Chapter 32 - From Famine to Feast

“For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle

upon a thousand hills.”

—Psalm 50:10

It had been a rough month financially. Not only

was our language school bill due, but the kids
had been sick, requiring us to take them to the doctor
and buy medications. The wick on the candle had
been burning at both ends, and now our money was
gone. Food had run out, and we were looking to the
Lord for help in these last two weeks of the month.
    Wouldn’t you know it? God’s cavalry was about
to arrive! On Saturday night, a pastor called from
a small town not far away and asked if we would
present our ministry to his church on Sunday evening.
I quickly accepted, not only for the privilege of
presenting our ministry, but also because opportunities
such as this usually involved food. What a
relief! God had intervened once again on our behalf.
    Sunday evening came and we made the short
drive to the church. We set up our display and
projector, making ready to present our ministry to
Ivory Coast. I showed our slides, preached a short
message, and the pastor closed the service. After
we had packed our things into the car, the pastor
asked, “Would you like to come over for a time of
fellowship and refreshments?” Would we? He did
not have to ask twice. Over to his house we went!
Were those refreshments great—as well as the fellowship,
of course!
    Suddenly, the pastor made a strange remark:
“Let’s go down to the basement.” No pastor had ever
asked us to go down to the basement. All kinds of
weird thoughts went through my mind as my family
stood looking at one another. But we dismissed our
fears and followed the pastor and his wife into the
small basement.
    There in the basement stood two large white
freezers. As we were wondering what was going
on, the pastor opened one of the freezers while his
wife opened the other. Now this was getting a little
scary, and I think the whole family wanted to turn
around and run—right behind me, that is! Then I
saw what was in the freezers—frozen meat. They
were packed full with T-bones, sirloins, roasts, and
everything else you could get from a cow. The pastor
and his wife had recently killed a Black Angus, and
the freezers were full of all kinds of meat.
    You can probably guess what I was thinking.
Our freezer at home is empty, and we sure could use
some of this meat to last us the rest of the month.
No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than
the pastor said, “Brother Ayers, you and your wife
get some of those brown paper bags and fill them up
with all the meat you can carry.”
    Praise the Lord, we went to work! I made a beeline
for the T-bone and sirloin steaks while Linda
went for the sirloin roasts. We had a shopping spree
to beat all other shopping sprees. The bags were
bursting at the seams, but with everyone’s help, we
managed to get them to the car.
    We went back into the house. The pastor had
another blessing for us: an envelope with a love
offering. Amazed, I told him our story, how this
month had been tight financially. I admitted that we
were without food and money. We thanked him profusely,
the tears started flowing, and we each had a
good cry. We said our farewells and left that night
feeling as though we were the most blessed people
in the world. For the remainder of the month we
did eat, as though we were the richest people in the
world. What a mighty God we serve!

(Copyright by Jay B Ayers)