Hannah Lords, of Stanwood, Washington believes in miracles. . She's experienced enough to fill several volumes. But perhaps that is because Hannah herself has spent much of her life making miracles for others. When the last of the Lords' six children got married, Hannah and her husband, Bill, decided to follow a longtime dream: working with the poor. They gave away their furniture and household items, and opened a storefront coffeehouse, called The Refuge, in an abandoned laundry across the street from the welfare office in Everett. In the back of the building they closed in a space for two bedrooms and a bath for their use. "Our desire was to give one hundred percent of ourselves for the Lord," Hannah explains. "Living on the premises allowed us to channel Bill's wages as a truck driver, along with any other funds that might materialize, directly to our work."
At The Refuge, Hannah and Bill welcomed the addicted, the victims and the, victimizers, and the homeless. "We fed them and kept music going as a gentle background of praise and Scripture to balance the pain that came through the door each day," Hannah says. "I cooked, cleaned, paid bills, prayed with people, conducted Bible study groups ... " And she began to encounter wonders, one after another.
One night Hannah saw angels-great white creatures standing among the rooftop vents, keeping watch over the Lords and their work. Often, when praying over an intoxicated person, Hannah saw him become sober within seconds. And on one special morning, she witnessed her own multiplication miracle.
A group of young people who helped the Lords had just arrived for a morning prayer session. The Lords' daughter Linda was there, too, along with a police officer and a young man he had just picked up on a drug charge-the officer often brought troubled young people to The Refuge in the hope that their lives might be changed. The praying began, "and soon we were all caught up in a state of reverence, as if we were suspended between heaven and earth," Hannah recalls.
It was a blessed interlude, but as noon approached, Hannah belatedly realized she had left Bill's lunch on "low" in their rusty oven all this time. It would be a dismal and dried-up meal-two small slices of meat loaf and a little scoop of mashed potatoes, all that was left from last night's dinner. And these young people were hungry, too. How would she feed them? She hated to admit to their guests that God provided for their needs only some of the time!
Still praising and singing, Hannah slipped out to the kitchen. Linda followed, and laughed as she watched her mother impulsively plop twelve paper plates in a row. "Linda, I've never served one person without serving everyone," Hannah said. "I'm just going to put a drop of food on each plate, and that will have to be itl"
From the oven Hannah took the small pan of dried-up meat loaf, and dipped into it with a large serving spoon. The spoon sank to the bottom of the pan, and when she pulled it up, it held two large juicy slices of meat loaf! But the two original dried-up slices were still in the pan! Astonished, Hannah moved to the next plate, and dipped her spoon again. The same thing happened. Two more slices of juicy meat loaf materialized on the spoon. And again, and again!
"By now, Linda and I were laughing and crying at the same time," she says. "Could this be true, or were we just imagining things?" Hannah moved down the line of plates, repeating her actions. And when all twelve plates had lovely, moist meat on them-and the two original morsels still remained in the pan--she pulled the second container from the oven. In it were the dry, yellowed potato remnants. But when she broke through the stiffened crust, her spoon disappeared into fluffy, moist potatoes!
"At first I dropped a small portion on each plate, assuming I'd had such good luck with the meat that I'd better not push things too far!" Hannah laughs. But when all twelve plates held servings, more potatoes remained in the pan. She went around again, until each plate held a large white mound.
Then Hannah remembered a frozen head of lettuce in her ancient refrigerator. "Pulling the plastic wrap back, I felt it crackling in my hand," she says. "I hesitated, but the bit of green would make the plates more attractive." So she went down the line, breaking off chunks of frozen lettuce-only to have it turn into fresh, crisp leaves on the plates.
No one could have been more amazed than those at the table, when Hannah told them what had happened. All rejoiced, and gave thanks to the One who cared so much for them that He had even provided celestial leftovers for lunch. "Linda and I had hated to leave the praise going on in the outer room," Hannah says. "But in serving others, we had been given an experience that would cause us to praise Him even more!"