Last Saturday, a few people from my church and I went to Francisco Morato, a city near São Paulo, to visit one of the facilities of a non-profit organization called JOCUM (short for “Jovens Com Uma Missão”) which is the local branch of YWAM (short for “Youth with a mission”).

At this facility the missionaries work to help and provide for a very poor population (Francisco Morato is one of the poorest cities in Brazil). Their main focus is the children, for whom they provide several activities in order to keep them from drugs and criminality. They have soccer practice, English and Spanish classes, and they also teach them the Word of God.

The vast majority of these children comes from broken homes. In that region, unfortunately, it is common that the father flees and the mother is left behind to care for herself and the many children.

It is overwhelming to see such poverty so close to São Paulo, the richest city in Brazil. Yet, it is reassuring to see the sacrifices that those missionaries face every day in order to reach for those people. I am sure many other missionaries face similar difficulties all over the world at this very moment.

Looking at such poverty and overwhelming need, I kept thinking about how God works.

It would be very easy for Him to solve all their problems in a blink of an eye. Nothing is impossible for Him, right? So anything that I could think of, like a million dollars being deposited in their checking account, would be very easy for God to do.

But that’s not how He works.

God chose to use us, every one of us, to be His hands here on Earth. He wants us to be involved and be touched by a situation like that. He wants us on our knees asking Him to do something about it. And He wants to use us to be part of the solution.

That reminded me of the two episodes when Jesus multiplied the bread and the fish and fed thousands of people.

In the first occasion, He fed at least 5000 people with five loaves and two fish (see Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:31-44, Luke 9:10-17, John 6:5-15), and later He fed at least 4000 people with seven loaves and a few fish (see Matthew 15:32-39 and Mark 8:1-9).

What caught my attention as I remembered those episodes is how Jesus did it. He could have fed those people in many miraculous ways. But He chose to use His followers to do it.

First, he used the little fish and bread that someone had brought. No one thought that they would be enough. But that was not the point. Jesus asked, and that person offered the little they had, and trusted Him.

Then, He handed out the fish and bread to the disciples, and entrusted them to provide for the people.

Did you notice that the fish and bread actually multiplied in the disciples’ hands? The Bible doesn’t say anything about Jesus giving them baskets full of food, or they coming back for refills. No! Jesus gave them some of it, and it was multiplied while they distributed them.

Jesus used the little they had and their own hands to do the miracle.

Then I realized that this is what God wants from us. He wants us to give Him the little we have, the little we can offer, and work, do whatever He asks us to do, and He will do the rest.

When I see a challenge, God sees an opportunity. When I see the little I have, God sees the amazing miracle He can perform with it.

All I have to do is to look at the challenges the way God does, and remind myself that nothing is too little or too difficult or too challenging for Him, no matter how it seems for me.

Then I need to go ahead and do my part, do what I can, do my best, for He will do His part. He will do what I can’t do.

He will do the miracle.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)