by José Portillo, Executive Director of HLI & founding pastor of Vive Charlotte Church
How much impact can a simple lunch bag have?
Each school year, hundreds of thousands of mothers rise early to prepare and pack lunch bags for their sons and daughters as they get ready for another day at school. Of course, this doesn't even account for the millions of meals mothers, wives, and others all around the world prepare each day for their loved ones to enjoy on a hard day of work.
Preparing a lunch bag is a common task that for many of us might seem insignificant. Most days, we don’t consider the true impact of this simple work of meal preparation. We might never consider how God could use the common lunch bag for the glory of His name. Even less might we consider how God might use the prepared lunch in the hands of our loved ones for His Kingdom purposes.
Funny as it may sound, the work we face in reaching the Hispanic community in the USA is similar to preparing a lunch bag. Let me explain: ministry in the Hispanic-American context can feel simple, ordinary, expected, and often mundane, even though it is necessary. It can look quite monotonous at times, performing the same little tasks of caring for people, day-in and day-out. Sometimes it seems that all the work of our hands within our Presbyterian Church in American (PCA) denomination is nothing more than a small task, the common preparation of a brown-bag lunch. Though our work is a work of caring for the people in our own communities, and our desire is to be able to share a bite and morsel of delight in a life of sweat and hard labor, our work many times seems small and inconsequential.
To our supporters, it might seem that we faithfully prepare the meals day-to-day, and without complaining (well…without too much complaining, anyhow!...). But as mothers who get into the daily rhythm of packing school lunches, as ministry workers in the Hispanic-American context, we often forget the value of our work. We may do it willingly, but we are quick to forget what God is able to accomplish with a simple lunch bag in His hands.
A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Bolivia, in South America, and visited both the cities of Santa Cruz and La Paz. It will come as no surprise that, in order to make purchases there, US visitors must exchange US dollars for the local currency, Bolivianos, which have an exchange rate of around 1USD/7BOB. Yet surprisingly, locals in the airplane from Miami to La Paz advised me not to exchange my dollars at the official rate in the airport, but rather to wait and exchange them in the market squares. There, you get the actual value of a US dollar due to the true economic issues going on in Bolivia. In comparison with the government-set rate of 1:7, the demand-value meant an impressive 1:15 exchange rate, more than doubling the value of a single US dollar. What about the lunch bag? (trust me I am getting to it.)
I was invited to Bolivia to teach, and also to translate, and then to translate, and to translate some more. I want you to know, I was ready. I was coming as a faithful worker, ready to give myself so that the pastors and church communities would obtain the best I have to give from the Lord. I came to give my best talents to teach, preach, and to faithfully translate and communicate what my fellow brothers and ministers of the Gospel had prepared to share with our Bolivian church friends. What came as a shock was that, not only did my dollars have such a high exchange rate, but the local pastors received our training, preparation, and efforts at an equally or even higher exchange rate than our human gifts and talents. I had faithfully packed a lunch bag, but I had not considered all that the Lord could and might do with this seemingly humble lunch.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the idea of the Lord doing great things with a humble lunch is not so new. Two thousand years ago, a mother prepared a lunch bag for her son – perhaps for him to share with his siblings or father. It contained five loaves and two fishes. Her preparation was as simple as it had been with any other lunch she had packed. Yet she knew it was expected, and she knew her loved ones would be fed and sustained through a good meal, thus able to accomplish their work and journey for the day. She had done her job faithfully and with care, like any other day. Likewise, the young man who took the lunch bag left home knowing that the love of his mother would care for him on his journey. Yet, what neither of them had considered was the potential and exponential exchange rate this common lunch bag could have in the hands of Jesus.
As Jesus was ministering all around Galilee, the crowds were hungry to hear, receive, and see more of Him. So as Jesus was with His disciples, thousands of people came to Him and He taught them. As the day went long and as people were hungry to hear more from Him, it was clear that they were also hungry for more than words. If they were going to continue listening and be able to make it home later, they needed real food to fill their empty, rumbling bellies.
It is here where the unexpected lunch bag shows up center-stage. Jesus asked his disciples to feed the people, but they didn’t know what to do, as the enormity of their task to feed five thousand men on the fly (plus women and children) seemed humanly impossible. It was at this point that a young man stepped forward with the little lunch bag his mother had prepared for him. Perhaps he thought of giving up his own meal so that Jesus would eat, and thus have more strength to keep telling them more about God.
As one of the disciples approached Jesus, according to John 6:8-13, he presented the boy and his offering, but with a degree of hesitation: “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” The disciple must have wondered, where would they be able to find a couple thousand more meals like this one or how could just one lunch bag be good enough at such a great time of need. This was a great question, and quite possibly the correct one. How could the common work of a mother be used in the Kingdom of God in such a great time of need? How could one little lunch have any impact on such a large crowd? But Jesus is able. Without answering, He invited everyone to sit.
John continues, “There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, ‘Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.’ So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.”
Do not miss it: this story is nothing short of incredible! A common lunch became a feast for thousands. The small, intentional, ordinary work of a well-prepared meal for 2 or 3 people in the hands of the Lord of the universe became a meal for at least 10 thousand people, and a testimony to the disciples of the exchange rate of the Kingdom! God, by His power, is able to take what is common and limited and remove its limitations. A lunch that was not large enough to satisfy Jesus and His disciples more than satisfies a great multitude.
Here is the encouragement: As we do the humble work of preparing daily lunches, let us not forget that this is the God whom we serve: a God who has called us into His service, to serve those around our communities intentionally with the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. Yet we are called not to do so with eyes that only see the limitations of our hands, our strengths, and our resources. Particularly in the Hispanic context, these can seem quite small and limited! Rather, we are called to serve our communities faithfully in the mundane, but with an awareness of and reliance upon the limitlessness of His power and reign. We are called to faithfully keep preparing lunch bags week-to-week, yet with the expectation that God is able and will accomplish at the exchange rate of His Kingdom, and not our own.
No matter where you are, or what you do, may you have a Kingdom exchange mentality, knowing that He is able to take your humble lunch bag, and bring an exponential kingdom impact for the glory of His name.
STORIES:
Here are some ways that HLI has seen the Lord multiplying our faithful efforts in the Hispanic community, beyond our expectations, and even beyond the US borders!
As a previous PCA pastor, Pastor Maldonado faithfully served his church community in the US. By God’s providence, he returned to Mexico and the investment on his life in the US is being multiplied greatly in a small city there. He is now training to be a professor, and helping to raise new Gospel leaders in his rural community. A training that would cost tens of thousands of dollars to accomplish here in the States is now taking place with less than $750 a year.
A discipleship training, Multiplicadores, that began in Charlotte, NC for 18 pastors, has multiplied into three other Latin American nations, with over 40+ leaders receiving training, and another 100 leaders ready to join. With less than a $1000 a year, more than 100 pastors and leaders will be able to receive training in how to disciple their congregations.
A basic investment of coffee and pastries, of checking in on international students, and praying for them during their seminary studies has led to us being a part of their pursuit of PhD studies, and collaborating with their families as they train pastors around the world.
May the Lord will continue to multiply each and all of the efforts and resources He brings for the expansion of His Kingdom, even beyond our imaginations.
¡A Dios sea la Gloria!
JOIN US IN PRAYER:
Join us in thanksgiving for how the Lord continues to work and use humble people in humble places for the glorious expansion of His Kingdom.
Pray for leaders in and for the Hispanic community to trust the Lord's powerful ability to use their faithful service day-in and day-out.
Pray that the Lord would continue to multiply the efforts of HLI, and of leaders in and for the Hispanic community, even beyond our dreams.
Pray that God would help us continue to invest our time and resources well for the continued expansion of His Kingdom in the Hispanic-American community, and beyond.
Pastor José, his wife Anna, and their four children (Daniela [6], Benjamín [4], and Felipe & Ibrahím [2 1/2]) live in Charlotte, NC, where Pastor José is the church planting pastor of Vive Charlotte Church, and serves as the Executive Director of HLI. Pastor José has also started and helps run a non-profit organization for immigrants in Charlotte, Cities of Refuge. He has started the ministry of Multiplicadores, and has helped to train leaders in Charlotte, Houston, Virginia, Colombia, El Salvador, Bolivia, Mexico, throughout the US, and across the globe.
Please consider giving to HLI, that the Lord may continue multiplying the resources for the training, encouragement, renewal, and multiplication of new leaders in and for the Hispanic-American context, and even beyond.
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