This is a miracle story. A miracle that began on a Thursday night, although we didn’t know about it until Friday morning. The story begins in a Portland, Oregon, neighborhood where many families are without work and are hungry. The members of the Sharon Seventh-day Adventist Church have provided a ray of hope for those families through a Friday noon food bank that delivers each family boxes with enough food to last them a week.
“The need has grown unbelievably during the COVID-19 shutdown,” says church pastor Garth Dottin. “We’ve had to depend on other organizations to help us meet the need in our neighborhood.”
The church’s most important supporting organization is Portland Adventist Community Services (PACS), an organization that delivers thousands of boxes of food to hungry people all over Portland.
“The past few weeks have really been challenging,” says PACS director Laura Pascoe. “Before COVID-19 we had been providing food for 40 or 50 families a day. But since early March we’re seeing a lot more hungry people. Now we often have 150 or more cars in our food line before we even open.”
In addition to serving families in their own “drive-up” food line, PACS supplies produce boxes, dairy boxes, and bread to several other food banks that are operated by Seventh-day Adventist churches in the Portland area.
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Tuesday morning Laura received a call from Garth Dottin at the Sharon church. They were out of food, he explained, and wondered if PACS could get them food boxes for 120 families. “We need the boxes by Friday morning at 11:30,” Dottin said. “Our members will pick up the food from the church parking lot and deliver it to the hungry people who are on their neighborhood list. Can you help us with this?”
“We’ll do our best,” Laura answered. Then she called Tim, who is in charge of the PACS food distribution, who called the supplier and added 120 produce boxes to their order. “No problem,” the supplier promised. “You’ll be able to pick them up Friday morning.”
“We’ll have your boxes to the church by 11:30 Friday morning,” Laura texted Pastor Dottin.
Wednesday morning Tim called the supplier to check on the order. “No problem. We’ll have two big pallets full and ready for you. No problem at all.”
Thursday afternoon Tim called again. “Yep. Your pallets are sitting right here, ready for you to pick up first thing tomorrow morning.”
Just to be sure, Tim called again Friday morning. “I have terrible news for you,” the man in charge of the warehouse said quietly. “Somehow last night one of our crew gave both of your pallets away to another organization that needed the food. I’m so sorry,” he continued. “We don’t have anything to give you. Well, we do have about 400 dozen eggs. Could you use some eggs? Maybe you could use those and, uh, we also have some extra milk. Can you use that?”
Tim responded quickly. “We’ll take the milk and the eggs. I’ll send a truck over right now.” Then he hung up and went to Laura, the director of PACS.
“We have an emergency. We need to pray.”
They prayed. Two Christian leaders around the director’s desk, reminding God of the people in the neighborhoods around the Sharon church. Then they desperately began calling everyone who they thought might be able to help the Sharon church.
Ten minutes later, in the midst of their frantic calling and desperate praying, a huge truck from Pacific Coast Produce drove into the PACS delivery driveway. A man jumped down from the driver’s seat and said, “OK, I’m here with today’s delivery.”
“We’re not expecting a delivery from you today,” Tim told the driver. “You only come on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”
“I don’t know about that,” the driver laughed. “But today is your lucky day. You’re on my list, and I’ve got a delivery just for you!”
When the driver opened the door on the back of his truck, Tim could hardly believe what he saw inside. Stacked carefully on two pallets were 120 produce boxes, strapped tightly and ready for delivery. Produce boxes. COVID-19 produce boxes provided by the United States government. Butter, cheese, broccoli, onions, potatoes, celery, a gallon of milk, and a box of fresh strawberries that had been picked the day before in Santa Maria, California. The load was the exact amount of food that was needed. Dropped right out of the sky to meet the Sharon church’s need.
* * *
It was a miracle. A miracle that hadn’t been asked for, but a miracle worked out by the angels from supply and delivered anyway. Right on time. God answered Tim’s and Laura’s prayers Thursday night as Pacific Coast Produce was filling their trucks. That was before Tim and Laura even knew they needed to pray!
The Sharon church parking area had a line of more than 20 cars snaking through the lot when I drove the PACS truck through the gate. Each driver was ready with a list of neighbors, church members, and homeless friends who lived nearby. You see, the drivers were not there to collect food for themselves, but to carry it into the community and place each box where they already knew someone was hungry.
As we unloaded the produce boxes, eggs, and milk from the PACS truck, I told Pastor Dottin about the miracle. He stopped, several dozen boxes of eggs in his arms, and looked at me through misty eyes. “Our people really needed this food today. God came through for us, again!”
We quoted the verse together. “Before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear” (Isa. 65:24).
Yes. As always, the angels from supply did their job perfectly. This time they even included strawberries!
