Today our team was able to take a trip to the Gleaners and help out with the work there. The Gleaners is a place where they take all the vegetables farmers cannot sell to markets because they aren't perfect (although they are still very good). They chop them up and dry them out and make soup out of the vegetables. They then send them overseas to help feed people who are in need. Each bag has about 250 servings and each year they make around 12 million bags of soup. Isn't that AMAZING! We were told that 1 hour of work will make about 10 1/2 bags of soup. So each hour we work we are feeding about 2,500 people.
The majority of people who work there are volunteers and seniors. It was actually so amazing to see so many people giving back. It warmed my heart so much!
I worked most of the time cutting up peppers and making sure they weren't rotting or molded. I was working with a man from Holland and he told me all about his family, his kids, his grandkids and his wife. He told me when he moved here and what he used to do for work. He was such a sweet old man and really loved his coffee. When it was coffee break he was up and at it faster than the road runner running away from the coyote.
Nearing the end I spent my time sorting out the chopped, diced and mixed vegetables onto the drying trays. Some of the veggies were frozen and it wasn't long before my nimble fingers had lost all feeling. I kept shaking them out in the few seconds I had between each tray. One of the men working with me noticed and said to me "cold hands but a warm heart". Just that sentence alone made me smile. And it really made me think; that's what it's really all about isn't it? It didn't take long for me to forget about my fingers and focus on all the people who would be receiving food from the trays I was sorting. It doesn't matter what your hands, feet or back feel like, it's all about your heart.
It says in Proverbs 4:23 "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it"
It is easy for us to do these things with a bitter heart and complain all the time. But that's not how we are meant to do things. God also calls us to be cheerful givers. Take joy in the work you are doing. Know it is for God what you are doing and let him warm your heart with that. Let what flows from your heart be cheerful giving.
I quite enjoyed my time at the Gleaners. I enjoyed the little conversations I had about family. I enjoyed talking with one lady who used to work in Tofino and was explaining how much she missed it there. I enjoyed the joy that these seniors had in giving back to their community. I enjoyed forgetting about my frozen fingers and thinking with my heart. I enjoyed knowing where the food that we would normally throw away was going and who it was helping. Above all else, I enjoyed that we were doing work cheerfully for The Lord and his people.
The majority of people who work there are volunteers and seniors. It was actually so amazing to see so many people giving back. It warmed my heart so much!
I worked most of the time cutting up peppers and making sure they weren't rotting or molded. I was working with a man from Holland and he told me all about his family, his kids, his grandkids and his wife. He told me when he moved here and what he used to do for work. He was such a sweet old man and really loved his coffee. When it was coffee break he was up and at it faster than the road runner running away from the coyote.
Nearing the end I spent my time sorting out the chopped, diced and mixed vegetables onto the drying trays. Some of the veggies were frozen and it wasn't long before my nimble fingers had lost all feeling. I kept shaking them out in the few seconds I had between each tray. One of the men working with me noticed and said to me "cold hands but a warm heart". Just that sentence alone made me smile. And it really made me think; that's what it's really all about isn't it? It didn't take long for me to forget about my fingers and focus on all the people who would be receiving food from the trays I was sorting. It doesn't matter what your hands, feet or back feel like, it's all about your heart.
It says in Proverbs 4:23 "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it"
It is easy for us to do these things with a bitter heart and complain all the time. But that's not how we are meant to do things. God also calls us to be cheerful givers. Take joy in the work you are doing. Know it is for God what you are doing and let him warm your heart with that. Let what flows from your heart be cheerful giving.
I quite enjoyed my time at the Gleaners. I enjoyed the little conversations I had about family. I enjoyed talking with one lady who used to work in Tofino and was explaining how much she missed it there. I enjoyed the joy that these seniors had in giving back to their community. I enjoyed forgetting about my frozen fingers and thinking with my heart. I enjoyed knowing where the food that we would normally throw away was going and who it was helping. Above all else, I enjoyed that we were doing work cheerfully for The Lord and his people.
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