90 pounds. That’s about what our kids weigh all together. My back thinks this is an understatement, but the pediatrician’s notes confirm 90 pounds.
This also happens to be the total weight of food Samantha and I dropped off at the Dayton Foodbank. One of the things I wanted to do with our house church is grow into our neighborhood offering opportunities for my neighbors to do Kingdom-bringing work, whether they realize it or not. So, the idea was simple. Print up some fliers and go door-to-door distributing them. The fliers provide some information on hunger and the Foodbank, and they offer an invitation to make a difference: “Next week leave your groceries on your porch, and we’ll be by to pick up the bags.” Then, pick up the groceries, and deliver them to the Foodbank.
We kept to our block, since this was the first time. Out of 36 houses, four participated. My expectations were one – us – so I’m pleased. I’m already planning on repeating the event next Christmas, or perhaps over the summer, “Christmas in July.” As a bonus, I met several of my neighbors face-to-face. I even learned that one is currently out of work. ( ++ Lord, hear our prayer. ++ ) Good seeds are being planted.
During each step, I brought Samantha with me. She went knocking on doors with me; she collected food with me; and she went with me this morning to deliver the food. In addition, she gets an allowance, and the first dollar earned each payday goes in her “Giving” envelope. She decided to give her $9 to the Foodbank. I want her to know this Kingdom-bringing lifestyle from the beginning.
Pardon me while I say, “Yay, us!”
Wow. That’s awesome. I completely commend you for (A) doing what you believe in (B) involving your neighborhood– good community building stuff and (C) including Samantha.
Beautiful.
Jenn,
Thanks for the encouragement. Around our house we’re pretty good at ideas. Execution is another matter altogether; so it’s nice to have followed through on this one.
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Way to go and Thank You Jesus for inspiring and blessing Your children. A neat little thing I heard of on Oprah about what a woman in her community got her church to do as far as plenishing the food banks in her area. She got her congregation in on it: Clipping coupons from the Sunday Paper and going shopping. Some stores do double and triple on coupons. So if ice cream is $1.99 and there is $.99 off coupon. If it’s double coupons, you end up paying $.01 for the ice cream. That ice cream would go to the Food Bank. (just an example) If you get more then yourself (each one family in your home church) to clip their coupons, the food banks get filled with very little personal expense. This particular woman helped in feeding 1500 families from the food bank that they donated to. I thought it was an awesome idea. Anyway, my love to you all!!!
Cindi,
Thanks for stopping by. We didn’t get around to doing the food drive this year, but we’ve still got the idea in our bag of tricks. More and more I grow convinced that the secret is in doing the little things that are in front of you.
Hope you and Franklin are doing well.