Five Loaves, Two Fish...

I can't believe that in two weeks I will be in Bangladesh! I am so excited! 
Since I will be there right in the middle of my last semester at Gardner-Webb, I have been staying very busy making sure I take care of all the homework that will be due while I'm gone and tests I will have to take early. I also have been busy preparing for the trip. 
One thing we will be doing while we are there is sharing stories with the deaf people we meet on the streets or at various events. We were given a list of stories and each of us was told to choose at least one story that we would be willing to memorize and be ready to sign or do a drama to, to share with the deaf in Bangladesh. The story I chose was the Feeding of the 5,000. So this morning I was reading the different accounts of it in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, so that I will be familiar with it, and also to begin thinking about how to sign it. As I was studying it, a few things struck me about it that I wanted to share with you.
In this story the people had gone a very

long time without eating (basically a whole day) and they were hungry. Today all over the world there are many starving people, mostly children, and every single day about 21,000 people die of hunger related causes
 

(http://www.poverty.com/). According to the Bible there were 5,000 men who were hungry that day plus women and children,

so it's possible that there was as many people there that day as die everyday from hunger in the world today. 
Amongst this crowd of people there was a

young boy who had enough food just to feed himself. He could have been greedy with his food and kept it all for himself and not worried about all the other hungry people. After all he only had enough for himself anyway, what difference could just 5 loaves and 2 fish make to a crowd of over 5,000 people? What good would it do to give his 5 loaves and 2 fish away? If he did that he would not have any food for himself to eat, and it couldn't possibly feed everybody anyway. But the boy didn't horde his food and keep it just for himself, no instead he gave it to Jesus for Him to use to feed the more than 5,000 people there that day. 
Maybe you are like this boy, maybe you don't have much either, and maybe you think that what little you have can't really make that big of a difference. Maybe you're worried that if you give away what little you have that is just barely enough to take care of yourself, then you won't have enough to take care of your needs. 
Maybe you think what difference can $38 a month possibly make in the life of a child and his/her family anyway? That can't possibly provide for their needs, and with only people involved, your probably right. But if you choose to be like the little boy in this story who gave what little he had to Jesus to help others, then I promise you that God will multiply your gift. If the boy had held onto his food and eaten it himself then it would have fed him, but because he gave it to Jesus to help others Jesus multiplied it to feed not only the little boy but also to feed the over 5,000 people who were there that day and still take up 12 baskets full of left overs. If more people would be like this little boy and give what little they have to Jesus to help others and for Him to use and multiply, then what difference would that make in the world?
When you sponsor a child through Compassion International, you are giving what you have to Jesus to help others, and He multiplies it; He takes care of your needs, He uses it to provide for the needs of your sponsored child and his or her family, and then it also will impact the future generations of that child. 

Maybe you think that was only true in Bible days, that God doesn't do that today, or maybe you don't believe that even happened, it's just a good story. Well, I know from personal experience that this is true. You see, I have always been very frugal with my money, and tried to save it as much as possible and only use it for things I only absolutely needed. My first two years of college I was very stingy with my money and only used it for myself if it was something I really needed. Instead of giving and using my money to help others I made excuses about how I didn't even hardly have enough money to provide for my own needs let alone to help meet someone else's, or I said I was poor myself so the commands in God's Word to help the poor didn't apply to me. Yet it seemed the more I tried to cling to my money, the less money I had and the more I struggled financially. I felt so burdened by worry about my finances. God began to convict me of this, and last Fall I felt Him leading me to sponsor a child through Compassion, at first I tried to make excuses again, but then I decided to step out by faith and trust God. I told God that I didn't even have a job and that humanly speaking there was no way that I could give $38 a month to help a child in need, but that I would give Him what little I had and that if He wanted me to be able to continue to support a Compassion child then He would have to make it possible. Then I stood back in awe and watched as God multiplied what little I had just like He multiplied the 5 loaves and 2 fish to feed more than 5,000 people. I watched God

miraculously provide the $38 I needed each month to support my Compassion child, Shrutika, and then also provide for my needs even though I still had no job and it shouldn't have been possible. But I have learned that with God all things are possible! I have watched God continue to multiply what I give to Him to meet my needs and the needs of others. Now it doesn't matter how much I give away, my money never runs out. And now the burden is gone. I know that God is also multiplying that $38 month to take care of Shrutika and her family and their needs, and I know God wants to do the same for you, if you will just give Him what you have instead of clinging to it. 
Will you be like the little boy in the story and give even what little you have to help others? If the answer is yes, then please go to http://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/default.htm?referer=133384 to begin sponsoring a Compassion child today.   

"Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you."

Luke 6:38