The Miracle of the Christmas Turkeys

Photos by Joe Walenciak

Every Friday night, the good folks of Iglesia Bautista Cristo es el Camino take a hot meal to the families who live in the shanty towns outside of the Guatemala City garbage dump.  A typical Friday meal may consist of beans, rice, bread, and something hot to drink.  Between a hundred and a hundred fifty people show up to enjoy one of the best meals they will have all week.  There is singing and a party-like atmosphere set against the backdrop of the filth, trash, and mountains of recyclables that have been recovered throughout the day.

For the last several months, JBU has been planning a special Christmas food distribution for Friday, December 23.  With the help of the good folks at La Barraca de Don Pepe, we bought 20 turkeys and made the world's largest pot of Russian salad.  Along with turkey and salad, each person would received bread, a fresh apple, and a box of Kern's fruit juice.  The folks at the church said we should be prepared for 200+ people, although something told me that we were not thinking big enough.

Layla de Perez helps children with plates

We bought 400 plates at PriceSmart which we thought would be enough for Friday night and some other upcoming events.  On Friday about noon we picked up the 20 turkeys, and Cecy Quinonez spent the afternoon slicing and deboning.  I have never seen turkey carcasses picked so clean!  Cecy reminded me that the people would probably want the bones to make soup, so I pulled out a handful of Walmart bags that I always carry on trips, and we put a bare carcass and a handful of fat and skin in each of 20 bags.  Cecy counted enough portions for about 220 servings.

The line...at least part of it!

When we arrived, it was clear that we would have a large crowd.  After a time of prayer and singing, the food distribution began.  Enrique told everyone not to push...that there was plenty of food for everyone.  My faith was not as strong at that point.  We could not see the end of the line.  I told Cecy we had a LOT of people, but she refused to turn around and look, continuing to place very generous portions of turkey and salad on each plate.  She was afraid to see how long the line was, but instead of rationing, she seemed to be giving larger and larger portions!  The environment was happy.  There was music.  Children were playing, and everyone was so happy to receive such a special meal in such generous proportions.  Everyone seemed oblivious to the truth that only we knew...that we had enough food for 200 people and there were clearly more on hand.

Cecy kept filling the plates and refusing to turn around and look at the line.  Every time I handed her another tray of turkey meat and looked at the multitude of people still waiting to be fed, I became more uneasy.  We kept opening more packages of plates, too, including those we intended to use for the next two events.  Cecy kept serving what seemed to be bigger and bigger portions.  I noticed that we were down to the last couple of trays of turkey and the bottom of the pot of salad.  And then it happened.  We saw the end of the line.  Cecy still would not turn around and start adjusting portion sizes.  She just kept serving.  Finally, she picked up the VERY LAST serving of turkey and scraped out the VERY LAST remnants of the Russian salad and put it on a plate which we then handed to the VERY LAST person in the line.  With only a handful of plates left, we realized that our 200 servings of turkey had somehow feed nearly 400 people!  The same God who multiplied the loaves and fishes can apparently do the same thing with turkey and Russian salad!  We stood there amazed, just letting the whole event sink into minds and hearts, realizing that we had just seen a miracle.  God loves his people!

Then we remembered the bags of bones.  We had 20 of those, and I had stood there in the Quinonez home and held each bag, watching the stripped carcass and handful of fat and skin go in each one.  Ladies gathered around, and once again we gave the last bag to the last woman.  Just enough.

We say that all of these things come from God's hands.  We say that, but then we act as those we are providing.  We plan and take responsibility for outcomes, but the reality is that "God gives the increase."  Why should we be surprised when God acts?  And when God demonstrates that he loves his children, why do we not expect that?  And just about the time we finally think we have wrapped our minds around the extent of God's amazing generosity, we realize we have not.

That happened to us.  We had "packaged" the "miracle of the Christmas turkeys" and had told the story of God's goodness.  The following Friday night, we returned to the settlement with a more typical food distribution and a more typical crowd.  Suddenly we were approached by one of the ladies who took a bag of bones, and she informed us that we had made a mistake.  "What mistake?" we asked?  She proceeded to insist that we had given her a bag full of turkey meat instead of bones, fat, and skin.  She claimed that there was probably about a half of a turkey in the bag!  I kind of dismissed that until a second woman approached us a little bit later and thanked us!  She said she arrived to her shanty and opened up her bag of turkey bones, only to find about a half turkey inside.  I can't make this stuff up.  I just tell what I saw.

God loves his kids.  We walked into this thinking, "We are going to do something special for the people."  We walked away praising God for his provision and for the privilege of witnessing the miracle of the Christmas turkeys.