God provided again
The road to Marilog District is long — three hours of winding mountain highway, and then a rougher stretch where the pavement gives way to gravel and the van slows to a crawl. We left Davao City before sunrise, the back seats stacked with sacks of rice, trays of chicken, cooking pots, slippers in every size, and boxes of Bible story materials. By the time we reached the sitio, the children were already waiting by the roadside, waving as the van climbed the last hill.
Word travels fast in the mountains. We had planned for a hundred children; a hundred and twenty came. There was a moment — the volunteers will tell you this happens on every trip — when we looked at the pots and quietly wondered if there would be enough. There was. There always is. Every child ate a full plate of rice and chicken, and many went back for seconds. Mothers and grandmothers who had walked with the little ones ate too.
After the meal came the part the children now ask for by name: story time. This visit we told the story of the loaves and the fishes — a fitting one, we thought, for a day when a single vanload of supplies seemed to stretch far beyond what we packed. The older kids answered questions faster than we could ask them. The younger ones acted out the story, passing imaginary baskets down the row, laughing when the "bread" never ran out.
"Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish, gave thanks, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied." — Matthew 14:19–20
Before we left, every child chose a new pair of slippers. For some of them it was their first pair in a long while — the mountain paths here are rocky, and slippers wear out fast on small feet that walk far to school. Watching them test the fit, hopping from foot to foot and grinning, was worth every kilometer of that road.
Thank you to everyone who gave, prayed, cooked, drove, and came along. One hundred twenty bellies were filled, and one hundred twenty hearts heard that God sees them and loves them. Food for their bellies, the word for their souls — God provides all.
