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Daily Bread
Jesus taught us to pray “Give us today our daily bread.” Matthew 6:11. When bread or other things we need are not readily available, or our personal finances are less than adequate then this part of the Lord’s Prayer takes on a greater significance.
God has given us some remarkable answers to our prayers for daily bread and I would like to share some with you.
One spring we were on our “regular” Northern Europe circuit travelling through Germany to Dresden, then south through the Czech Republic to Brno stopping off at several churches with keyboards, literature and a word of encouragement. We were due to arrive in Brno on Friday evening, deliver literature and preach on Sunday and then travel north to Poland for similar visits. Between Prague and Brno the exhaust disintegrated right beneath my seat and made a dreadful noise. All Brno could hear us arrive! Not only was the noise uncomfortable but it could create problems at the border Polish if we arrived with an “un-roadworthy” vehicle.
The next day was Saturday and we prayed for a solution to our problem. Just about every shop was closed but we did find a florists open. Not being interested I wanted to press on and continue our search. However Val really did want to buy “one of those lovely African Violets” for our hostess. So we went in (or rather I was dragged in) and there was the answer to our prayers. Not an African violet but an exhaust bandage! In a florists shop!! Praise God for Manna in the wilderness!
In 1997 we took an Anglian Water team (and others) to Albania to install a water system in a village near the Greek border. Val and I were to fly ahead of the team who would drive down in an articulated lorry kindly loaned by “Wincanton” Transport and a Land Rover. We had two choices. Swiss Air would provide the better service arriving in mid afternoon after a brief delay in Zurich. Another airline would provide a cheaper flight but this would entail a six hour night time stopover and we would arrive very tired. We were advised by our Albanian director to use the Swiss Air flight.
Not wanting to ask the mission for the extra funds we decided to pay the matter before the Lord. The deadline for decision was Saturday and we needed £850.
Each morning that week we waited eagerly for the post. Nothing. On Saturday as we sat praying I heard the post arrive. A very thin post. Two letters. The first had a gift of £10 “for the work”. Nice, and we were thankful for it but it wouldn’t get us to Albania. The other letter? I opened it and there was a cheque for £1000. But we only asked for £850 so why the extra? God knew.
Knowing God was in this “backing us to the hilt” we ordered the tickets and the day came for our flight. We were greeted on board our Swissair flight to Zurich with a smile, an “Enjoy the flight” and a newspaper. We sat down, strapped ourselves in and opened the paper. “Riots in Tirana, Albania as the Banks Collapse” screamed the headlines. Well God provided the tickets so he must have known about this.
And this! The pilot pushed the throttles forward to their stops just before touchdown. The runway had disappeared into the fog. So had the mountains! The next time round the pilot got us safely down and we were soon on the next plane to Tirana and what?
We had no problems arriving and we had an “interesting” flight with “Missionary Aviation Fellowship” from Tirana to Saranda where we joined our local coordinator and the rest of the team. Not without difficulty the team installed the water supply with a stand pipe for every three homes. A great improvement on a long walk to the river for untreated water. The work was drawing to a close and I was invited to preach in a small church in Saranda. With riots and roadblocks… and tens of thousands of weapons stolen from the collapsed military regime I chose to preach on Jesus calming the storm in Mark 4
“He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"
As we left the church our coordinator said “Now you can practice what you preach. There is a road block and there is no way your team can leave.” Val insisted on coming with me as I jumped in the car with a prayer and two armed police. By the time we arrived the road block had melted away. We got the team out and followed them.
Storm? What storm?? However it had taken days to clear customs and we needed to change our return flights. The cost? £150! God knew that we would have these problems all along.