Do you ever feel like your life is all about you, your children, your spouse, and YOUR life? What are we doing to really make an impact? How can we give our kids that worldview Christian perspective of being the hands and feet of Christ? It's hard when everything we have and need is within an arm's reach. When we are hungry we go to the fridge...when it's empty we go to the store a block away and stock up! Often times we can't even get our kids to eat the food that's on their plate..they aren't hungry! Well perhaps that's because they just drank a soda and ate a Twinkie an hour before dinner? Generally speaking we NEVER think once about being without or the pains of an empty stomach. In fact, our country has ever increasing rates of obesity; living each meal from an easy to heat box or grabbing that fast food bag from the drive-thru window. How did we get here and how do we teach our kids the flip side so that they can be grateful?
Well, to help with this dilemma we recently volunteered at an amazing organization called Feed My Starving Children in Tempe, AZ. This is a nationwide organization with packing sites in a few different spots throughout the country (so definitely take a look at the locations if you reside in another part of the US http://fmsc.org) At Feed My Starving Children our entire families were allowed to serve side by side boxing food that would be shipped to third world countries. We have found it very difficult to find service projects that allow young children into their facilities to do the work. But here, the youngest little workers (age 5 and up) are welcomed and valued for their time and effort. Our kids really felt like they were contributing and helping to solve a huge problem. A real sense of purpose was achieved and they set to work like we've never seen before. They were saving lives!!!
Feed My Starving Children provides life-saving meals to people who need them most all over the world — from countries affected by natural disaster to places enduring economic despair. FMSC meals are distributed in nearly 70 countries through missionary partnerships at orphanages, schools, clinics, refugee camps and malnourishment centers.
FMSC believes in sustainability – we don’t simply send one shipment of food to a country. Instead, we continue to provide our mission partners with the food they need to maintain their feeding programs.
So what did our time at FMSC consist of? Well, we actually were able to pack each of the ingredients into bags, seal them, and box them. In the hour we worked, our group of 50 volunteers packed 32 boxes of what the organization calls "MannaPacks." These packs contain the following ingredients that were spooned and scooped in individually.
1. Rice, the most widely accepted grain around the world.
2. Extruded soy nuggets, providing maximum protein at lowest cost.
3. Vitamins, minerals and a vegetarian flavoring to give growing children the critical nutritional elements they need.
4. Dehydrated vegetables for flavor and nutrition.
3. Vitamins, minerals and a vegetarian flavoring to give growing children the critical nutritional elements they need.
4. Dehydrated vegetables for flavor and nutrition.
Our 32 boxes with 36 MannaPacks each is enough food to feed 24 children for a WHOLE YEAR. One hour feeds 24 kids for a year! Wow, not bad, especially considering half of our workforce was under 4 ft tall!
A single bag of food—which provides highly nutritious meals for six children—costs around $1.32 to produce, and 93 percent of all donations to FMSC goes directly toward the food program.
This product name was chosen to capture both the nourishing qualities of the supplement and FMSC’s spiritual mission by using the word manna, which the dictionary defines as:
1. In the Bible, the food miraculously provided for the Israelites in the wilderness during their flight from Egypt.
2. Spiritual nourishment of divine origin.
3. Something of value that a person receives unexpectedly.
2. Spiritual nourishment of divine origin.
3. Something of value that a person receives unexpectedly.
After the clean-up we gathered together to pray over the food that would soon be shipped. The prayer was led by 8 year old J pictured above without any coaching! She asked that the food would bless the lives of the kids it would feed...and although we couldn't hear every word she spoke in her little voice, it was truly one of the most amazing little prayers I've ever heard! Way to go J!
If you would like more information on serving at FMSC or to make a financial contribution you can go here to http://www.fmsc.org/page.aspx?pid=465. We made reservations about 6 weeks prior so that we could round up friends and make it a group effort! It was really a great opportunity and we cannot wait to return again in the fall.
Blessings-
The Betties
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