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If you ever doubt that God cares about the little details of your life, be encouraged by these two stories of answered prayers for our Neighbors in Need ministry.

By God’s grace, our ministry has grown from serving 20 sack lunches every Sabbath to 320 meals per week (we have grown since the testimony below)! We are blessed to be able to feed so many people each week, and we are beyond thankful for our partnerships with local food pantries and the donations our ministry receives.

Recently, our shelves have been getting pretty bare, and because God knows the needs of the people we serve, I began praying for His provision. I called one of the food pantries we typically use, and they didn’t have enough food for their own needs either, so unfortunately, they couldn’t help. I just kept praying as we proceeded with our own supplies.

We were planning our upcoming Sabbath’s menu and planned to serve white bean soup. The problem was we couldn’t find any white beans while shopping, and it turns out there is a shortage in the state. So, after calling around, we only were able to find seven out of the 24 cans we needed. We prayed about this need but also knew we might have to end up changing the menu.

The same food pantry we called for help called us and said they had a ton of frozen mashed potatoes and ice cream they could send our way. We were thrilled and said we’ll pick it all up. However, we didn’t have enough freezer space for the ice cream, so we began thinking about other local ministries that might be able to use it.

We reached out to another compassion ministry in Anderson, and they came to get some. Then one of our board members suggested a ministry that we haven’t worked with much. We reached out, and they said they frequently run low on ice cream, so it was a perfect fit.

Later that very same day, that ministry called us back and said they had 15 boxes of shelf-stable food they wanted to donate to us! We were on cloud nine, praising God for answering our prayers, especially when we hadn’t even expressed our needs to them. And can you guess what came off the truck at the very end of the delivery? Two cases of white beans!

With tears in my eyes, I called to express our gratitude to the ministry for all this food we so desperately needed. And when I shared with them that we were still slightly shy for our Sabbath menu and needed a few more cases of white beans, they said they had more, and they were ours.

The Lord provided all the food we needed for the upcoming Sabbath menu, down to the very last detail! What’s even more remarkable is by us reaching out and sharing with this ministry without any expectation, we received an even greater blessing in return, and it was exactly what the Lord knew we needed. Praise God!

Another recent ministry need has been Styrofoam bowls and lids for our soup. We’ve been unable to find them online or in stores due to supply chain issues and restaurant demands, so we’ve had to use cups with lids to distribute our soup around town. We’ve made it work, but it certainly hasn’t been ideal.

When one of our weekly volunteers was at her favorite restaurant recently, she decided to ask the owner if he had a connection for Styrofoam bowls and lids. He said absolutely and that he would be glad to donate them to the ministry. He donated a case of 500 bowls and lids, which will last us a couple of weeks and was another big answer to prayer!

These two stories of answered prayer show us that no matter how small or specific the need might seem, God knows. God cares. And God will provide.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

Matthew 6:25-26

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

Philippians 4:6