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Hello Friends,
Summer camp is winding down; while it's a short 7 weeks, the days can feel long. And by the end of the summer, the team is often tired and in need of a break. They are tired because the days are hot, serving can be draining, kids can pull every ounce of energy out of you, and the work is often thankless. In the midst of heat and long days, so many great things happened at The Pittsburgh Project this summer; field trips, water days, service projects, worship time, and electives. One of the electives this summer was cooking. The students have been creating all types of great things, from baking cookies from scratch to cabbage soup. All the items they have created are things they can find at the local grocery store and recreate at home with their families. Last week the students were making oil infused with garlic, basil, rosemary, and thyme. The students made one for each of their families, and there were a few extras, so they passed them out to the staff.
As I was looking at the basil and garlic-infused oil on my desk, the story of Elisha and the widow from 2 Kings came to mind. If you aren't familiar with this old testament story, there is a woman whose husband has passed away, and she is left to care for her two sons, and their family is in debt. She goes to Elisha, the prophet, and shares the situation with him, and he asks the woman what she has in her home, and all she had was a jar of oil. Elisha told the woman to borrow some vessels from her neighbors, pour the oil into the vessels, and set it aside once each was full. She did this, and her sons continued to bring her vessels until there were no more, and at that point, the oil stopped flowing. Elisha said to her in verse 7, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest.”
I think about this story and how at times in each of our lives, it may seem like we don't have enough of what's needed to get the job done or make it through whatever situation we face. When families and community members send their children to The Pittsburgh Project or connect with us in different ways, we often have no idea what circumstances they are facing. We serve a God that can meet us in any circumstance, and that provides all of our needs. Those provisions may not come in the way we imagine, but every drop of oil we need is provided. I'm sure that the widow, when she was down to her last, didn't foresee that what she had in her home was enough, but God took what she had and multiplied it to provide for her present needs and her family's needs that were to come. At The Pittsburgh Project this summer, I witnessed firsthand how God provided every drop of oil that was needed to provide every need.
Before camp started, that provision was two staff members that filled roles of people that dropped out at the last minute. At one point early in the summer, that drop of oil came by way of a check in the mail that was almost the exact amount of some other anticipated funding that fell through. There was a service group coming to do a massive cleanout for a neighbor, and because of some paperwork logistics, it seemed like it might not be able to happen, which would have devastated the neighbor. The drop of oil needed that time was provided when the paperwork was processed quickly, and the group could finish the project a day later. God's provision was clear on the day that we took the entire summer camp to Moraine State Park, and the sky was covered with rain clouds. The rain began to fall as the buses arrived at the beach area, and just as quickly as the rain began, the clouds rolled away, and the sun was shining on us for the rest of the day.
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