Week: July 16 – July 22

Volunteers always cheer with excitement when they hear the numbers: 

504,000 pounds of peaches were processed this week!

207 new stacks of peaches are drying on the field!

27,668 pounds of dried peaches are packed up and ready to ship!

Thank you so much for your dedication to feed the poor and needy! We are so grateful for all our volunteers: Dunlap Baptist Church (Dunlap, CA), Eagle Point Church on the Hill (Eagle Point, OR), San Ramon Valley UMC (Alamo, CA), Young Nak Presbyterian Church (Los Angeles, CA), Visalia Christian Reformed (Visalia, CA), the Lopez family, the Peachey group, the Antonellies, Summer Staff, full-time staff, and all our wonderful volunteers from Switzerland, Peru, Japan, Spain, China, France, Columbia, France, and Canada! 

“The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.” Psalm 28:7

LOVE FEAST SPEAKER:  ISABEL MONJE

“I went through many seasons of pain. There was a reason why. The Lord will always use that pain, that experience, because of that great testimony.”

Until age 12, Isabel only knew life in the orphanage in Bolivia. She was happy there, but she wondered why her friends were adopted and she wasn’t. When, at age 12, her father finally picked her up, she found out why she was never adopted: she had a dad, a stepmom, and brothers. But in their home, she was shunned—none of them loved or accepted her. Her dad only took her home because he was running for mayor. 

“I lived in my father’s house seven years. It was the worst seven years of my life. I experienced all the abuses you can imagine. I tried to take my life.” 

Finally, at age 19, Isabel came to the United States with her aunt. However, Isabel had to work two jobs, all hours of the day, and never saw a penny. 

At that time, a co-worker saw that Isabel was depressed, and she told her about a heavenly father who loved her. “From the moment she started praying for me, God changed everything!” Isabel said. 

The first time Isabel attended church, a missionary was preaching, explaining the freedom and peace that we find when we forgive those who have hurt us: “Forgiveness is not the benefit for them; forgiveness is the benefit for you to have the peace and joy in your heart.”

Once Isabel found Jesus, she forgave all her family members who abused her, and brought them one by one from Bolivia to the United States. She cared for her stepmother, who continued to show her rejection and hatred, up to her stepmother’s dying day.

“God created us to ask, ‘What can I do for you, Lord?’ When I learned that, the Lord opened doors for me.”

Isabel had a vision to help the poor and needy around the world. She started an organization called Transformacion Mundial. She and her husband John serve in that organization, opening the doors of orphanages and speaking on behalf of the poor.

Isabel’s life has come full circle, as she was once an orphan and is now caring for orphaned children—even calling one of the orphanages in Mexico “My Father’s House.”

“The Lord always has a plan for us to bless us!” Isabel said. “The Lord is looking for us to have the desire to say, ‘Here I am.’ No matter how old you are, God can use you, because God is seeking willing hearts.”

“For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” Matthew 6:14

SHARE THE LOVE

• “Why don’t I sense God’s presence at home? . . . We can’t escape God’s presence. We have to take time to connect with God at home. God is wherever you go.”
• “He wants you more than you want him.”
• “The rejected [peaches] may be gooey, but they have so much flavor.”
• “God is weaving things within what we are doing, and we don’t even realize it. I just want to give him glory for it.”
• “I’m leaving here full of the spirit.”
• “When we show up, God shows up.” 

Exodus 14:21-22 “Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.”