not wanting to be there. But as the weekend progressed, their hearts were softened as they listened to talks and received prayer. By Sunday this was a transformed group, laughing, weeping, wanting to get closer to Jesus.
Several of the parents had come along to help with the cooking throughout the retreat, and they had planned a special meal for the final lunch on Sunday. This included móle, a favorite chicken dish served at festivities in Mexico. But the person responsible for buying all the groceries had failed to purchase enough chicken needed to make a sufficient amount of móle to feed the 25 youth plus the priest and the adults helping with the retreat. There were only 2 lbs of chicken legs to be cooked up, deboned, and then the meat shredded – hardly enough for a small family, much less 35 people. When the cooks realized this, they decided to make extra rice and beans to supplement the small amount of móle that each person would get.