Loaves and Fishes

I need to tell you about my awesome God.

My Bible study group has served dinner at this ministry called Scarlet Hope. We like them a lot. Basically, Scarlet Hope does outreach to strippers. That's the simplest way to put it. They own two big, connected houses in Crescent Hill, and they have Bible studies there, art therapy, they serve dinner at the house (and take dinner to the clubs), they have dorm rooms that will be available soon for the girls who leave their jobs and need a place to stay until they get on their feet, and they are almost finished with a commercial kitchen in the basement of one of the homes, so they can open a catering company as a transitional job for the girls who quit dancing. They do wonderful work- one club in the area even shut down when the owners gave their lives to Christ as a result of Scarlet Hope's work. They are awesome, and we love them.

Anyway, a few months ago, one of our Bible study members (my friend Blaire) mentioned that Scarlet Hope was doing a fundraising thing where they were trying to raise $150,000 in 100 days. We like to do service projects together, and we like Scarlet Hope, and it just so happened that my church was going to have this community event called Outdoor Market. They did it last year, too- local businesses, crafty people, and other folks could come set up a booth for a very small fee (used for advertising.) My group decided to set up a bake sale booth, right next to a booth where Blaire, a groomer, would do doggie nail trims for a donation to Scarlet Hope.

Somehow, I got put in charge of all this. I don't really know how it happened. I was the one who mentioned that my church would be hosting this event, and I definitely planned on making stuff for sale, but somehow, the bake sale became My Thing. And it was stressful, let me tell you. For one thing, we had no budget. Each of us was responsible for preparing and packaging various treats for sale, and we had some volunteers that would bring tables, a tent thing for shade, bottled water for sale, and several other things, but I got the supplies for posters. I decided on pricing, and made signs explaining how much everything cost. I wrote up fliers explaining why we were fundraising and who would get the money. I made a donation jar. I planned to make quite a few things for the sale, as well, purchasing the ingredients and disposable foil pans and baggies with shiny twist ties....it was stressful. At some point I became convinced that we would not have much food for sale. We had six hours to fill. We didn't want a ton of leftovers, but it would be embarrassing and counter-productive to only have enough goodies for sale that would last, say, 30 minutes. I wasn't really hearing much from my fellow Bible study members about what they were planning to bring, as far as food went. I told my mom last Tuesday evening, on our way to the last Bible study meeting we would have before the big event, that I was really worried about how things were going to go, and "at this point, I'm praying for a 'loaves and fishes' moment." I was hoping that the tiny amount of food I was expecting to have for sale would miraculously multiply and we would be able to clear a hundred dollars for Scarlet Hope.

In the days before the bake sale, I ran into a lot of issues with the food I was planning to make. My cobblers bubbled over in the oven, and I had to pull them out before they were done so the drippy bits wouldn't catch fire.  I learned that even though I prepared 50 sticks worth of marshmallow pops, a bag of chocolate chips will only cover about 7 of them- and chocolate chips are expensive. I think I made a dozen total. The brownies I made were very fudgy and couldn't be pulled from the pan in any manner that could be called attractive. About the only thing that went right was the fudge. Three pans of peanut butter fudge. But I kept praying for my "loaves and fishes."

The morning of the bake sale arrived. We didn't have many people to help out, since most of our volunteers could just stick around for the first few hours, and two people were sick and went home. I injured my finger on a folding chair. The weather was nice, but it was windy and blew all my fliers around at one point. But we had three tables full of food. A huge basket of cookies. A multitude of every kind of "krispie" treat imaginable. A big tray of mini-loaves of yummy breads. Pretty plates of cookies, wrapped up with cellophane and ribbon. Baggies upon baggies upon baggies of other little treats, like puppy chow and pretzels with Rolo's candy melted in the middle. I can't even remember the rest. We had so much. We sold a lot, and at the end of the day, had quite a few leftovers. We were able to make more sales by discounting what we had left, and then, at the very end, sent the pastor off with a tray of treats to share with the folks in the church office. Loaves and fishes! Loaves and fishes!

The best part, though, was counting the money that we brought in for Scarlet Hope. There are only a few weeks left in their fundraising drive, and they have quite a ways to go to reach their goal. This morning I went to the bank and deposited the money we brought in from the bake sale and the nail trims. The grand total was $458.10- well over what I thought we could possibly bring in. God's provision more than exceeded our expectations. I am so thankful for all the hard work that everyone did in preparation for this past weekend, and I'm thankful for those who bought our treats and just flat out made donations to our cause. I am thankful that my God is faithful. At the end of the day Saturday, I felt like he was telling me "why do you worry? I've got everything under control." I'll try to keep that in mind the next time I am feeling overwhelmed or like my life is spinning out of control.

"And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19