Remember asking, "What's for dinner?" only to hear that dreaded response, "Leftovers!" Leftover nights were the worst. Occasionally I would luck out and get leftover lasagna or meatloaf, which for some reason tasted better as leftovers. But for the most part, I would dawdle over my food and play the old spread-it-around-my-plate-trick so it would look like I had eaten most of my food. Then my mother would remind me of why we were eating leftovers. I eventually learned to finish my dinner out of an awareness that some people in the world did not have enough to eat.

In the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus asks Philip, "Where are we to buy bread for these people to eat?" Confronted by literally thousands of hungry people, Jesus must find a way to respond. Poverty is not a new phenomenon. Centuries later we find ourselves in the very same position as Jesus, asking ourselves, "Where are we to buy bread for these people?" Week of Compassion deals with that question every single day.

Our free market economy makes bold promises. But I struggle, wondering what is "free" about 5 percent of the population consuming most of the world's food and other resources while almost everybody else on the planet goes to sleep hungry? The story of the 5,000 forces us to look at how we manage our economy as the people of God. It is about freedom, access, and abundance. It is about giving life, even to leftovers.

This is exactly what Week of Compassion attempts to do. In Bosnia, Week of Compassion has been transforming lives. One day, as my colleague Dzevad from Church World Service was assessing the needs of a mountainous village, he met an elderly gentleman on the road. Dzevad asked the man what the village needed to get back on its feet. Without missing a beat, the old man said, "We need a cow. Just one cow!" Dzevad shook his hand and promised to return.

After a few weeks, Dzevad returned to the village to look for the old man. When he found him, they went all the way back down the mountain to the market in town. There he told him to choose the cow he wanted. With funds from Week of Compassion, they bought a pregnant cow so that eventually there would be two cows in the village. Dzevad still talks about that moment, watching tears fill the eyes of the old man. He knew that this new cow would mean new life for his war-torn and weary village. Now they would have milk!

… But the story's not over.

Once the five families in the village received the milk they needed, they would then give any leftover milk to others. Now, what was extraordinary about this was that the old man and his village decided to give their leftovers to the Serbian Red Cross. The old man was from a Muslim village but he was giving the leftover milk to his Serbian Orthodox neighbors! During the war, Muslims and Serbs fought each other! Now they were sharing food and sustenance with one another. The women of the Muslim village made cheese and yogurt from the milk and sent it all to their Serbian neighbors. From one cow and the love of those who cared for that cow came enough milk to sustain a village and then some. They used what they needed, distributing it equally among the families. Miracles from milk!

In John 6, Jesus deals with what is left of the loaves and the fish. "When all of them had enough to eat, Jesus spoke to his disciples. 'Gather the leftover pieces,' he said. 'Don't waste anything.'" Living leftovers.

Jesus and his disciples fed more than 5,000 people on five loaves of bread and two fish. They remind us that there truly is enough to go around. Week of Compassion strives to share what we have equitably and compassionately. The feeding of the world will occur when we as the Church, as the body of Christ, live out of an economy of gratitude and faith, where even leftovers can be transformed into life abundant for all. That is true transformation!

The Rev. Amy Gopp is associate director of Week of Compassion and Social and Economic Development chairperson for Church World Service. Amy lives in Kent, Ohio, and is a member of Kent's First Christian Church.