This past week I learned what the Bible verse, The joy of the Lord is my strength, really meant. We spent this past week volunteering at Gleanings for the Hungry. It is a christian organization that runs on donations and prayer. The farmers around the area donate the food that can’t be sold in stores and they package and send it to missionaries in third world countries to hand out. In the summer they dry peaches, and in the winter it’s soup. It was great fun, and I would totally return!!!
This is how our days went… Every morning we would wake up at 6:00, get ready for the day and head down to the dining hall for breakfast at 7:00. (The food was AMAZING!!!) Then at 8:00 was worship. We would sing, then someone would share, and then we’d pray! After that, around 9:00, was snack, then we would head down to the factory to begin work. At 12:00 was lunch, and at 1:00 it was back to work. 3:00 was break, and at 3:30 it was back to work. Supper was at 5:30, and our work day was finished.
We all worked at different things, but this was the first step; scooping the garlic soup mix into bags.
Then the people in step number two would scoop the soup mix into the garlic bags.
The bags would now get sent on to the sealers. Who would squish the air out and then seal them.
The sealed bags would then get sent to the packager. I would place them in the box, which would then get sent to someone, and they would tape it closed and place it on a pallet! Later on in the week we switched to barrels, as the boxes were a special order for Greece!)
This is an overall picture of everyone flying along!!!
And finally… praying over the truck that left on Thursday morning for Haiti!
From Monday morning to Thursday afternoon we worked super duper hard, and packaged over ONE MILLION servings of soup!!! It was so exciting and very satisfying to reach past our goal, and also beat the previous days records!!!!!
And the best part of my week; basketball!!! Every break; breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, supper, and at night, we would play basketball. Sometimes we would play with small teams, and other times we would play Bump or Horse!!! It was SO much fun, and by the end of the day, you were absolutely exhausted. At least… I was!?
And finally to top it all off, Thursday night it rained!!! (It hadn’t rained at Gleanings for 175 days.) So the little kids and I went and jumped in the puddles!!! I must say, I think us kids had the most fun that night…?
It was a great week, and I had so much fun. I was exhausted, but as I said in my opening paragraph, The joy of the Lord is my strength! There was no way I would’ve made it through the week without his strength… I had none left.? I fell into bed exhausted and woke refreshed, somehow, every morning. As I said, I had an AMAZING time!!!
What an amazing experience! I am loving reading your blog, miss you all though!
Yes, it was an amazing time!!! Thanks, and we really enjoyed our time in Seattle with you!
I love to read your blogs, very interesting. What an experience!!
Thank you! It was definitely one of my favorite weeks on this trip!!!
Wow, what a variety of new experiences you are having. Sounds like a great week! Where exactly was this – somewhere in California?? Love from Auntie Biz
Yes, Gleanings is in CA, Dinuba was the town. It was around 45 minutes from Fresno.
We had fun with you at gleanings. I love the pictures that you posted. Miss you.
We all had a blast with you guys as well!!! Thanks and we miss you guys, too!
Hi Raquenna , as usual , we found this a fascinating blog. We never knew this existed! You explained it all so well. It’s a great work & glad you all helped so willingly! Love Grandad & Grandma SG