Harvest of Hope

This past weekend I attended a mission trip to Harvest of Hope in Watha, NC. That weekend changed me.

Our first night there we watched a video that really touched my heart. It showed the lives of children that brought my eyes to tears. These kids were probably 6 or 7 years younger than me and they have worked harder in probably one day than I have my entire life. One girl gathered cow dung everyday so that they could lay it out in the sun to dry and use it for their fires.  This family didn't have access to any wood in the area. That made me at first make the most disgusted face. Then I started to think... what kind of life is that?  I never once have even had to come close to cow dung and here this girl was who had to pick it up with her bare hands, everyday, for her family so they could survive. Another life of a young girl had to gather wood for her family.  She carried the load on her back and the video captured her breathing.  She was so out of breath and you could hear her struggling with her frail and fragile body.

These families’ lifestyles are the most foreign thing to me.  Never once have I woken up to a floor for a bed, a cold house, or not to have a meal waiting for me.  These families are poor.  To me most of my life I associated poor people with those who don't have the latest technology, or the coolest clothes. But as I've gotten older I realize how wrong I really was.

The next morning we got up bright and early, had our worship service, breakfast, and then headed out to the kale patch where we spent about 3 hours working in the field. I didn't even know what kale was before this trip, now I'm not sure I ever want to see it again! I even took several breaks along with our lunch break.  At the end of the 3 hours we had collected over 10,000 thousand pounds of kale. That is a lot of kale. You may not have ever held kale before, but it isn't heavy... at all. At the end of the day during our worship service, we were told that what we had collected that day would at the least be on a hungry person's plate by the next day. That to me is incredible. It makes you feel good how just giving a couple hours of your time can help someone in need.  It also gives you a new appreciation for anyone who has to work in a field for not only 3 hours but more around 12 hours. We all were very thankful that it wasn't too hot that day.

Saturday night for dinner we were all given a card with either a picture of a potato, an apple, or a strawberry.  The strawberries for dinner got to eat in the unit lodge (where there is A/C) and have salad, pasta, potatoes, and rolls. The apples got spaghetti and ate in a circle on benches surrounding a campfire. The potatoes had a cup of rice with beans. I was an apple, lucky me! They had the world percents of who is in each category, however, I can't remember then. Just know that the majority is potatoes. But something beautiful happened.  The people, who were strawberries and got the nice, luxurious meal, came and offered parts of their meal to us who had less. Scott Briggs, our leader, told us that it was his dream that one day not only would the people who were blessed with such a meal, not only would offer us parts of their meal, but they would invite us to come and eat at their table. What a wonderful idea that is. I have hope and so does Scott, that one day that will happen. After our meal when we headed in for worship our leader told us to all gather in one big circle. We did an activity where we went around the circle and each person shared one word that came to mind about our meal. The words varied from blessed, thankful, frustrated, hungry, and a few more. While some of us were still a bit hungry and were throwing fits and talking about how much we would love some bojangles, we still had a blessed meal compared to most. We had a covered roof over our heads. The food was served to us; we didn't have to go get it ourselves. There is still so much we don't realize that we have to be thankful for. 

Our worship leader D (yes, that's his name), talked about compassion a lot. Compassion translated to Greek I believe, means movement in your bowels.  This, I agree, is quite funny to hear. But think about it. If you have compassion for someone, or something, it moves something inside of you. I believe that if you are really that compassionate about something you will act upon that feeling. Scott (our leader), has compassion for those who are hungry. All of us are compassionate about different things. Maybe yours is the hungry, or maybe the sick or whatever it may be, I pray that each one of us will act upon something that we are compassionate about.

RUTH 2 (gleaning passage)
Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz.
 ² And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”
   Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” ³ So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.

A shout out to my youth leader, Doug, thank you for arranging this trip. SPF-12 appreciates you and all you do. Along with Phil, and Nell. We all are blessed to have such wonderful youth leaders here at Forest Park.