At the end of June, Zachary and I went with some other families in the church on our Church-Wide Family Mission Trip to the Appalachian Mountains. This trip was amazing -- the mountains were beautiful and the faces of those we were able to serve in His name will not be forgotten. The men and women split up for the week...the men worked at various homes building wheel chair ramps (those pics will be posted at some later time) and the women and children worked with the "Lunch Box" ministry.
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This ministry reaches out to those children who do not get to eat regular meals during the summer when school is out. Every morning we met up in their kitchen and made 200+ sack lunches for the day. Every meal follows the state guidelines and each meal is provided with a dairy milk, meat, vegetable, fruit and bread. They have turned a school bus into a little mobile restaurant and they drive around to different destinations, mostly trailer parks, and feed the children. This ministry was such an amazing experience and one that will always touch my heart. I cannot explain the feeling I got the first time we pulled into a trailer park and the bus drove up and down the streets blowing the horn. Not too special until you looked behind you and saw children coming out of the front doors and yards and run to follow the bus. Some of these children even admitted that the school bus lunch is the only time they get to eat that day. When speaking with one little girl who was telling me about this ministry (almost as if she were telling me about the weather) what did she do on Saturday and Sunday for food? Her reply was simply "I look forward to Monday!"
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This ministry had several other factors to it as well. They had a Shepherd House where homeless/poverty stricken people could come and grocery shop. They had a food pantry mission that allowed families to come and get a box of food that was large enough to feed one meal to each member of their family for an entire week. They had a clothing closet and also had a program where they fed elderly people that were living at home but could not provide their own meals. And that ministry (the elderly population) is carried on year round.
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I plan to return to this mission field again after this baby is born to aid in their local health department. I figure that since the Lord has blessed me with the knowledge and the skills of a pediatric nurse, I need to use those skills to always glorify Him, locally and out in the world.
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I feel so privileged that God allowed me to participate in this mission trip. And I am very thankful that it was an experience that Zachary and I both got to share together. There have been several times when I have looked at Zachary over the years and felt this overwhelming pride for him and all that he does. But to see him helping in the Lord's work created a feeling that I cannot express in words....even though it was little things like helping the children to open their milks, handing out ketchup and packing the lunches - I know that made Jesus smile. And that is not a feeling that I would trade for anything else in the world.
