What happened inside the disciples? They were aware of the needs of the crowd but they came to the wrong conclusion and asked the Lord to send the people away to buy food for themselves. What was the Lord waiting for? He was waiting for the disciples to give him what they had, even though in their eyes it was far from enough. The Lord used this very little and the crowd was satisfied. All the disciples had to do was to pick up the leftovers in order to experience the glory of God, and then to tell others and remind themselves that he is an omnipotent and loving God. This miracle is recorded in all four Gospels.

We had a similar experience with the 1991 Balatonaliga Conference in Hungary. It was a time of very great political changes and very few resources. We were faced with severe illnesses, death, and unavailability of the leaders we had counted on. Then the Gulf War broke out! We feared no one would come. In all this, we were made to realise that we could only count on our Lord.

Result – we were more than satisfied! Over 500 attended, including 150 from former communist countries for whom we were able to provide free hospitality. Out of the financial ‘leftovers’ we were able to begin to publish our Hungarian CMF journal.

Prayer: Lord, help us to see the needs of our fellowmen and help us not to fall into doubting you. Open our spiritual eyes, so that we may see against our own insignificance your power and love, and that you satisfy those who are in need. Saviour, help us never to forget what you did for us, and Holy Spirit, help us to tell others faithfully about Jesus Christ and about the love of God.