Southeastern California Conference Womens Ministries

Women's Ministries

The Bread Makers

Reader	A grain of wheat cast in the earth-life-giving bread to become Waiting for new life; waiting to be harvested, to be ground into flour. Waiting for the bread making woman.
Sarah	It waits for me. I am Sarah. I mix flour, water, salt, and leaven. I knead and then I bake. Making this bread for our guests...for angels!
Congregation	Jesus-our bread of life! Feeding on your living bread so we may minister to the hunger of the world.
Reader	Water, springing from deep in the earth. God provided so we may drink and not be thirsty. Water, that we mix with the grain for our daily bread.
Miriam	I am Miriam. I make the bread of haste, I make bread without yeast so we may eat standing-- We leave for the land flowing with milk and honey, We leave for a land where pure water flows from the rock.
Congregation	Jesus-our living water! Let us drink from the water of life so we might minister to the world's thirst.
Reader	The sea and the ground Provides salt to enhance this bread Enriching, preserving, saving salt!
Abigail	I am Abigail--a salt of the earth woman. I preserve my family with the gift of two hundred loaves, Wine and grain, figs and cakes, For David and his men.
Congregation	Jesus calls us salt! Salt of the earth people who may heal and serve.
Reader	Yeast brings a new ferment so lifeless dough may rise. God's spirit is the leaven of satisfying lives Bringing bread for sharing, the challah, loaves of barley and of rye.
Martha	I make this bread with honey and with oil. I am Martha. I braid it with love, with hospitality. I braid this bread for our guest, this Jesus- Weary, hungry, tried, drained.
Congregation	Jesus, our abundant bread! We hunger and thirst for words that come from His mouth.
Reader	There are other kinds of bread, Not the challah or the rye, Not tortillas or chapattis, but The bread of suffering, The bread of sorrow and of hunger, The bread of scarceness in the land.
Widow	I know about scarcity. I am the widow from Zarephath. Ready to bake the last loaf until Elijah, God's servant came.
Tamar	I know of suffering. I, Tamar, baked bread, too. For a brother with only evil in his mind There was none to rescue me.
Congregation	Oh, Jesus, make us worthy to serve your people, to serve those who live and die in poverty and in hunger. Give them, through our hands, their daily bread.
Reader	Even as Jesus made breakfast bread for Peter, John And James and all the rest of those who followed, Come and knead and blend. Give texture to our bread with strong and gentle hands.
Baker Women	We are the bakers of the bread for the world. We are salt and yeast, the honey and oil, With the grain supplied by God, And living water through Jesus, the Christ. Come, buy, eat! Buy without money, purchase without price.
Reader	Come, Lord Jesus! Lead us to the place where bread will not be scarce And the water of life will not fail.
Baker Women	Look with special tenderness on those who go without, Look with care on those who must scrape to make ends meet, For bread enough to eat.
Everyone	Take care of all your children. Grant your mercy on those who hunger, And those who hunger and thirst for Living Water and the Bread of Life, May we be one body, one loaf in many hands.
	Audray Johnson 2003