8 Then the word of the Lord came to him, 9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” 10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.” 11 And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” 12 And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.” 13 And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son. 14 For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth.’” 15 And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. 16 The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.
I had grown up in a large parish in the Midwest. My father preached to about 300 folks every Sunday, often more. I met my wife in college where we worshipped at St. John’s in Seward with hundreds more than that. My field work parish in St. Louis routinely saw over a 1000 on a Sunday morning and my vicarage congregation saw 600. I was used to large parishes. My first call was to Bountiful, Utah. That first Sunday we saw 28 folks in church, including the preacher, the preacher’s wife, and the organist.
My wife came home and questioned her decision to unpack our moving boxes. We both wondered if this was going to work. But we trusted God and He did not disappoint us. For nearly 10 years we labored there, and God richly blessed us. It was not always easy and sometimes I wondered. One year we transferred 12 households out to other states as people moved away. That was by then over one third of the members of the parish. But God sent new folk, good folk who were often just what we needed. We had to trust Him. I cannot but wonder what Elijah thought God was up to in sending him to this widow. What did the widow think when this strange man from another country, speaking with an accent and probably not so fluently in her language, asked her for a bite of her last meal. They both had to trust God that day. They did. He did not disappoint them. Trust God. He makes promises and keeps them.