CALIFORNIA – “Who’s hungry in America? Just look into your neighbors eyes and you may find an answer worth the risk.” ~Allison, Master’s Commission Atlanta.

The team of students from Atlanta’s Master’s Commission spent their third ministry day working with The Rock Food Distribution. This is what they have to say so far about their week-long hunger relief outreach with Operation Blessing in California:

From Katie:

I honestly wasn’t expecting much out of today. We had just done a food distribution, how different could it be? I soon found out how wrong I was.

There is just something special and something that never seems to get old about handing out food to someone who needs it. With a single smile it was easy to see the difference being made in each person’s life. It made everything worth it. Luckily for me, I encountered far more than just one smile.

People came through with thankfulness written all over them. A little boy pointed at the bag of lettuce in my hand and jumped up and down in excitement as he asked his mom, “Is that ours? Do we get to have that?” She smiled as she told him that it indeed was theirs and they were getting to keep it.

There is such joy to be found in helping provide for people, whether it is by donating items or time. It is one of the most rewarding things. It scares me to think where some of these people would be without people like the Kings or places like The Rock.

Sometimes you never know how much of a difference you are making, but the difference is being made. I have found it such an honor to serve these people and give my time to them and for them. I am excited to see what the next few days will have in store and who will be helped.

~Katie

From Allison:

The other day I was confronted with the question “Who’s hungry in America?” What a silly question… the hungry are hungry! The poor. The needy. The less fortunate. At least that’s what we like to think and say most of the time. I have found over the past few days that it runs much deeper than what is seen by the eye, and it really doesn’t have a whole lot to do with food either.

The morning started early and cold, and at that moment, I was hungry. Not for food, but for something else… something I just can’t put my finger on. Later I stood in a line with nothing more than cups of noodles to put into the carts and bags of hungry people.

They too are hungry for something beyond just the food that fills the space. I have asked dozens of people who they are and what their stories are. But I find that no matter who they are or why they are there, they too silently scream of hunger for something more. I can even find the hunger in the eyes of my friends.

But why? We go to a school that’s jump starting the rest of our lives. Why would we look with hungry eyes too? I may not know the story of each person, but once I chose to look beyond the outward appearances of all these people, it became easy to find the thing we all hunger for—love.

I took a lot of risks that trained me for the tougher moments when I had the opportunity to love on people. Today I specifically found that people need others who are going to care about more than small talk and who will take the time to love them and hug them and use physical action to show their love.

It could have been really simple, and I could have let all the people just walk by with two cups of noodles. But I figure that if I was broken and hurting, and if I didn’t tell anyone about it, I would want someone to be bold enough to love me and have an impact on me.

Who’s hungry in America? Just look into your neighbors eyes and you may find an answer worth the risk.

~Allison

From Chris:

Expectation means everything. But what happens if you lose it? Can expectation just sneak off? Or maybe it’s just that we forget? My personal opinion is that we sometimes just forget. And today, I have to ashamedly say I forgot my expectation in our tent at the King’s house.

We went to a ministry called The Rock to do yet another food distribution. Notice even in that sentence I said “yet another”… It is ridiculous to think of how quickly things can get old and stale isn’t it?

We helped feed around 600 families at The Rock. And with every family that passed through the line, I was reminded of the miracles that these simple food distributions bring.

Expectation is a funny thing; if you want it there seems to be a never-ending supply. The question is whether or not we will decide to have it every day for the rest of our lives.

~Chris

To help the hungry, donate to Operation Blessing’s hunger relief fund.

Tags: Atlanta, California, Food Distribution, Hunger Relief, Master's Commission, North America, OBI, Operation Blessing, The Rock, Volunteers

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 15th, 2010 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Hunger Relief, North America, OBI Volunteer Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.