Break Out – Day 5

Several readers have testified, over the years, about God’s ability to work out every challenging situation for their good. Today, I am sharing a testimony that proves that God truly is in control of everything.

With excitement, Ockie and a number of first year students arrived at Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg. It was the Currie Cup Final and his plan was to sell hot dogs in order to pay for his and his fiancé Idene’s honeymoon after their wedding.

With 60 000 spectators attending the final, they had the prospect of selling at least 10 000 hot dogs that day. That was the amount of stock they had with them. In order to save time, that Saturday they decided to pre-cook the sausages beforehand.

Everything was in place. All that was missing was the spectators who had to stand in queues to buy the hot dogs. Then came the shock. By 16:00 that Saturday afternoon, at the start of the game, they had only sold 20 hotdogs (instead of the planned 5 000). By halftime, it didn’t go any better and after the game the stadium quickly emptied, leaving them with a load of food and no one to buy it.

Shocked and with total disbelief, Ockie and his team looked at each other. None of them could believe what had happened.

It was quiet in the bakkie when Ockie and Idene left the stadium. What were they to do with all the food? They could not freeze and resell the meat since it was already half cooked.

After a conversation with their pastor to get suggestions of places that might need food, they decided to phone POPUP, an organisation in Pretoria who reaches out to the homeless each Sunday. The manager at POPUP almost burst into tears when he answered. When Ockie and Idene delivered the food at POPUP, they found out that the sponsor that was to provide food for the following day, withdrew that afternoon, and the POPUP team did not know what to do. They decided to desperately go to God and pray for a breakthrough. After the prayer session, they received the call that food was on the way. God provided.

Ockie and Idene still had the honeymoon of their dreams and when they tell their story of Ellis Park today, they realise that the hot dogs in fact never were theirs. It was God’s. They only had the privilege to be a link in God’s greater plan.

In Psalm 24:1 we read: “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him.” In Isaiah 55:8-9 God says: “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts … and my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” And in Philippians 4:19 we read: “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.”

Do you have a need that only God can meet today, or are you struggling to make sense of an awkward situation in your life? Remember, everything in the world belongs to God. He is our provider and he can use anything to accomplish his purposes. The question is: Are you available to be a tool in his greater plan today? God bless.