Mission-Minded Monday - Angel Food Ministries

Okay, I'll admit that I'm not a morning person. Sad, but true! Saturday is usually the one day a week that I have to sleep in and I'm typically very hesitant to give up that time. But, this past Saturday our family rose early and braved the cold morning to join our small group in being a part of a really cool outreach, called Angel Food Ministries.

Our church is a host site for Angel Food, which is a ministry that provides low-income families with affordable groceries. Each month, people can place orders for boxes of groceries (valued at $65) for the low price of $30. Angel Food Ministries then ships the groceries to the church and volunteers come in one Saturday a month to sort the groceries and distribute them.

With the holidays approaching, the church had taken up offerings to provide families in need with groceries for their Thanksgiving dinners in addition to the regular monthly orders. Because of the volume of food being received this month, small groups at the church were asked to volunteer to help sort the groceries. The group that Stephen and I lead (pictured above) made us proud by showing up with great attitudes and working hard! Even our 8 year old son, Bryson, helped sort groceries! He had such a great time keeping track of how many cans he had put into bags and reported the total to us with pride at the end of the morning. Laynie, our 5 year old daughter, even helped break down the boxes as they were emptied. Well, really she just jumped on them until they were flattened, but it was effective!

We all had such a good time, but the best part of the day was when we delivered groceries to 2 single moms who live in our apartment complex, both of which have lost their jobs in the last couple of months. Having lived through a couple of job losses in our own lives, Stephen and I have a real appreciation for how difficult that is. It was so fulfilling to see how appreciative they were for the groceries and it made the work we did that morning even more worth it!

If you would like more information on Angel Food Ministries, check out www.angelfoodministries.com.

Brandy