In keeping with the viral social media phrase, “I was today year’s old,” I was today years old when I learned there is a website wholly dedicated to news about potatoes. It’s called “Potato News Today,” and one of its subcategories is “Potato People with Big Hearts.” And boy, do I know some!

It all started when a children’s home in our part of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina realized the three potatoes in their pantry was outnumbered by the kids needing to be fed. The staff prayed for God to make up that difference and provide what was needed. He answered that prayer, and some Spirit-led individuals provided a total of 600 pounds of potatoes that very night – a modern day “loaves and fishes” multiplication story!

News of this need crossed our county line and inspired another potato person with a big heart, who I’ll simply refer to as Tommy. Tommy has been my beloved friend for many years. Similar to Ernest T. Bass’s perception of Miss Helen Crump as his “mother figure,” Tommy has been like a father figure, uncle figure, and brother figure all rolled into one for me. But more than a figure, he’s my literal brother in Christ. We attend the same church, serve together as deacons, and co-teach our adult men’s Sunday School class.

Tommy is a practical man who can do just about any job needed, and he’s come to my aid on numerous occasions. Among his many talents is his ability to grow vegetables. When Tommy learned about the children’s home’s need for potatoes, he was inspired to use his God-given growing talent and turn a potato into a ministry. “Taters for Jesus,” one might say.

Tommy’s humility prevents him from taking credit for the idea to plant a crop of potatoes for the children’s home. He’d much rather run such a mission through our local church for its credit and God’s glory, and so he has. And while anyone who knows the history of this undertaking realizes Tommy was the visionary who instigated and spearheads it, it truly has grown to be an endeavor of our entire congregation. 

Every autumn, for the past 30+ years, our church members, as well as others from our surrounding community and region, have made the mid-morning trek through the dew-grassed field behind Tommy’s house to the “tater patch” ready to commence the “tater dig.” 

The grandest part of the day is watching the boys and girls from the children’s home take part. These beneficiaries of the project also have ownership in it, and it can be likened to an Easter egg hunt. Tommy plows the rows, and as soon as the blade of his tractor upends the dirt, revealing the golden treasures, the kids delve in with excitement and fill their buckets. 

These bucketfuls are transferred to potato sacks, and harvested bushels quickly begin to accumulate. And in a flash, with many hands making light work, the dig is done, and the children’s home has enough potatoes for another season. The quickness with which the job is accomplished allows for subsequent fellowship in the form of a cookout and an afternoon of games for the children.

As a result of this outreach, our church has gained a reputation as “The Tater Church.” In the book of Revelation, Jesus addresses various churches by their reputations – the loveless church (Ephesus), the persecuted church (Smyrna), the compromising church (Pergamos), the corrupt church (Thyatira), the dead church (Sardis), the lukewarm church (Laodicea), and the faithful church (Philadelphia). I wonder what He might say to the “tater church”? I’d like to believe it would be along the lines of what He spoke, in part, to the faithful church: “I know your works.”

As James wrote, “What does it profit if someone says he has faith but does not have works? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” 

And what does it profit if a group of children is in need of some taters, and we, having the capability to provide them, ignore that need? “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so.” (Proverbs 3:27).

It is important for us to pay attention to the needs of those around us and to ask our Heavenly Father what talent or ability He has given us that can be used to meet those needs. We might be tempted to believe we have nothing to offer, much like the Little Drummer Boy: “I have no gift to bring that’s fit to give our King.”

But I am reminded of Brother Lawrence, the French monk, who, although he spent years working in a kitchen and repairing sandals, learned “that all work is valuable to God, and one need not accomplish great things to please Him.” The simplest of ministrations can be a sweetly aromatic offering to God. Even something as seemingly ordinary as planting and harvesting a tater can make an extraordinary difference. As the old song says, “Little is much if God is in it.” 

And so, we should pray, “Lord, what is my ‘tater,’ and how can I use it to show Your love to others?”