March 29th – April 1st

by Souper | Apr 1, 2016 | Summer Staff

This week. we still had the perk of enjoying only a four-day work-week. With the Easter holiday, work began a day later than normal, on Tuesday. All the same, we knew these four days had a lot in store for us.

The number of our short-term volunteers started at about 76 people from three different groups; most of them were from junior high to high school age. (Spring break has been good to us at Gleanings!) Even though a couple groups left earlier in the week, we still had all the help we needed between the last church group and a home school day group that arrived on Friday.

At Thursday morning chapel, prayer took place for all the youth who feel they’re being called into missions. This was also the last chapel service for the largest group, Big Valley Youth Ministries; many of them shared about their experience here and how they were blessed.

Later that morning, we prayed for a container of soup mix heading for Uganda; one of our staff members, Abigail, shared a little about her outreach experiences in Uganda. She gave the group an idea of where the food was going as she painted a picture of great need.

March 21st – 24th

by Souper | Mar 24, 2016 | Summer Staff

Spring break! While that might not mean much for those in the working world, it does change things up a bit for us here at Gleanings For The Hungry. Between families, church groups, and the families within the church groups, the ages of our volunteers was much more mixed this week.

We also had more people coming in than some of us originally expected. Having so many numbers and many young volunteers, we were able to work on several projects during the week.

The rug in one of the den rooms was ripped up and several people were working on their hands and knees to scrape the glue off the floor. Tile replaced the rug.

Randy got help from a few young men to work on the RV sites. Where the grass failed to thrive, Randy has a new low-water-usage landscaping in the works.

We had two trucks pick up loads on Wednesday. The first truck to come in was Convoy of Hope, dropping off pallets of pasta and picking up a load of soup mix. The second truck was loaded with soup and clothing for Cambodia. We were given the unique opportunity to have both the trucks lined up outside the dining hall. The moment we finished praying for the Cambodia load, it pulled out and we jumped to the Convoy of Hope truck to pray for the that one as well.

The week is ending a day early. With Easter just around the corner, we’re looking forward to a four-day weekend for some good rest, recuperation, and reflection.

March 14 – 18

by Souper | Mar 18, 2016 | Summer Staff

The week started with our volunteers getting some warehouse work done. They all congregated around several table, emptying packets upon packets of mashed potato mix into buckets.

On Tuesday we had to say goodbye to an old redwood tree that failed to stay alive. A tree service came and had the branches chewed up and the trunk chopped in next to no time at all.

After much rainfall in the past months, we’ve been blessed with beautiful, sunny days this week. What a great change!

The work on the fumigation tunnels for the warehouse is near completion. Concrete for the roof is being poured today. We pray it all goes smoothly!

March 7-11

by Souper | Mar 11, 2016 | Summer Staff

The week began and ended in a downpour of rain with a couple days of sunshine in between. And though the weather was dampened, the same cannot truthfully be said about the spirits of our volunteers. Their hard work and diligence brought us to over two million servings of soup, twice as much as a typical week.

Thursday night Love Feast was a treat. For someone whose love language is food, nothing speaks like an excellently prepared Thanksgiving-style meal. And to top it off, Tiffany Meier, the directors’ daughter, shared about her outreach to Panama, from which she’s recently returned.

Below is a poem written by one of our volunteers, Norma Jean. She shared it on Friday morning.

February 29th – March 4th

by Souper | Mar 4, 2016 | Summer Staff

By the connection of one of our volunteers, we were blessed by a visit from Rodney and Jenni Carlson. They have a ministry of reciting memorized passages of the Bible, bringing the words to life through their expressive, vocal narration during chapel. Jenni began by reciting two Psalms; she was followed by Rodney, who dynamically spoke the entire book of Philippians aloud. Words and verses took a new depth as we all listened. Through this, the Carlsons encouraged and inspired many of us to memorize by repeatedly speaking the Word aloud.

Every Thursday we hold a love feast to honor our volunteers. The dinner is prepared with special attention and a speaker is normally brought in. Lately, staff members having been filling the role of the speaker and this time it was Sheldon Munro. His mission stories spanned back from even before he came to Gleanings. What a treat!

Well over 1 million servings of soup were packed this week and two more trucks were loaded for Honduras and Convoy of Hope.

February 22nd – 26th

by Souper | Feb 29, 2016 | Summer Staff

The first few days of the week were used to finish up bagging the last of the trail mix. With that finished, the volunteers were able to get a jump on soup. Several of the days went long this week due to a variety of reasons, including trail mix tear-down. While the weekend is most welcome, the team finished strong.

The fumigation tunnels remains one of our biggest projects. The foundation has been finished and the crew has started building the walls.