Angel Food 062808

Today (Saturday, June 28th) we had Angel Food Distribution. Every month we take orders for people who want to buy cheap food. It’s a great deal and I guess it really helps a lot of people. The thing has grown incredibly…almost doubling every single month that we’ve done it so far. We started with around 30 boxes and this month we had 664. (Two more boxes and we would have certainly had to explain to someone that we’re NOT the antichrist.) So these 664 boxes of food came in on a big truck from Georgia. People waited in line for hours to get their food just like they were waiting to get tickets for the next Rolling Stones concert. One family was there 2½ hours before time for delivery. Their wait was not significantly longer than most of the others. It was hot and humid and just about everybody had to stand for a couple hours to get their food. We had some cold drinks for them (thanks, Buffalo Rock) and we tried to make them laugh. And we tried to make them feel like someone cares for them. I told our volunteers that it was important to see people as people with feelings and needs and emotions and not just as another pair of hands holding another box of food as they move through the line. We wanted them to feel God’s presence as they picked up their food. Still, I would have been ticked if I had to spend a chunk of my Saturday waiting in a food line. Got stuff to do, you know. But these people were happy. I didn’t experience any bad attitudes or rude people. I couldn’t believe it. Hundreds and hundreds of people standing in the heat for hours and no one’s complaining. What if you had to stand in line next to someone who talked too much or had an annoying laugh? No bad attitudes, no complaining. At least I didn’t hear it. Someone said that its positive proof that God is working through this food ministry. Maybe they’re right. I was there to serve others. But I was the one who got touched. An experience of God’s presence was being extended to me through the ones there to get food. Everything was upside-down. We’re working on getting the process better streamlined to handle the volume of people coming through. But there seemed to be something very healthy and very healing about the waiting. Maybe its because it gave people a chance to slow down and not have to be busy for a little while. Maybe its because we need community so bad and people were able to connect with each other in the line. I know that rest and community are things that I need desperately. I would never have thought to go looking for them in a food line.