The day dawned gray, cloudy, and rainy. We were praying that the sky would open and the sun would dry up all the mud! We were blessed to have the rain stop although the sun didn't appear. There was so much food that it almost filled a 15 passenger van......only allowing room for three people and one was the driver (me). Two more vans were filled up with volunteers and a pick-up truck followed with the live turkeys, chickens, and poultry wranglers.
After our volunteer team from Wenatchee rounded up the poultry and finished packing the the food and hauling it all to the van we began to caravan to our destination. This was a year of urban distribution because of weather and because we try to bless around as much as we can. The terribly impoverished are interspersed all throughout the neighborhoods and we just had to keep driving from one to the next as they were spread out.
Our intention was to deliver food packages with flour, beans, rice, sugar, oil, soups, pasta, coconut milk packs, hot chocolate, banana bread, Christmas cookies, candy canes, oranges, bananas, and live chickens or turkeys. We ask them if we can give them a bible and have prayer with them. Some are willing to speak with us and some will pour their hearts out to us..........tears. Some may take the food but they will not allow us anything else.
This is such a blessing to me personally and it really touches deep in my heart to know that God provided a way for us to bless others. Making a difference doesn't have to be something astronomical or a huge production. It can simply be doing what you can when you can. Thankfully, we are able to reach out all year long as things come to us.
The second home we stopped at last Monday, the young woman was hesitant to come out of her home and seemed very shy about taking the food and chicken. Once we gave her the food she seemed relieved/happier. This lady also accepted a bible and said we could pray with her and for her. During that prayer in Spanish she broke down into tears and began to sob. Very heartbreaking but encouraging to know that we made a difference that day to her.
There were many touching moments that bring tears to my eyes and I wish people didn't have to live the way that they are stuck living. Many were very nice and shared with us some burdens and things happening in their lives so we could specifically pray for them. Some were so excited about getting a live turkey that I'm not sure the other food mattered. Huge smiles graced so many faces that day including all of ours. At moments I was impressed that it wasn't the material food that was making any difference but the fact that we were there in person without any strings attached. Talking to people, laughing with people, praying with people. Just the interaction!
One place we stopped the house was quiet and closed up but we kept calling out. Finally, we began to hear terrible terrible music coming from the house. They were trying to ignore us and get us to leave. Ultimately, God's power prevailed and a young pregnant woman emerged from behind the door to nothing more than a chicken coop looking shack. Her eyes lit up as we explained in Spanish what were doing and what we wanted to give her. At the end when we asked her if we could pray I had to ask her to turn the music off as it was spewing so many foul words and filthy phrases. She said she would like a bible and it turned out that we didn't have any in our van but we told her we would bring one back soon. We were able to take one back to her about 30 minutes later.
The very next stop was the sweetest most humble young lady and she just kept saying "bless you" and "thank you" and she was adamant that we come inside her house to pray with her. We felt so guilty tracking all that mud in her little home but what a blessing for the opportunity.
A couple days later we trekked out in the jungle down a muddy trail using backpacks to carry the food to some needy families. The mud was absolutely terrible! We were sliding and doing our best not to slip. The mud was just building up on our shoes and it began to look like another sole on the shoe. Such a great experience to get out to some remote families that would never be reached by the mainstream outreach in the area. A couple guys in the group carried pepper spray in case we encountered aggressive dogs that wouldn't back down and a few guys carried machetes in case we came across any dangerous reptiles. No snakes and the dogs backed down by us just going through the motion of picking something up and pretending to throw it. Amen.
These families were farmers and they grew corn, green beans, plantains, and habanero peppers. Their homes reminded me more of the typical wood shacks we saw in Africa. They cooked over the open fire so their homes were actually pretty filled with smoke. Cute little children and hard working mamas greeted us, as the men were out working.
We were so glad to be able to help 63 families!
Thank you Lord for the opportunity to meet new people and open doors that may lead to us being invited back to share Jesus again.
