Celebrating BIG this Saturday!!!
Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 10:34AM We’re CELBRATING 2 YEARS OF SERVICE!!! Wohoo!!!
On August 13th, 2010 Forever Fed hosted our first block party at Canton Adventist Church on Scott Mill Road in Canton and it was a party, indeed! The enormity of what began that day continues to overwhelm both myself and others today and it never fails to bring a smile to my face. Our leadership of seven dedicated servants decided from the beginning that we’d serve meals when we promised to serve them regardless of weather. God held us to that promise on our first day of service. This was our first lesson in accountability.
On August 13th, 2010, one hour prior to our scheduled start time a tornado went through the very neighborhood we were supposed to serve. People started calling me at 4 PM telling me how bad the weather was, they pleaded with me to cancel and I reminded all that we promised to serve regardless of the weather and the food was already made so we were fully committed to this event. In God’s best humor, our first weather challenge was a tornado! We can laugh about it now but at the time it was kind of stressful.
Getting to Canton Adventist Church that day wasn’t easy. While driving the Forever Fed truck from Woodstock to Canton we had to turn around and take a different route because of downed trees in the road. When we finally arrived on the on the Canton Adventist campus we were a little bit late and a little bit shaken. The rain had stopped but the local power was out, trees were down all around, and a roof had even blown off one of the Canton buildings we drove by. Deep breath.
Slowly but surely our volunteers and leadership arrived at the site. As we began to set up our first block party we noticed the neighborhood residents were coming out of their homes to view the destruction done by the storm. Ironically, their lack of electricity made it difficult to cook an evening meal as well. The good news was we had already prepared a meal for them!
The clouds were clearing, the temperature was actually cooling, and it was turning out to be a wonderful evening. Some would call this coincidence; others would call it a Godsidence. We served 85 meals at our first block party to a crowd of very appreciative residents and our infant ministry took its first baby step in this world.
I’m laughing as I’m typing this because our leadership looked at each other after that first event was finished and we all said, “Wow, this was great, let’s do it again!” At that time, we had less than $300 in the Forever Fed bank account but we had big hearts and many dreams. This was the beginning of God showing us exactly HOW big He is!
This coming Saturday is the second anniversary of our first block party, we like to call it Forever Fed’s Birthday! Looking back it’s easy to see God’s hand all over His ministry.
- Since August, 2010, by the grace of God, we’ve served 21,277 meals. As I’m typing this number out…I’m still amazed.
- We’ve hosted 158 events and only had to reschedule one of them.
- We’ve partnered with many Churches and organizations of many different religions and we all work cohesively and joyfully knowing Jesus is there in the middle of every event.
- We’ve received thousands of dollars in donations from hundreds of private donors, organizations, as well as in-kind donations of products and foods that have met every need we ever experienced, and then some.
- We’ve had hundreds of volunteers step up and serve thousands of volunteer hours. This is probably one of the most amazing and humbling parts of this ministry. God has sent us an army to help us battle hunger and hopelessness. Thank you God!
I speak for the entire leadership team when I say we are amazed and often overwhelmed by God’s enormity. In between our ongoing ‘happy dance’ we’ve spent time in prayer both praising and giving thanks.
Numbers and statistics are only a few of the highlights as we’ve seen real miracles happening every week. Just last week I was asking God, “What in the world are we going to serve during our Birthday Party at Scott Mill next week?” and the very next day I got a call from a restaurant that donated 200 pounds of pork to Forever Fed. God answers prayers.
In the last two years God has grown the faith of our leadership so quickly and in such magnitude that it’s sometimes a bit painful . But through it all, He has given us the same clear and concise messages over and over again.
- Rely on Him, He is the Alpha and Omega, it all begins and ends with Him.
- God provides for His children abundantly. We need to just get our small minds and limited ideas out of the way to witness his grandness.
- God sometimes uses storms to re-direct our paths and to increase our ability to witness our faith in Him to others. Some trees may fall, electricity may fail, and roofs get blown away, God is not only “there”, He has a purpose.
So HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY Forever Fed and a BIG "Thank You Jesus" for pouring out your abundant blessings on our community. We pray the Lord will continue to use Forever Fed to His glory and His glory alone!
Reader Comments (3)
We are coming, but I can't figure out my sign up genius password, so I don't know that I am registered or not. We have friends that might be joining us. Didn't even know it was the birthday of this amazing journey when we planned it! YEA! So excited to come back. Our children have a small donation too. $6. I told you it was small. One day, they were greedy when we took them for ice creem. I had spent $6, and when the greed was unbearable, I took all the ice cream and threw it away. The punishment was that each child was to donate $6 to charity so that a hungry child might be fed. Luckily, you guys were their charity of choice! EA
Erin, I've signed you guys up for Saturday! We'll be so happy to see you and your precious family again. We'll have our regular meal, snow cones, and popcorn too! There is also a free medical/dental screening clinic as well so we should have an awesome time of it. See you soon!
Susan V.
I am so bummed I couldn't come. Was on child shuttle duty.