Family Connection
06.07.2012
“Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother
spoke up, ‘Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but
how far will they go among so many?’
Jesus said, ‘Have the people sit down.’
There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about
five thousand of them. 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 the 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.”-John 8:8-13
Last April my son Josh and I had an opportunity to travel
to Uganda, Africa to visit some friends who are missionaries. They have a specific ministry to orphan
children who have HIV/AIDS. All of these
children have lost parents to this dreaded disease and in order to come to Cherish
they have to be hopeless and on death’s door.
Each of these children are fed, clothed, housed, given proper medical
treatment but most importantly they are loved.
It is estimated that there are 1.2 million people in Uganda who have
HIV/AIDS but these children are Cherish are cared for and God is doing a
miracle. Cherish cannot care for every
person in Uganda who is sick, but they can care for the children they have been
given; they can use what they have and leave the rest up to God.
Like the disciples in the above passage we may be
overwhelmed with the need and our apparent lack of resources. After all, Jesus wanted the disciples to feed
thousands of people and they only had enough food for a small lunch. The amazing thing is what this boy was
willing to do. Even though it seems like
he was the only one who had food, he was willing to give it to Jesus. It was though he said, “Jesus, I’m not sure
what you can do with my small lunch, but here you go!” This boy gave what he had to Jesus, and Jesus
did a miracle with it.
Many times children may not feel that they can do much
for God because they are so small. Well,
one of the things we can do as parents is to help the children in our lives
understand that we can give God what we have and then let Him do the rest. The boy in our passage wasn’t expected to do
a miracle, he couldn’t; he just gave what he had and Jesus did the rest.
This week we are going to start asking the children to go
through their closets at home and bring extra clothes, toys, shoes, etc. to
give to people in need. We will take
care of the distribution; we are just asking children to do what they can to
help others. This might be a great way
of you to interact with the children in your life and help them start to make a
difference for others.
This weekend in Elementary we are talking about John
6:1-14 the boy who gave his lunch to
Jesus. You can watch the lesson if you
follow this link: http://youtu.be/YrTL7XtsuZE
In Early Childhood we will be spending
the month talking about creation and God’s creation station. This week we will be looking at “God made sky
and water” from Genesis 1:6-8.
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to walk with
you and your family as we learn how to follow Jesus together.
Walking by your side,
Brett Humphrey
Pastor H
