“The King will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did to the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” – – Matthew 25:40

A friend of mine recently gave me an Amish Friendship Bread Starter bag, and little did I know where that bag of dough would lead! As per the instructions, we took care in mashing the bag over the course of 10 days, and adding ingredients when necessary.

One little bag of Amish Friendship Bread Starter can really go a long way.

The big bake day came and we made 4 loaves of bread. We had planned ahead of time to distribute them to our neighbours (and keep one for ourselves to enjoy!). It’s amazing what four loaves of bread can do!

So we kept the starter bag going, and planned ahead for the next round of bread… where would it go? Who would it bless? We were starting to catch on to the possibilities.

We decided to pray over our bag of dough every time we mashed it for the next 10 days, for the people who would eventually consume our delicacy. Then when it was time to bake the bread we would take a few loaves to the mission.

I’ll never forget my sons, walking into the mission with their daddy, each with a loaf of bread in hand, and me just smiling and watching from the van. What a blessing.

Serving others and showing compassion doesn’t have to mean huge, extravagant effort on our part. You don’t have to look much farther than your neighbourhood to see the “least of these brothers.” I know there have been times in my life when I was one of the “least”, and others have blessed me.

Our son already has ideas for the third round of bread—he’s getting it, and getting excited about it… thank God for Amish Friendship Bread!

– Written for the Summer 2009 issue of Mom’s Moments.  www.momsmoments.ca/pdfs