The Miracle of the Eggs

It was August of 1990. I was 23 years old and working at a Christian summer camp up on Saranac Lake in the Adirondack Mountains. I worked in the kitchen and was one of the head cooks. I had a crew of about 8 high school students working under me. We were up bright and early to prepare breakfast for some 300 teenagers who were campers that week, plus staff. 

Something had gone terribly wrong with the order for food that week. We did not have nearly enough eggs to feed everyone that morning. We began panicking, checking and rechecking the walk-in cooler, hoping to find more eggs that we knew weren't there. Finally someone in the kitchen said, "Hey...Jesus fed 5000 with a few loaves of bread and some fishes. Let's pray." So together we prayed about it and asked the Lord to make it enough. I opened my eyes and saw the same measly amount of eggs. Never-the-less, we counted out the bowls for the number of tables and began divvying up the eggs into each one.

"Ugh!" I thought to myself. Each bowl had barely enough eggs to feed four or five people! Each of the dining room tables had somewhere between 8-10 chairs....which undoubtedly would each be filled by a hungry teenager. We put the bowls on the counters for the servers to come and take to the tables. I remember feeling somewhat embarrassed. Although I hadn't been in charge of ordering the food, I was the assigned head cook in the kitchen that morning. It was on my head that day! Tony, the other head cook, was either safely still tucked into his bunk...or out in the dining hall expecting to eat a hearty breakfast just like everyone else out there. I envied him at that moment. Me? I felt like hiding!

I waited to hear the inevitable complaints that there was not enough...or to see the empty bowls come back to the kitchen with expectations for being filled once again. Yes...I had little faith that our prayer had been answered. I waited...and nothing happened. All I heard was the happy chatter and laughter of campers and staff coming through the open door to the dining hall. 

Soon it was time to start clearing the tables. The bus boys and servers went out to gather up the plates and serving dishes. All of us were stunned to see many of the bowls coming back with some scrambled eggs still in them! How could this be? Did a lot of the campers pass on the eggs that morning? I heard a shout into the kitchen from one of the counselors, "Hey cooks! Thanks once again for another awesome breakfast. It was delicious! You guys are the best!"

I was amazed! (And still am...truth be told.) I started inquiring amongst the campers as to whether or not they had eaten scrambled eggs that morning. The vast majority said they had...which is normal. I could almost hear Christ saying to me, "Why do you doubt me? Oh you of little faith."

The kitchen crew dubbed the experience, "The Miracle of the Eggs." I've long since lost touch with the people I worked with that summer. We were from all over the country. New York, Virginia, West Virginia, Iowa, Ohio, Maryland, and Massachusetts to name a few. I wonder if they tell the story of "The Miracle of the Eggs." If you hear someone else tell it, I was there. It really happened!