Started off my Sabbatical journey with a bang by scheduling all of my service projects during the first week. I signed up with Habitat for Humanity to build a wooden A-frame house on Saturday in Lockhart,Texas but after an epiphany a few days earlier, I decided I was too out of shape for the job at hand. It was hard to swallow my pride and I rescinded to the idea of a softer service project. Thus, I started on Sunday instead with Mobile Loaves & Fishes at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Austin, Texas.
Mobile Loaves & Fishes feeds countless homeless underneath bridges and street corners. I felt like the boy used by Jesus to feed the hungry known as the “miracle of the five loaves and two fish.” I was assigned to the kitchen area where I proceeded to make 75 ham & cheese sandwiches, 60 peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and 120 kosher hotdogs along with loading up several dozen apples, oranges & bananas. One can imagine how easy it is to make a sandwich but spreading peanut butter and jelly is tiresome and extremely messy! After this experience, I would be content never to see another peanut butter and jelly sandwich!!!!
Later that evening, we celebrated with the rest of the family my eldest daughter’s 32nd birthday at The Olive Garden Restaurant in San Marcos, Texas.
Spending quality family time is important to me and everyone seemed to get a kick out of my earlier challenges with peanut butter and jelly. We were blessed by having my in-laws in attendance since they are now permanent residents in our home. First Timothy 5:8 “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” I said a blessing and we all proceeded to enjoy a hearty feast with endless salad and bread sticks. Mangiare!!!
Early Monday morning, I headed to downtown Austin to volunteer at Caritas of Austin, a soup kitchen for the homeless and destitute. Carita’s feeds in excess of 350 homeless every day and I knew I was in for a arduous day!
After unloading a truckload of food, vegetables and fruit into the kitchen food pantry I was given the task of sorting out the pastry sweets on large cookie sheets. I guess they figured I couldn’t mess up the ready made sweets versus cooking. Oh well…, they will never know? The chef decided to make Shepherd pie, mashed potatoes, toss salad, fruit salad and sweet bread for dessert. In all, we probably spent about 2 hours doing food prep before serving.
Two off duty policeman handled the homeless crowd outside allowing small groups of forty within a 1 and half hour time span. I was assigned to be a busser which sounded similar to the word–buzzard and in fact, I found out it resembled the bird’s favorite pastime which was scavenging and eating leftovers. I was responsible for receiving the dirty trays and leftover food. I expected most of the food trays to be empty but apparently homeless are picky eaters too! LOL (lots of laughs)
In Matthew 25:35 “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
When we feed the hungry, clothe the poor, Jesus says “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
On Tuesday, I volunteered at the Central Texas Food Bank in their warehouse division. The facility is 135,000 square feet and has a new 4,000 square feet kitchen with blast chillers that can freeze fresh and prepared foods in under 90 minutes.
1 Corinthians 10:31 says “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
In the course of 3 hours, we sorted 14,753 lbs of food with an estimated meal value of $12,647. Several families lost everything during Hurricane Harvey. We must always be thankful for the food that the Lord has provided us with. No matter what it is!