by Mark Batory

Three Eggs

Life was wonderful! Paula and I finished college and on the heels of marriage began deputation, which was actually our extended honeymoon. Nine months later we moved to southern Texas to study at a Spanish language school, which we excitedly saw as the final hurdle to becoming missionaries to Mexico. I was 24, Paula was 22, and we were filled with great vision and optimism for the future as we prepared for the day when we would finally cross that border and begin our lifelong ministry in Mexico. We were ready—or at least we thought we were.

Two months before graduation we received a monthly support statement and check from GFA—it came to a total of $312. That was it! It was barely enough to pay our utilities and the rent on the space where we parked our travel trailer. It was our custom every month to pay all our bills immediately upon “payday.” We assumed that what was left over was what the Lord planned for us to live on for the rest of the month, but this time nothing was left.

The pantry became bare after one week, and we still had three weeks to go before we would receive our next support check from GFA. Not sharing my concerns with my young, pregnant wife, I started to panic. Aggravated by hunger and desperation, my concern turned to an impatient spirit towards God. My heart was saying, “Lord, we gave ourselves to serve You. We left our home, family, and church in Michigan to do this, and now look where it has gotten us. Where are You? Is this how You care for your servants?”

Our last meal with our remaining supplies carries vivid memories. I felt abandoned by the God Whose Kingdom we had sought first and Whom we trusted to add all these things to us. I remember it was a very poor meal: one egg for each of us with a little popcorn on the side. That was it. There was nothing left. As we sat at our little trailer-sized table, I had no heart to pray and thank the God Who had seemed not to have held up His side of the arrangement, so I deferred to my wife.

Paula, who knew nothing of my internal struggle, was willing to ask God’s blessing on our meal. She prayed, “Our Father, thank you for your constant love and faithfulness to us…” I can remember at that point staring down at my plate thinking that I wished she would hurry up. I was hungry! Her prayer continued, “You know our need and that we have nothing left to eat for the next three weeks, so we want to trust You now to supply our breakfast tomorrow. We would be grateful if You would please just provide three eggs for us to eat in the morning. In Jesus name, Amen.”

I then ate my meal in silence, taking great care not to waste the slightest bit of nourishment on my plate.

Imagine my surprise when the next morning came and Paula found an egg carton on the patio with exactly three eggs inside—no more, no less! You would have thought my faith would grow and my spirit would soar with excitement as I witnessed this specific answer to prayer. But I was still upset. Even while I prayed to thank the Lord for this provision, my heart said, “So now what are we supposed to do for lunch?” I was even frustrated with Paula, “Why did she pray for only three eggs and not ask for a whole carton of eggs?”

Of course, I didn’t verbalize these thoughts audibly, but God knew His servant still had much to learn. We scrambled the three eggs and squeezed on them a little hot sauce from a single leftover condiment packet from the local fast-food restaurant. A few bites later, our plates were empty.

As the morning wore on, God unfolded His next lesson for us. In the AV park where we lived, most of the residents were “Winter Texans,” retirees who came down from the northern states to escape their harsh winters. It was the time of year when many of our neighbors would hook up their trailers and haul them back home until the next fall. Instead of weighing down their vehicles with food supplies, canned goods, and boxed dry goods, many asked us, “the kids,” if we wanted the stuff. By the end of the week we had so much food given to us that we couldn’t fit it into our trailer. We had to store it in the back of our pickup!

We learned that the most important preparation for serving in Mexico was not our college training, language learning, etc. The real lessons we had to grasp and understand were that God hears His servants and answers their prayers. He is never late. He also is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we could ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). We should never doubt His power. He keeps His promises.

“Faithful is He who calleth you, who also will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24).