I am very excited today to be able to start a new series of blog posts by the incredible Heidi and Rolland Baker. As faithful fun-filled missionaries in Mozambique, they see God move in astoundingly beautiful ways. Over the next few weeks, I will share some of their stories, all of which are used with permission.

Heidi writes:

“Our children like their food.
We love to eat together. We have to have a lot of food to feed everyone. If you knew how much we needed it might make you nervous! But I don’t get anxious about it. I feel happy because I know that God always provides for me and my little ones. I get to be a little piece of the big puzzle of how He does it. I see that as a true privilege.

One day we made a big batch of cookies for the kids. They are not like western cookies, they are harder and smaller but our kids love them and they are a rare treat. On this day, word got out fast that we had made these and hundreds more children turned up for one. The people serving them were one of our little guys, Juma and a missionary called Dawn. They realised they were going to run out. The kids were taking more than one and stuffing them in their pockets. There would not be enough to go round, especially as hundreds more were arriving to take one.

We teach our kids that if you need food, pray. That is what happened in ‘The Book.’ The Book is what we live by. So we put ourselves into the story of the book. So little Juma prays for more cookies to feed the kids.

Now God performs food miracles for us so many times, but it is normal that He makes more bread and chicken.

But this time, He worked on that bag.
There was Juma and Dawn with hundreds and hundreds of kids and their bag of cookies did not run out. For weeks and weeks God filled that bag over and over again!

That is not a “necessary miracle. They didn’t have to have those cookies. But God loves to bless us and give us good gifts. He also loves it when we trust Him to answer the simplest of prayers, “Help!”

(Copyright River Publishing 2014.)

When I first read this story, the tears fell down my cheeks like rain! I was so moved. It was such a wonderful picture of how God wants to give to us – not just what we NEED to survive, but what makes us happy too.

There are many times in my life where I have not dared to ask God for something I really wanted, in case it was frivolous and somehow hedonistic. This story reminds me that God is a Dad who loves to give good gifts to His children.

Recently, Jon and I realised that our old faithful car was on her last legs. She had served us well for 9 years but was giving out. What we really wanted was a great car for us and the kids. For years we had dreamed of a Volkswagen Caravelle, but never thought we would ever get one. I kept looking at cheaper cars on the internet but still inwardly hoping for a Caravelle.

Then some inheritance money came through from my Grandma’s estate meaning we could afford a second hand Caravelle.

Every time I drive it, I smile with deep gratitude. It is not just the car we needed, it is the car we wanted. I love how God treats us, not just with the normal everyday ‘bread’ but also the wine of life.