A Miracle Story For Easter Sunday

Back in September of 2005, Dorcas and I led a small mission group from FRC to Pachacutec, Peru, a teeming shantytown located on the sand dunes above the Pacific Ocean, about an hour-and-a-half north of downtown Lima.

There are about 350,000 people who live in the shantytown of Pachacutec, Peru. Almost all of them live in extreme poverty. The average person in Pachacutec probably makes about US$1-2 a day. Many of the people who live in Pachacutec are Peruvians who have come to the capital city from the provinces, thinking that there is more economic opportunity available in Lima, when there really is not. They quickly get trapped in extreme poverty, and wind up in a shantytown like Pachacutec.

We regularly go to Pachacutec to serve the people there. On the day in question in September of 2005, I called the pastor of a small church in Pachacutec that we support, and I told him that we'd be visiting that day, and that we'd be bringing lunch for the people in his church. I asked him how many people we should expect. He said 50.

So we went off to E. Wong, the top supermarket chain in Lima, and we bought 15 whole chickens, plus french fries, salad, and Inca Kola (the soda of choice in Peru!). We figured that if we split the 15 chickens into quarters, then we'd have 60 portions, enough for 50 people, plus 10 extra portions.

We packed up all the chickens and headed up the sand dunes to Pachacutec. When we arrived at the small church, I was heartened to see a lot of people outside. I assumed that they were there to greet us.

I was wrong.

The only reason that they were outside the church was because there was no room inside the church.

The Pachacutec pastor had told us to prepare lunch for 50 people.

There were 300 inside.

We entered the church, and the aroma of delicious Peruvian rotisserie chicken wafted to the heavens. Most of the 300 people inside probably only ate chicken once or twice a year because of their extremely impoverished situations. They all looked very excited ... and very starving.

And we had 15 chickens.

For 300 people.

I said a quick prayer, and it went something like this: "Jesus, you fed 5,000 men and their families with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread, so this should be easy! Please do it!"

We began to make plates of chicken, french fries, and salad. We made lots of plates. We made more plates. And more. And more.

We kept looking at the line of famished faces. It barely seemed to move! But we kept filling up plates with chicken and fries and salad.

We just kept filling plates. More and more.

And we filled up 300 plates of chicken.

There were also 15 volunteers from the church who were helping us to fill up all the plates, and we had exactly 15 plates of chicken left over for them.

We were witnesses as Jesus fed 315 people with just 15 chickens in the shantytown of Pachacutec, Peru.

One day when I'm in heaven, I'm going to sit down and chat with some of the folks who were there that day when Jesus fed the 5,000 men and their families with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. I'm going to tell them the story of the miracle of the chickens in Pachacutec.

But you know, as I think about it now, I probably don't even need to tell them the story. They were all probably glancing down from heaven and watching on that incredible day in September of 2005, when Jesus fed 315 people with 15 chickens in Pachacutec, Peru.