I was concerned and feeling a bit defeated two weeks prior to the break. This last quarter the kids did some great service projects. We put together gifts for children in the hospital (a gift bag with a hand made card and a beanie baby), we cleaned up, cut back, and revitalized the yard of a lady who is losing her sight, we wrote letters to a friend serving in China and a soldier serving in Iraq, we made meals in jars for widows (or moms who could use an easy meal), we had guest speakers who coordinate medical services for children with serious health needs, we had a guest speaker who shared with us the need of children and poor in southeast Asia, and as our culminating project we raised OVER 1000 pounds of food for a local food bank. (Note there were only 11 kids in our class and 20 families in our co-op).
When we set the goal of 1000 pounds it didn't seem like too much, but as we were gathering I started to feel defeated. We only had 2-3 weeks to gather the food. And in addition I heard comments like, "Wow, 1000 pounds, that's a lot of food. It's hard to raise that much food, even for a big group, but you have a small group." For a minute I started to believe it was going to be too much. But the night I was feeling down, one of the kids called me because he was SO excited! Along with his brother and sister, he had collected 200 pounds in a day. Amazing!
The following day I read them the story of the Little Red Hen. Hard work gets the job done and these kids were working hard. I was so proud of them. During this quarter I saw them giving, serving and donating time, money, or talent.
I'm happy to report the night of our end of quarter event the kids had raised 987 pounds of food. We made a good effort and were only 13 pounds from our goal. Then one family arrived late and handed me a bag of food they wanted to donate. We weighed the food and...this is such a God thing...their bag weighed 13.8 pounds! We met and exceeded our goal!
What a great lesson of faith for the kids and for me. The Bible tells us we only need to have faith the size of a mustard seed to move mountains.
"He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20-21
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