LOVE!

Life is so much bigger than we could ever imagine. I never fail to marvel at how big life is.

Today on what could be a totally self-indulgent and inwardly focused day we got to do a lot of serving. This morning we went to a place called Gleaners. This ministry is partnering with grocery stores and farmers all over Abbotsford and the surrounding areas to reduce food waste and feed the hungry around the world. What a marvelous concept! Since we, as consumers, are really picky the food that is slightly blemished doesn’t even make it to market and just gets dumped in a land fill, Gleaners is trying to make use of what used to be waste. They dry the vegetables to make bags of dried soup and then partner with other ministries in distributing the soup all around the world. We had a huge production line: there were thirteen people doing a job that they commonly have more than thirty people doing. We added scoops of barley, carrots, onions, tomoatos, peppers, lentils, green beans and numerous other ingredients to help create a healthy meal for people who may only have one meal the whole day. Each bag of soup is 100 servings and we put together 56 bags of soup in about an hour.

Later in the afternoon we came down to the great room and Amy was set with ribbon, cards, candy, and roses. We had hundreds of boxes of candy hearts and dozens of roses. We laughed and joked while we tied ribbons and cards around these gifts… and even told our first kiss stories, it is after all, Valentines Day. But after we finished we piled into vehichicles and headed to an area of town called Five Corners (it’s called this because five streets all come together at one intersection, so confusing!). But this is an area of town that has higher rates of poverty, drug use, and homelessness than we have previously seen in this beautiful town. We made our “home base” at a place called Jubilee Park, grabbed handfuls of roses and candy and spread out to bless people. We ran across people who shouted out of their car windows asking us to be their valentine, people turning us away, and people accepting us warmly. There is something so beautiful about giving a woman a rose, there is something inside of her that just lights up: my marvelous roommate Jenn suggested that it’s the idea of giving life. What a beautiful image! We had quite a few women say that the rose we gave them was more than they would get from their husbands. We had other people ask us if we were selling them and we got to gladly hand one over for free. It was interesting to watch people’s reactions when they weren’t so open to receiving a free gift. Our society doesn’t do anything with “no strings attached” and we’ve been taught not to even make eye contact with people we cross on the streets… what a shame. One man that I got to talk to seemed quite skeptical of us at first when we offered him a box of candy hearts and asked us something about a funeral since we were carrying so many flowers. We assured him that we were not taking part in a funeral and so he asked what we were doing. I got to tell him that we were just showing God’s love in a very practical way and with that I got the first of many hugs I would receive from strangers. We got to tell him about Trek and where we were from (when I told him I’m from California and I’m going to Peru he laughed, put his hand on my forehead and said, “you’re going north to go south!”). He told us a little bit about the neighborhood we were in since we didn’t know much about it and really affirmed what we were doing saying that the neighborhood needed more things like this. We got to bless people in a rather silly way, share the love of my Lord in a rather unobtrusive way, and see people smile as a result. Some of the girls got talking to a homeless man in the park and he shared with them his life story and also his insight that Jubilee park is usually teeming with people but when we came people scattered because the darkness hides from the light.

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

Matthew 5:14-16