100,000 MEALS - DONE!

100,000 meals – done!

THANK YOU! This could not have been done without you.

It was a great day – As approximately 400 volunteers come together Saturday, March 27 at the University of Redlands from 8 am to 5 pm and packaged 100,000 + meals. You were an encouragement to us and we don’t know how to thank you.

It was an inspiring day - To see so many people standing side by side putting these food packages together. People who don’t know each other sharing their stories as they scooped and packed these life saving little bags.

It was a blessed day - As musician after musician came to share and worship with music, the volunteers were blessed as they worshiped by serving with their hands. Prayer went up for those who came who don’t know the Lord and a spirit of encouragement and love seem to be poured out in that place during the entire day.

It was a long day - For many of the volunteers who were there from before 7am to set up and then running food and supplies to the tables all day, we pray that God blesses your souls and restores your strength. We know this was a long, hard day for many of you.

(Those of you, you know who you are – we can’t begin to express our appreciation and we know God is going to bless you for the effort you put into this work. We have, and will continue to pray for all of you. We especially thank you and we pray that you accept our sincere apology for not having enough help to relieve you during the day. We know how very hard you worked.)

The implications of last Saturday are going to be felt and seen for a long time here and in Africa, and yet we may never know what they are. No matter, because this is not our work, it is His. He said, “…inasmuch as you did it to the least of these My brothers and sisters, you did it to Me. Matthew 25:40.

Thank you and God bless you!

Behold how good...

Psalm 133:1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

It is good! It is good, because God said it was good. We need to find out how good this is and park here and become use to this way. This way of unity.

Yes, it can be overwhelming at times, but what in life is not overwhelming at times.

In 1 Corinthians 12:12 Paul says, "For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ." Paul continues his illustration in this chapter and says, "...the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it."

We are in awe of this body. We are humbled, knowing it is the body working as it should that accomplishes His will. It is however sad when we are witness to and even guilty of the body harming itself, remembering what Paul said, "...this is Christ's body."

Through this body, united and working together, God accomplishes great things for His glory. The united body is a powerful tool. No one person could accomplish what a strong united body can accomplish. A hand, and eye, an ear, a foot alone can not accomplish much, but together we, by the mercy and grace of God, can change the world.
A most important thought, moving further into chapter 13, Paul writes, we are only a loud, irritating noise if we do all that we do and we don't have love. Pray that our united body has love! Love for each other, love for strangers we will be standing next to, love for the unlovely and love for the people who will receive this food on the other side of the world. God's ways are beyond our understanding but when He says, "Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love" then we need to ask ourselves what does my love look like.
This Saturday is not about packing boxes with food, it's about packing with love.

Africa Harvest of Hope thanks you for showing the love of Christ in His body.
We are praying for you!