(Mark 6:31-44)
Jesus said to his team, ?Come on out to the desert for a bit, so you can have some kip.? (There was such a big mob hanging around they didn?t even have time for a bite to eat.)

They hopped in the skiff and rowed around the shore to a quiet spot in the scrub. But the mob saw them leave, and recognised them, and took off on foot. So people from all the townships got there ahead of them.

When Jesus came ashore he saw this enormous mob, and felt sorry for them because they were like a bunch of aimless sheep with no one to keep on eye on them. He started talking to them, and gave them the good oil on a whole lot of things.

Late in the arvo his team came to him and said, ?This is dry mallee country, and it?s getting pretty late. Let the mob pop off so they can buy themselves some tucker from local properties or townships.

Jesus answered, ?You feed them.? They protested, ?Do you want us to spend 200 smackers to buy enough bread for this lot??

He said, ?Well how much bread is here? Go and check.? They did so and said, ?Five little pannikin loaves of damper?and a couple of fish.?

Jesus ordered them all to sit down, in groups, on the cattle grass. The team ran around like kelpies and got them into groups of hundreds and fifties. Meanwhile, he took the damper and the fish, looked up to heaven, thanked God for the food, and broke the damper into bits, giving the bits to his team to share out. He did the same with the fish.

And everyone in the mob tucked into the bread and fish until they couldn?t eat any more. Then they picked up the scraps?a dozen baskets full!

There were about 5,000 blokes in that mob.