This past Saturday my church partnered with Stop Hunger Now
with the goal of packaging 10,000 nutritious meals for distribution to some of the world’s most vulnerable people. What an amazing experience it was! Stop Hunger Now has developed a process of bringing raw materials and volunteers together to accomplish the “moving of the mountain” of hunger in a way that energizes a spirit of service among the participants.
In the weeks leading up to the big day we promoted the event in our neighborhood and raised the necessary funds to pay for the food we would be packaging. We had hoped to have about 50 volunteers for the event. When we gathered in the fellowship hall at Forest Hills United Methodist Church just before 10:00 am, we had over 100 volunteers! Groups had come from Temple Terrace UMC, Lake Magdalene UMC, First UMC of Lutz, Saint Timothy Catholic Church, Lake Carroll Baptist Church, Oak Grove UMC, and neighbors from all around us.
Robert Samuels, the Stop Hunger Now program manager for Orlando, FL instructed us in forming teams to perform the necessary steps and we went to work. It was like a perfectly orchestrated symphony of human effort striving toward a goal that was larger than life.
“Stop Hunger Now provides meals to support school feeding programs in schools and orphanages around the world.
This is a pivotal step because children in impoverished areas are often sent to school if they will be fed. The education they receive is the turning point at which many negative factors such as infant mortality, disease, and gender inequality are impacted and communities can begin to heal themselves.”
Now here is something that doesn’t happen often… About 40 minutes into the project, our pastor asked that some of the people who were working please take a break so that everyone who came could have an opportunity to participate! After about an hour and a half we had packaged a total of 10,040 meals, and everyone was talking about when we might be able to do this again.
Our Stop Hunger Now event was a great success in every imaginable way!
It was fun and engaging, and it infused a new level of unifying energy into our church. It was a corporate experience of being the hands and feet of Christ together, evidence that when the Church comes together with a unifying purpose, much prayer, and a willingness to pitch in, we can speak to that mountain and it will move!
Blessings & Adventure,
Lynn “lynnibug” Rios
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The key to our success rests in people like you, who embody the spirit of greatness
by saying, “Yes, I can make a difference and committing their hearts completely to doing so.” Thanks for your inspiring dedication and tremendous example to the world. We salute you for your dedication, your kindness, and thank you for being there with a gracious heart. Words cannot convey our gratitude for your tremendous contribution.
With gratitude and appreciation in our hearts we praise you for turning our cause into your cause. We wanted to thank you with this letter as our personal round of applause. The credit for our good deeds firmly rests with our dedicated volunteers.
Thank you! Thank you so much for all of your hard work and to bear witness to your passion was a wonderful perk. We never could have asked for a more dedicated group of volunteers and words cannot express how grateful we are to have been a part of this event.It was a pleasure and a privilege to share this experience with you
Robert & Brenda Samuels
I hope and pray that this post will inspire others to do the same!
What a great blog!!! Thanks ever so much!
Thank you Pastora for your inspired leadership and for connecting us to a tangible way to really make a difference.