While we were working with Kid’s International Ministry (KIM) in Tacloban, part of our ministry included doing feedings twice per day.
Each morning, we would wake up for breakfast and we could already smell the lugaou (a nutrient rich porridge) cooking. The women who prepared this meal would load it into 2-3 big tupperware containers which would then be loaded into the red van.
In the movie Homeward Bound II, the blood red van
elicits a response from those who know
its reputation: bad things come from here – bondage, loss, fear.
Our blood red van also elicited
a response from those who know
its reputation: good things come from this place – nutrition, sustenance, hope, lugaou.
After breakfast, a few members of our team would load up with Beryl and Andy and head out to the destination for that day. Sometimes it was a school, some times it was a mountain village. But one thing was always consistent – these kids would bring whatever they could find for us to fill up. We filled cups, bowls, tupperware, pitchers, water bottles, even plastic baggies with the lugaou. For a lot of those kids, that simple meal might have been the only meal they knew they were getting for the day, maybe even the week. And they knew when they saw the blood red van again, the same things would come from it – nutrition, sustenance, hope, lugaou.
Photo Credit: Kelsey Tosca
And I think we are like the kids in many ways.
We often try to find sustenance and nutrition for our souls in so many different places when the only sure place to get what we need, the only place where we are told the truth about who we are and how we are to view ourselves and others is the blood stained hands of our savior. The hands that are continually reaching toward us. The hands that held Jesus on the cross for your sins and mine.
We can run into those outstretched arms with whatever we have and whatever we are. Whether our heart resembles a beautiful china bowl, a cup with cracks and chips all over or if we can hardly drag our plastic bag of a heart to the foot of the cross, it matters not. The Father will take whatever we bring Him and He will fill us again. That is His promise to me, and that is His promise to you. Jehovah Jireh, our provider is faithful to give us all that we need.
I challenge you today to let Jesus be all to you that He says He is – to be your lugaou.
