104,000 meals......

were packed today to go to food insecure homes in Tallahassee by everyday, people...to help their neighbors.  It was my privilege today to participate in Hope 2 the Hungry.  We were 4 of 500 people that gathered today in two sessions to pack meals partnering with Second Harvest Food Bank to pack healthy meals to kids that live in food insecure homes.  I didn't know what to expect but it was truly awesome...it took $50 per person and a little less than 2 hours of our time today.  We set up at tables in assembly lines, people of all ages, all denominations, all races, all different and just chatted, helped, danced, and worked together to pack meals.  Our table (about 12 people) started out with Mac n cheese and when we finished that moved on to a rice, vegetable, and bean soup.  We had to bag the dried ingredients using funnels and scoops, weigh it, make sure it was not too much or to little, seal the bags with a machine and then stack and box.  Everytime we filled a box, we all screamed!  It was fun to hear screams all over the room when a group would fill a box.....they played loud, fun music and we all danced and sang as we worked to "Ain't no mountain high enough, ain't no valley low enough, to keep me from getting to you...."  Godby football players carried around refills of the ingredients in big bins and kept everyone well supplied. I heard tonight that there were a total of 104,000 meals packed today alone!  The greatest thing about the whole event was that we were paying and DOING!  We got to get our hands "dirty", spend time together, the kids LOVED IT!!!!, we got to do it as a family (minus molly but she can go next time), the adults in our group were super patient and helpful with the kids and let them do ALL the jobs and take turns....it was just a very pleasant, uplifting, team building effort and we would do it again in a heartbeat!  Scott, the visionary, would love to do this every other month or 4 times a year....Sometimes when I think about mission projects and such...I find myself thinking, well all I did was help buy the food and then spend time preparing it..I didn't actually put it in the hands of a hungry person...but sometimes it is also about what God is doing in us as well...how  He uses it to grow me maybe to become more generous, patient, etc. We truly enjoyed every minute of it!