WANNA BUY A CHICKEN?
As a child, my family lived on Leland Lake in Washington State. On our rural vacant lot we lived a bit on the wild side. At times living in a motor home, a barn, a mobile home, or even a tent as my dad worked on building our home. We spent most of our time outdoors on the lake.
Every summer, my Uncle David, who is hard of hearing would visit, and with his arrival came my dad's favorite joke to tell. One night around the table we all knew it was coming and collectively rolled our eyes. My dad would turn and ask our family in a hushed voice, “How do you sell a chicken to a deaf guy?” He would then turn to David and shout as loudly as possible in his ear, “WANNA BUY A CHICKEN?!” David didn’t laugh. He also didn’t want to buy a chicken.
I have no idea why, but that punchline became a family hallmark. The setup question no longer mattered. From then on, in any situation and completely out of context, us kids would just yell straight into a sibling’s ear “WANNA BUY A CHICKEN?!” It became a nonsensical family tradition.
Eventually it expanded from our household. We had no chicken farm, yet we were asking everyone within earshot if they’d like to buy a chicken. I know it isn’t funny, but for us, it was. We would ask complete strangers in grocery stores or yell it to cars passing by on the highway. As for me, I began to yell it across Lake Leland. I noticed how far my little nine-year-old voice could carry across the lake, asking if anyone out there wanted to buy a chicken, even though we had no chickens to sell! Come on, that’s a great prank, like ding-dong-ditching, right? Or maybe just entertainment for a nine-year-old…
The summer continued, but it was late August when this “prank” caught up to me. Earl Oney and Richie French, high school athletes I looked up to, lived nearby and often fished on this particular lake. One day, they were fishing on a boat near our dock, but I didn’t see them. And I did the thing. I yelled across the lake, “WANNA BUY A CHICKEN?” Just as it came out of my mouth, I saw Earl and Richie. They rowed over to me and let me know that they were, in fact, interested in buying a chicken. This particular scenario was not in my playbook. I froze. I hadn’t planned for this. This really wasn’t supposed to happen. No one was supposed to get close enough to actually ask for a chicken. So, I did what made the most sense—I ran. I ran and ran and ran away. But it wasn’t over. Not only did I have an embarrassing moment there on the lake, but the story made it back to our school. Now the tables had turned. I had earned a reputation. For a season, I was the kid with the imaginary chicken empire, according to Earl, Richie, and the rest of the school.
Now here is why I am telling you this childhood story. This is the part where angels may be laughing hysterically. Fast forward 26 years later, far removed from the small community of Leland Lake, and we, as Abide Well, including you as supporters, are officially buying a whole lot of chickens. This year alone, we will be purchasing 3,875 chickens from eight farmers whom we’ve launched in the past five years. Praise God, because this chicken empire is not ours, but rather the Lord's.
This year, brothers and sisters in Christ all over North America, are OFFERING CHICKENS FOR FREE to hungry school children who often live in conditions much worse than a motor home, a barn, or even a tent. The meals provided may be their only substantial meal of the day.
The kicker—Richie, one of the fisherman from the story and my old neighbor, is a believer in Christ and now a monthly supporter of Abide Well. So eventually, he and his wife Lucy did take me up on the offer to buy quite a few chickens.
In closing, when James—an author in the New Testament—who was also a fisherman, paddles over to our proverbial dock and asks how we are doing with the command he wrote to care for orphans and widows (James 1:27), hopefully, we will not be running away like nine-year-old Nate! We will stand firm and rest in the fact that we have been doers of the word! (James 1:22) Ya’ll have been feeding orphans and widows! And we can then ask James if we may join him in his fishing boat, cast our nets wherever we may be called (Matthew 28:19) and also be fishers of men (Matthew 4:19).
