I have been making home-made bread for many years. When I started out I never really thought about how that might be a way of helping people to experience Jesus. A very long time ago, Phil asked me to make a loaf for a communion service he was leading. As I kneaded the dough it became an act of prayer and I was inspired to roll the dough into three cords and plait/braid them together. It felt like I was binding the Father, Son and Spirit into the loaf. And when I curled it into a circle I could see how they are eternal. So began a long tradition of bread making for bread breaking. Sometimes as a braid and sometimes as a simple loaf, but always with a prayer that each loaf would somehow help people to be filled with more Jesus.
Recently a friend sent me a screen shot of a Facebook memory from 14 years ago. It says, “… is thinking that Sam’s bread has to be illegal because anything this good has to be!” Last year Kylie wrote about the blessing of homemade bread. I still make bread for our communion around the table in our house fellowships. Many of the children call it ‘Jesus bread’ and keep their hands open to see who gets the biggest piece! In one fellowship, when we have been away for a long time, I am greeted back at the door with “Hallelujah! We have real Jesus bread again. Oh, and it’s nice to see you too Sam”
I find it very humbling that Jesus would take a simple loaf of bread and share himself with me as I make it, and the whole community as we share it together. He fills us with himself.
Imagine then how even more amazing it was to arrive at a house fellowship one evening and find that one of the ladies had made home-made grape juice!
She had been so blessed week by week by the home-made bread, that when she found herself with an abundance of grapes, she decided she would bring an offering of home-made juice. I have never tasted anything so sweet – not just because of the sweetness of the grapes, but because of the blessing of fellowship that turned our humble offerings into the very presence of Jesus.
Samantha is an Inspire Missioner.
