The Long Awaited Day

I am so blessed in my job to be a part of the culmination of months or years of planning. People somehow get involved with hosting events, whether they volunteered at someone else's event and decided to have their own, or maybe they got on board with someone else to plan, sometimes not even knowing what an event is or how it is run. Sometimes people plan for years, advocating for the cause, trying to fundraise, searching for volunteers...it can be a big process. It is definitely a process that requires faith. It also requires a lot of delegation and trusting in the staff that will come to lead the event.

Today I met two couples who had been pivotal in bringing our organization to the church. I really liked what they had to say. They know that sending food overseas isn't the most sustainable option, nor the best way to do development. Their long term vision is on sustainable options, working with communities, helping them to find longterm solutions that meet their needs. However, these two couples also recognize the importance of increasing the awareness of global issues among people in the United States and getting people here on board with global solutions. While we should not infiltrate other countries and force American solutions on them, it is important to develop relationships, learn from each other, and live our daily lives aware of our own strengths and weaknesses and aware of things that are going on globally, things like starvation, denial of basic human rights, unjust deprivations, etc.

These two couples, with all these things in mind, came humbly to our event today. One couple had moved away and had eagerly made the long trip back to the church to see the event through to completion. The wife told me with tears in her eyes that she just loves being at these events, loves seeing how people come together and work as a community to serve God, loves the atmosphere at these events. I love these things as well. She told me that she has been trying to serve God and his people for years, but she has come to realize something: as much as she tries to bless others, she always finds herself more blessed. She just can't outdo God's blessings. I love that, because I have seen it to be true in my own life. When I am serving myself, I begin to feel empty and meaningless, but as I seek to serve God and his people, I always find myself to be the one who walks away blessed. God has a way of multiplying blessings, multiplying love, blessing those on both ends of the acts...

I hope these two couples who put so much work into this event walk away from it blessed, because I was blessed to work alongside them today.