Not By Bread Alone

”Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” 

Matthew 4:4

Hello, friend! The Lord is doing some incredible works in the Philippines and it was so beautiful to witness them and be invited into what He is doing there! Today, I wanted to share a testimony of this with you!!

While in the Philippines, I learned a lot of what it means to be interruptible for the Kingdom. The Lord highlighted this to me through one of my alumni squad leaders, Elijah.

During our time in the Philippines, I was being trained by Elijah to be raised up as squad leader for when he left the field. No matter how busy we were or if we were in the middle of something, Elijah consistently remained willing and available to the promptings of the Lord.

This is an area of my life that I have desired to grow in for a long time and it was such an answered prayer to be able to see the example that Elijah walks out and to be invited into living an interruptible life with him!

While we were in the Philippines, we were living at a ministry base with other groups of missionaries, and because of that, there was rarely a quiet space available. To do raised-up training, Elijah and I would take a trike (local transportation) down the road and then walk to a Starbucks that was nearby.

(Photo of Elijah and I on a trike)

Those ten minutes of travel back and forth between base and Starbucks, which at first had been so easy to overlook, quickly became a significant point of ministry for us as the days passed.

The truth is, when we walk at a Kingdom pace and operate with eyes fixed on our King, there is never a moment that does not involve ministry in some form. God is always inviting us into something, but it can be so easy for us to miss His invitation if our focus is not in the right place or if we are not willing to make ourselves available.

The Lord is capable of so much more than we could ever ask, think, or imagine! He is always moving—always working, even when we don’t realize it. He is a master storyteller, weaving lives together so intentionally, bringing pieces together we hadn’t even realized were ever in play, all for His glory and for the good of His children.

I was able to see this firsthand in the Philippines many times over the 5 weeks that we were there and the testimony I am about to share with you is proof of that.

~

About a month ago, as Elijah and I were heading back from training at Starbucks, a little girl stopped us just before we were getting on a trike. She was selling bags of mangos and wanted us to buy some from her. As we got on the trike, Elijah accepted the bag of mangos she was handing him and gave her some coins. Before he could give her the rest of the money for the mangos, our trike started to leave and we decided to get her the rest of the money the next time we saw her.

That following Saturday, Elijah and I were doing training at Starbucks again. We decided to walk to a restaurant across the street for lunch. As we were doing so, a different little girl came up to us asking for money for food.

After talking with her a little, Elijah asked her if we could pray over her. After we finished praying, I was reminded that I had a donut in my purse. I asked her if she wanted it and she said yes, thanked us, said she would share it with her grandma, and then walked away.

Through this encounter, the Lord reminded me that people need more than just their physical needs fulfilled. We, as humans, are more than physical beings, we’re spiritual beings as well. Meaning, as Christians, we must be sure to tend to the spiritual needs of those we encounter, even if that is not what they are explicitly seeking. (John 4:5-15)

On Tuesday, we were at Starbucks again working through training. As I was working through some questions, my attention kept getting drawn outside. At first, I thought I was just getting distracted by the pretty sky (which is typical for me haha!), but then I saw the same little girl from Saturday, standing in the parking lot, staring at me and I realized that my attention was being drawn with purpose. When I realized it was her, I smiled and waved and she did the same before walking away.

Elijah had noticed her as well, so we sought the Lord to see what He had for us to do this time. I felt like He just wanted us to talk with her and pray for her again and Elijah got something similar. When we got outside, we learned that her name was Francine, that she was 12 years old, and that she was selling mangos to be able to buy medicine for her grandmother who was in a hospital nearby.

This time, I prayed for Francine and for healing for her grandmother. Elijah then asked Francine if we could go with her the next day to visit her grandmother and pray for her. Francine agreed and we made plans with her to meet at Starbucks the next day at 5 p.m. We also told her that we would bring her a gift (the rest of our team made gift bags for the neighborhood children with a snack, drink, crayons, Bible verse, and a notebook).

The next day, as we went to leave, there was a slight miscommunication between Elijah and I, and we ended up with two gift bags. After we got off the trikes, and were heading to meet Francine, the same little girl from the week before came up to Elijah asking him to buy mangos again! Once we realized it was her, he gave her the rest of the money we owed her (and some) and then I remembered we had the extra gift bag, so I was able to give her the one I had grabbed!

Around 5, we saw Francine and gave her the gift. She told us that her grandmother was moved to a different hospital earlier that day that was further away and not walking distance. Since we hadn’t eaten yet, I asked Francine if she wanted to have dinner with us. There were a few restaurants across the street that we could go to and Francine chose Wendy’s!

While Elijah went in to order, Francine and I sat down at a table outside. Her and I started to talk as she opened her gift bag.

Francine is in the 7th grade. She really enjoys school and loves to learn. Her favorite color is purple. She lives with her grandma and older sister, Francesca, who is 16.

When she pulled out the Bible verse to read it, I asked her if she believed in Jesus and she said yes. I then asked her if she knew that Jesus could be her best friend. Francine nodded and then started to tell me that she and her grandmother go to church together every Sunday and do a Bible study together every Saturday.

As she chatted, excited to tell me all about it, she admitted that she does not own a Bible and has to borrow one of her friend’s every week.

Immediately, the Holy Spirit stirred, and in my heart, I heard, “Give her your Bible.”

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hesitate in obeying what I just received from the Lord. Over the last 6 months, my little pocket Bible has become one of my most treasured possessions and has been a great source of comfort. Because of that, I was reluctant to hand it over. My mind immediately went, ‘well I’m sure Elijah and I can find a Bible for her.’ But just as I had that thought, the Lord reminded me that He had said my Bible, not a Bible.

I knew, as I sat there, continuing to listen to Francine chat, that I had a choice to be obedient. God wasn’t going to force me to give my Bible to the little girl in front of me. But as I sat, considering what I wanted to do and if I was willing to give up something so dear to me that I carry it with me everywhere, that has a large part of my heart written in its pages—my struggles, triumphs, revelations from the Lord, memories, and prayers from the last 6 months—I was faced with the reality that there was a 12 year old girl in front of me who had maybe never owned a Bible in her life, and I had been invited to change that.

My heart broke in that moment, as I stared across the table at a little girl who was so hungry for the Word of God that she would borrow from a friend every single week. And I knew that even though it was costly for me to surrender something I held dear, it was time to allow my Bible to be what it had become to me, for Francine.

So with a heart that was simultaneously overjoyed and grieved, I reached into my purse and pulled out my Bible and asked, “Would you want to have a Bible? This one is mine, but I want to give it to you.”

The disbelief and awe on her face as I handed it to her, tugged on my heart even more. Francine accepted it with such deep reverence as she gently flipped through the pages, reading the notes I had written and looking at pictures I had drawn.

I asked her if she could read in English, and she immediately nodded, flipping open to the book of Philippians to prove it to me by reading out loud. We sat, probably for the next 10-15 minutes as we waited for our food, with Francine flipping through her new Bible with a depth of reverence I had never seen before, of a child who knew the value of what had just been given to her and who had just been given unlimited access to something she had hungered for, for quite possibly her entire life.

It was beautiful to witness and moved me to tears. Seeing her jump into reading the Bible like that and the awe that was so evident within Francine eased the ache I felt in giving it away. And the thought came, that perhaps the notes I felt compelled to write in that Bible had never actually been for me, but for Francine.

As Elijah brought out the food, the Lord spoke a verse into my heart. “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

(Francine reading her new Bible!!!)

This verse, Matthew 4:4, had been given to me by one of the other guys on my squad, Brice, that morning! The team had done listening prayer, seeking the Lord for a Bible verse for each person. Matthew 4:4 is what Brice had heard from the Lord for me! I had spent the first part of the day meditating on that verse, trying to figure out what the Lord was trying to tell me, and now, I finally knew.

Elijah and I may have only planned to share a meal with her, but the Lord had much more in store! He hadn’t just wanted to bless Francine with physical earthly bread, but with spiritual bread that is eternal!

What a beautiful moment to be invited into!

When we started eating, Francine took only a few bites of her burger before saying that she was going to save the rest for her sister and began to wrap it up. When we asked her if she was full, she said no.

This little girl, Francine, who was only 12 years old, cared more about making sure her sister got a meal than she did about fulfilling her own hunger. That level of generosity and selflessness in someone so young absolutely broke my heart.

Elijah and I immediately offered to buy a burger for her sister too so that Francine could finish hers. After some hesitation, she agreed. As we were talking with her, the little girl with the mangos from earlier bought herself a frosty and came and sat down with us. We learned that her name was Francesca and she was 10.

After seeing Francine’s gift bag, Francesca pulled out hers to show her and both girls grinned. When Francesca sat down, Francine immediately passed over the rest of her burger. The girls claimed they didn’t know each other but I caught a few glances between them and I think 16 year old Francesca might actually be 10.

Elijah and I spent the rest of the time chatting with the girls and getting to know them. At one point, Elijah even pulled out his phone and started using google translate. He would try to say the words in Tagalog which both girls found hilarious, but I could tell it touched their hearts that he would attempt to communicate to them in their native tongue.

With the help of Google translate, we were able to ask the girls much deeper questions about their faith and their home lives and hear more of their hearts.

It was super sweet to watch and join in but my heart broke for them. I was constantly fighting back tears while simultaneously being in awe of the way that God was pursuing and providing for Francine and Francesca through us!

Later, Elijah pointed out how God had highlighted us and the girls to the people around us. He said the Wendy’s staff, guards, diners, and passerby’s all stopped to watch and talk about what we were doing! Our small act of obedience, love, and generosity was used to touch the hearts of so many people that day!

Praise God!

Once we got back home, the Lord put it on my heart to wait for Him to provide a new Bible for me. Not even 24 hours later, as I was sharing what had happened with the team after Sarah had noticed that I wasn’t using my Bible, Brice pulled out an extra pocket Bible from his backpack to give to me. The Lord had told him to buy that Bible in Malaysia to give to someone, and a little over a month later, that someone turned out to be me!

God is so cool and so kind!!

~

This whole encounter, that God had in motion throughout the span of a week and half, only happened because Elijah and I had been willing and available to stop the first time!

I hope this testimony encourages you to look for the Kingdom opportunities and invitations that have been placed in front of you and to step out in faith and in obedience! We are only as active in the Kingdom as we choose to be! No matter how insignificant it may seem at the time, the Lord can do so much and the impact it can have could be far greater than you could ever imagine!

Don’t be afraid to say yes! The reward is well worth the risk!

If you would like to pray, here are some prayer points:

• Prayers for Francine and Francesca, that they would continue to experience God’s provision and that they would have more encounters with Him, and for healing for their grandma;
• Over Kids International Ministry and all of the people that they minister to;
• Prayers over Abby and I as we step into the role of squad leader;
• Prayers for Elijah and Jessie as they leave the field and head into a new season with the Lord; and
• Over my squad! We just arrived to Africa on Monday and are adjusting to our new ministries!

Thanks for reading!!

Joyfully His,
Areonah