One more sandwich!
In the gospel of John 21:15-17 Jesus says to Peter:“Feed
my lambs”, then Jesus said:“Take
care of my sheep.” Finally in verse 17 He says:“Feed my sheep”.
These scriptures greatly motivated Roger & I once we arrived in Tijuana,
Mexico in August 1990. Again, these words were my motivation to write this
article, because it is
so very important to take care of the poor. Upon our arrival in San Diego, for several months we worked with a black American lady who was already
working in the shanty towns of Tijuana. Every Sunday, we would pack up her van
with food and used clothing and go to three different colonias. With the help
of an interpreter, Sister Stamps would preach a short gospel message. Only
after she finished preaching did the people gathered outside, where we then distributed groceries to each family. Sister Stamps was very adamant that
the people received the
Bread of Life before they got
bread for their bellies. Actually, Roger & I adopted that same “rule”. In 1992, after we founded
Tender Loving Care Children Ministries, we went back to one of those areas to teach the children a weekly bible study. Afterwards, we fed the children.
Many of them had to go to school and had not eaten since getting up that
morning. We fed them various type of easy to make meals but the most popular was peanut butter and jam
sandwiches made with fresh white bread and accomppanied by a glass of cold white milk. To some of you, this will seem to be a very humble meal. But for these kids it was a very
special meal. We would set up a table at the front of the little church and then we would make lots of sandwiches. Some of the moms would help us by making the kids
line up to come to the table or by serving them a glass of milk. For sanitary reasons, we always
wrapped the sandwiches in a white paper napkin. The children were
always permitted to
get back in line if they wanted a second sandwich. One day one of the moms
approached me and said:
“Hermana Denise”, and pointing to a little girl in
the line up,
“this little girl has come several times to get a sandwich, but
she has not eaten any of the sandwiches you gave her, she has them all on her
chair.” As this cute little girl,
about eight years old, got yet another sandwich, I decided to follow her to her
seat to find out what she was doing. She had already
6 sandwiches on her chair.
When she realized that I was beside her, she bowed her head probably thinking I
was going to scold her. Instead, I took by the hand, and I asked her:
“Mija,
(which means dear in spanish) why are you accumulating these sandwiches but
not eating one of them.” She lifted her cute
little face and said
:“Hermana Denise, we are nine living in my house and we
have nothing to eat. I was planning to take these sandwiches to my house to
feed my family.” With tears in my eyes, I took her by the hand and picked
up the “accumulated sandwiches” and I went back to the table where Roger was
still busy making sandwiches. I made three more sandwiches, grabbed a plastic
bag and put all of the
nine sandwiches inside. Giving the little girl a hug and
the bag of sandwiches, I told her:
“Precious, go home and bring these to your family”. I also
I handed her a bag of groceries that the kids always received every week before going back to their shacks.”
She gave me a big smile and out the door she went. Roger had noticed that I had left the table and he had seen me come back with this little girl, but he had no idea what was going on because he was busy making peanut butter and jam sandwiches. Once we finished feeding the kids and gave them their bag of groceries, we got in the van to return to San Diego. Once back on the road, Roger asked me:“What happened with this little girl that made you disappear from the table and then come back to the table with her. What happened that made you cry? With tears pouring down my face this was my answer:
“Roger, this little girl got in line several times, because all she wanted was another sandwich.”Sincerely Denise !
I have no picture of the little girl in this story.
