food drive totals!

Remember a couple weeks ago I blogged about the food drive my church was doing?

To recap: the past 10 weeks, we've been collecting food and money for Second Harvest Food Bank. We've done a food drive the past 6 years, but this year our pastor gave us a huge challenge: one million pounds of food. And not only that, but one of our missionaries works with Kenyan refugees in a famine-stricken village in Somalia and said it would only cost $10,000 to feed everyone in that village for a year. So our pastor added that to our goal as well.

It was so cool to hear/see what has gone on the past couple months. Kids have been making crafts and selling them door-to-door (a couple kids even did a "board-break-a-thon" with their martial arts clubs), families had garage sales or took money from their Christmas budgets, and my college students and I went downtown to make friendship bracelets and play music to raise money. Everyone wanted to be involved to help those in need.

Last weekend was the final weekend to turn donations in. And yesterday our pastor revealed how much we raised. Here's what he said.

"Did we reach our food drive goal? First, some background: We believe that providing food for the hungry is part of what it means to live like a Christian. 'If you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.' (Isaiah 58:10)

Every year we partner with Second Harvest Food Bank for the food drive. Our first year, our goal was 50,000 pounds of food. This year, our goal was one million pounds of food. This has never been attempted before. And the amazing news is...we exceeded our goal, raising 1,229,961 pounds for the food bank locally, plus enough in cash donations to help feed a village in Somalian with our African church partners for three years!"

Everyone was screaming, cheering, dancing in the aisles. It was so awesome. So much hope and joy was bursting out of that place.

"Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:16)