When I say the boys storm the kitchen, I do mean storm. The kitchen is ready for a rescue team after a natural disaster has swept through by the time the boys leave. I can’t blame them. They maybe eat once a day, if that.
When I walked into a messy kitchen with orange peels covering the counter, sugar scattered, and dishes everywhere, I think my nostrils flared a bit. (We’ve been having ant and mouse problems.)
I tapped Josue on the shoulder. “Limpia!” He started to help me clean. I held up the garbage can for him to sweep the peels into. He stopped – and started digging through the trash. He pulled out two ziplock sandwich bags of squished peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that someone had thrown away. Josue looked up at me with a look that said “can I have?”
“Ah. Yeah.” I said, embarrassed and ashamed that he was digging through our trash and going to eat something we had thrown out. It was impossible to keep these boys fed; they are a bottomless pit (what teenage boy isn’t?). Our bread and food supplies on the kitchen counter look like a miniature store. Here’s the tough question: are we willing to give up our food?
One of my fun, creative projects this year is to produce the Ginger and Spice Kitchen Show. We’ll have episodes in each country of what we cook as a team. Honestly, our team has been well fed the past couple of months. We’ve cooked things very similar to what we’ve had in the States. (Well, I also make plantains a lot in the States so this is not new for me.) I even made chocolate chip banana bread the other night. (Bananas going bad are excellent ingredients!)
But here I am putting together food shows, preparing grocery lists and well-balanced menus for a team of 14 each week and these boys are scrounging for ANY type of food. No wonder they go to paint thinner to escape their reality.
As a team (the two teams together), we examined our budget. With transportation and the outreach events we’re doing, we don’t have a lot left. The only place to cut is food. So we’re taking 10% out of our food budget and putting it towards supplies for our ministry here – including some additional food for the boys.
The need is great here. But the solution isn’t to throw money at it. I’m reminded of what my World Race Interviewer told me. “You’re going to go to places this year that you can’t help them financially (that isn’t what the race is about), but what you do have, you give in the name of Jesus.”
We’re cutting where we can cut. (We can survive on beans, eggs and tortillas.) We’re giving where we can give. We’re praying. And what we have, the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, we give in the name of Jesus.
May we risk more in order that Jesus exercises more of His Power and Glory. After all, He multiplied loaves and fish. I think He can do the same with Peanut Butter and beans.
