Theo sent me this very touching story:

At the beginning of 1971 my dad lost the farm and everything with it. He got a job with Sasol in Sasolburg and we moved from Jacobsdal to Sasolburg. It was a brand-new house. It had no garden and no high walls around it.

After three months the bailiff visited again and seized all the stuff we had left. My brother and I hid our bikes at our friend’s house next-door.

Behind us stayed very loud and rough people and my mom didn’t like the noisy wife very much.

We were five children; three sisters, my brother and I. I was the youngest. One day my mom was crying because she didn’t know what she could give us to eat that day.

We searched all the cupboards and all we could find was 9 cents for a brown bread. We couldn’t afford white bread, because it cost 11 cents.

My mom sent me to the shop with the 9 cents to buy a brown bread. In those days bikes had a carrier on the back and I put the brown bread in the carrier. But when I got home the bread had disappeared.

I cycled back as fast as I could, but couldn’t find it. It was gone! What could an eight-year-old do about it? My mom broke down! She had no food for her children!

I heard her praying in her room, but I was devastated.

The next moment the neighbour’s wife shouted from the back. Muttering under her breath, my mom went outside.

“Hallo Auntie! You’re from the farm, aren’t you? I’ve baked two breads. Can auntie taste them and tell me if they’re OK?”

Little did that woman know that was our only food for the day.

We serve a great God! And after 52 years I will still recognise that woman’s voice among a thousand others …

There where Theo’s mom kneeled in her room, she ⁶Ask(ed) boldly, believingly, without a second thought. She had no other option. She simply had to pray and believe and trust that God would provide.

And He did. Like He promised. Ask and you will receive. Now we have to fulfil our side of the bargain and go and serve and believe and know that God will make it true for us.

Scripture
James 1:1-8

Reflection
Do you pray in faith?
Where do you focus when you pray?
Does doubt sometimes creep in?

Prayer
Father, I realise I still have so much to learn. I often pray with too little faith and then uncertainty makes me doubt. I long to surrender everything. I want to keep trusting You. Amen.