It was the Christmas of 1996. I had been there since August and had built my treehouse. I had found an old set of skis and some boots and decided to go skiing down a logging road. It was a hard climb up to where I wanted to shove off from, but I got up there and skied down to camp. When I got back I noticed a pain in my right knee but just attributed it to being out of shape, thinking it would go away soon enough. But it didn’t go away, it got worse.
Then, on Christmas Day, I made my way through the snow down to David and Heidi’s “A-P”, hoping for a coffee and something to eat. It was about 3pm and when I went inside, I asked Heidi what she was making for dinner. She replied, “Well, we have a bean.” “A bean? That’s all?” “Yup, but I’m trusting God to provide”, she said. She proceeded to boil some water, added a few lentil leaves and spices, and the bean. It was depressing, but we just trusted the Lord.
She cut the bean into thirds so we each had part of the bean in our bowls of water. I prayed and thanked God for the food, staring at my 1/3rd of the bean. I could picture people “out there” with lots of food, carving up turkeys and laughing. Trying not to be depressed about it, I began to sip the broth, saving the bean for the last scoop.
Then, just as I had the 1/3rd of the bean in my spoon, we heard voices from outside. “Where the **** are we?” “We’re here!” Where the **** is here?” And then the door swung open, and there was Roy, his beard covered in ice, with a big backpack on, unable to fit through the door. He just said, “Merry Christmas! We brought food!” His helper, who none of us knew, was trying to peak inside over his shoulder, asking again, “Where are we!?” Roy took off his backpack and they came inside to warm up. He told us how a bunch of brothers and sisters had put a care package together for us and got him to bring it all up the mountain to us. His helper, George, wasn’t too happy though. Roy had met him in a restaurant in Chilliwack that afternoon and asked him if he wanted to help. He had no idea what he was getting into! Roy’s truck got stuck in the snow about a mile down the hill, so they had to drag the load up on foot, through about two feet of snow. He had quite the load too! He had the backpack on, with a couple of ropes tied around his waist pulling a plastic trash can that was full of food, and two more ropes tied to a “crazy carpet” that had two boxes of food on it. George was balancing the boxes from behind, wearing only running shoes, and he was soaked and frozen. And mad.
But we were blessed! In all there were two frozen turkeys, a frozen ham, 50 pounds of potatoes, 50 pounds of carrots, 50 pounds of onions, coffee, stuffing, chocolate, and lots of other goodies! Heidi couldn’t cook the turkeys or the ham because they were still frozen, but she got to work with the veggies and it wasn’t long before we were eating our miracle food. It was the best Christmas ever, because it came from the Lord, via Roy, George and our Christian family in the city.
We kept trying to encourage George, thanking him profusely, but he just wasn’t happy about how he felt betrayed by Roy. He said that he had to get back to Chilliwack because he had to be at work the next morning, so, after they had warmed up and dried off a bit, they headed back to Roy’s truck in the dark.
God is good! I hope this little story blesses you…
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