“Here is a boy with five small barley loves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”
John 6:9
Andrew and Philip, two of Jesus’ disciples, looked out over the crowd at the shore of Galilee. There had to be at least 5,000 people there, and Jesus had asked for bread to feed them all! The only food to be had was with a boy, with what was probably his baon (packed lunch) for the day. But, from this meager contribution, Jesus performed a miracle before Andrew, Philip, and everyone else’s eyes, so that the entire crowd was fed — with plenty left over!
God used a boy’s baon to feed a multitude. Did you know that he also used a girl’s penny savings to build a church and school?
In the 1880′s, a minister named Russel Conwell was the pastor for a small Baptist church in Philadelphia. The premises were so small, people had to get tickets of admission, sometimes weeks in advance, to get into the building for Sunday service!
One Sunday, Conwell passed by the place for the Sunday School, which was also very small. He spotted a little girl named Hattie May Wiatt trying to get in through the crowd. Conwell picked Hattie up, carried her inside, and chatted to her a bit. He recorded the conversation in a sermon he delivered in 1912:
As we met, I said: ‘Hattie, we are going to have a larger Sunday school room soon,’ and she said: ‘I hope you will. It is so crowded that I am afraid to go there alone.’ ‘Well,’ I replied, ‘when we get the money with which to erect a school building we are going to construct one large enough to get all the little children in, and we are going to begin very soon to raise the money for it.’ It was only in my mind as a kind of imaginary vision, but I wished to make conversation with the child.
Little did Conwell know that this bit of imagination had planted a seed in Hattie’s heart.
Sometime later, Hattie fell sick with diphtheria and died. After the funeral, her mother handed Conwell a little bag containing 57 cents. The girl had been saving up her money so that she could contribute to the new school building. This so touched Conwell and the other members of the community decided to make the imagination a reality: they began a building project for their church.
Conwell and the congregation had almost no money for this project, but they decided to proceed by faith. First, Conwell auctioned Hattie’s pennies as souvenirs, raising $250 so that the church could meet in a larger building. FIfty-four of the original 57 cents were returned.
Conwell then approached a man, Mr. Baird, and asked how much he wanted for his empty lot. Baird said that he wanted $30,000. Conwell said that they had only 54 cents, but he also declared, the church still believed that they would own the lot one day. After thinking about it, Baird agreed to take the 54 cents as the first payment!
On that lot today stands the Baptist Temple, which seats over three thousand people. And as for Hattie’s wish for a bigger school, Conwell also founded the huge Temple University, which has about 34,000 students today.
Do you feel that you don’t have enough? What little you have, bring it to Jesus in faith. He can provide for you beyond your imagination, just as he fed 5,000 with five loaves and built a church and a university with 57 cents.
He only is the Maker
Of all things near and far;
He paints the wayside flower;
He lights the evening star;
The winds and waves obey Him;
By Him the birds are fed;
Much more to us, His children,
He gives our daily bread.
Matthias Claudius
Click here to read the original text of Conwell’s 1912 sermon, which tells Hattie’s story.
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