STORIES OF FAITHFULNESS
“Who is like you, Lord God Almighty? You, Lord, are mighty, and your faithfulness surrounds you.” Psalm 89:8
This week at Gleanings we meditated on what this verse means–the idea that God’s faithfulness surrounds him. Where the Lord is, there is his faithfulness.
We are so thankful for God’s faithfulness! Two trucks and a few other shipments went out this week, with 1,056,240 servings of soup headed to Ukraine and roughly 750,000 servings of soup and 10,500 pounds of other donated food products headed to El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Philippines with the help of our partner ministry Convoy of Hope.
Thank you to all of our volunteers who helped pack up even more soup, totaling about one million servings! The evidence will be the aroma of garlic and onion powder in your luggage when you get home, but the blessings will follow you too.
A special thanks to First Baptist Riverside, Shepherd of the Sierra, Aiding Children’s Villages, Inspire Charter Schools, Home Educator Resource Center, and backpackers from France and Germany.
Thank you to the ladies in the quilt room, the men in the workshop, men and women in the kitchen, and everyone who worked all over the base. God bless each one of you.
Does Jesus not continue, even today, to multiply the food and feed the crowds as he did in the gospels? Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father,” John 14:12. How exciting to be a part of this miracle: feeding the hungry and sharing the message of God’s love.
CONVOY OF HOPE
Our Thursday night guest speaker at Love Feast was Bob, one of the truck drivers from Convoy of Hope.
Convoy of Hope serves about 160,000 meals a day, in addition to providing shoes, haircuts, and hygiene to people in need. Partnering with Gleanings makes sense as a way to get nutritious food to many people. In addition to delivering Gleanings’ food to El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Philippines, Convoy of Hope is right there to provide disaster relief in the United States.
When Bob was young, his family was on Welfare. He went into the foster care system, and eventually a boy’s home. Years later, he married, and his wife’s family introduced him to Jesus.
After a terrible back injury, he had back surgery and was told that he was bound for a wheelchair. Miraculously, God completely healed Bob’s back, and he went back to work driving trucks.
Bob and his wife found Convoy of Hope in 2006, and have lived and served there ever since. “We knew we needed to help people–and listen to God,” Bob said. “My kids tell me, ‘You’re 77, you need to retire.’ I tell them, ‘Well, I’ll take that into consideration’ . . . We are just busy blessing people, but we’re only able to feed when we’ve got volunteers like you all.”
VOLUNTEER HIGHLIGHT
Cindy, a certified reflexology therapist, thought she was going to pack up soup this week, but God gave her the idea to serve the staff by providing reflexology, a very detailed foot and/or facial massage.
Cindy and her husband, Dennis, are from Saskatchewan, Canada. They first heard about Gleanings from Ron Wagner, who led Dennis to Christ, and their response was, “I want to be a part of that.”
The peach plant was Cindy’s first Gleanings experience, back in 2014, but this year she and Dennis decided to return during the soup season. “I came expecting to do the soup,” Cindy said, “But God laid it on my heart that I should be offering treatments . . . to serve the people who serve so many.”
Cindy was so encouraged to see that her gift was well received, and that she was able to provide the full time missionaries with a therapeutic treatment they would otherwise never be able to afford.
“It’s OK to listen and follow and not know why. God will show you the rest of the story as it unfolds,” Cindy said.
God is one that surprises us, and loves in ways we might never expect. He knows what we need, and he loves so perfectly.
PRAYER REQUEST
Gleanings Director Fritz Meier requests for you to pray with us. Please pray for wisdom as we try to do more than just give food to people in need; we want to empower individuals to be self sufficient. What will that look like? How can we make that happen? “We have the right hearts–but we need God’s direction,” Fritz said.
“The heavens are yours, and yours also the earth; you founded the world and all that is in it.” Psalm 89:11
