After breakfast and meeting with our prayer partners, we were off to Concord Street for the day. This morning we would be working with Second Harvest Food Bank and what an interesting day this would be!
A little about Second Harvest Food Bank first. It's a private, nonprofit organization that collects, stores and distributes donated food to more than 550 feeding partners in six Central Florida counties: Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia. There mission is to fight hunger in Central Florida by: Providing access to food and other grocery products in order to meet the need, Promoting and supporting the development of our partner agencies’ ability to fulfill their missions, Mobilizing leaders and communities by bringing visibility to the invisible problem of hunger and poverty, and Developing more holistic and county-specific solutions to hunger in Central Florida. (Source: www.foodbankcentralflorida.org)
Columbus, GA also has a Second Harvest Food Bank that distributes food out to regions in Georgia, so it was neat to see the food bank in action in a different part of our country that was trying to curve hunger within our country.
We arrived at the food bank to sign-in to find out that myself and 3 other adults had not been listening when we were told we would need to wear closed-toe shoes; therefore, forming the Open Toe Shoes Club. So, we waited out in the lobby while the others went inside the warehouse to sort through packaged and expired meat. (I truly believe that God was watching over me that day when I wore the wrong shoes after hearing the stories of the meat they had to sort through)
Eventually, a worker would come out and ask us to help them build a display stand for literature and material they wanted to display. So, we were glad to do that in order to feel like we helped in some small way.
After leaving the food bank, it was time for lunch and to rest/prepare for the second day of bible school.
It was time to share with the kids about the beauty of Esther and her selfish ways. We felt it was important to share with them about an amazing woman of the bible considering most of their homes are single parent homes with just the mother. This day we focused on helping others and putting others above our self.
Once again, we had kids waiting for us as the bus arrived in the neighborhood. We arrived earlier today, so we could setup and be ready to go by 3:30pm. The kids kept coming and come from everywhere, with over 60 kids being a part of our bible school when it was all said and done. Some kids arrived with flips (frozen kool-aid) that was made by a lady in the neighborhood... more on that later.
We had a beautiful afternoon and once again those acting in the skits, our station leaders, and tour guides all did a wonderful job. You could really tell that we were all becoming very comfortable within this setting and understanding what our jobs were. Once bible school had ended, we hung around for a little while and some of the guys played basketball with the kids, the girls played around with some of the other kids on the grass and playground, while the adults watched our kids continue in their growth. What a wonderful sight that was!
After we were done it was back to Concord Street for dinner and back to the hotel for devotional and bed.
Aaron Cole led our devotional and directed our thoughts on anger. This was appropriate at this particular point in the week because some of us had begun to be frustrated with the trouble kids (the ones who wouldn't listen or refused to participate or simply had a bad attitude). He helped to understand we should look for the positive even when we find ourselves getting angry or frustrated. Those kids, as much trouble as some caused, were there and were learning about God through it all.
It was off to bed because we had another early morning and long day the next day.
God is good... All the time!
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