another little God thing

Our little family got together with our friends the Haag's yesterday to collect cans for His Harvest House, our church's food pantry ministry. We met in their subdivision. The dads pushed a wheel barrel, the kids went door to door asking for food donations, and Kendra and I watched to make sure no one was kidnapped. They did really well. I was proud of them all... even if Jordan had to be reminded constantly to stop peeking in windows. Sigh.

Here are some pictures from our day.




One gentleman didn't have any cans... so he donated cash instead!

This was what we had at the end of the street. Not too shabby!

The whole gang, minus most of the adults.

The best part of the day occurred at the last house we visited. Kendra summed it up beautifully in this email she sent out to our homeschool group:

"Today we had a Can Food Drive Collection Day on the HSC calendar. The Smiths (Chris, Erin, Shaun and Jordan) joined my family this morning to collect cans in my neighborhood. We step out of our driveway and I tell the kids to practice their speech by going to our friends' house across the street. While Brandon, Chris, Erin and I stayed on the road watching them ring the door bell a lady walks by with her dog and recognizes Chris from the hospital. He tells her what we are doing, and she said to be sure to come to her house. Because of this invitation we turned right instead of our preplanned left and worked our way up to the top of the street. We get to the last house, the kids are at the door and the man who answered the door doesn't understand what they are asking. So I walked up to explain to him we were doing a can food drive and then it was like "oh... ok." He then proceeded to tell me that his mind is foggy because his 21 year old son, a police officer, was killed last week in a motorcycle accident on 985. Long story short, Chris and Brandon were able to pray with him and we just stood there and listened to him talk about his son for about 35 minutes. He thanked us and told us that God sent us to him at this time.

Had we not been collecting cans on this day... Had Chris Smith not been with us... for one of my neighbors to recognize... and invite us to her side of the neighborhood... which caused us to change our plan... WOW... I just stand amazed how God carefully orchestrated today for the sake of this one man and his family. Every person mentioned played a part to send God's Love to a broken and grieving man, to hug him, cry with him and pray for him! I'm so honored to have been a witness to Him at work through us, even we least expect it."

Wow. Just... wow. We were trying to teach our kids about compassion, and they wound up learning a lot more. I'm so glad that God worked it out so that this family could be loved on and ministered to, and I'm honored that He used us to do it.