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| Before and During of Our Kalihi Feeding |
As of the end of July I have officially graduated from the Leadership School here at Surfing the Nations. Along with countless papers, books and teachings I also completed a 3 month apprenticeship with our Feeding The Hungry Department where I was trained as a distribution manager for our Kalihi feeding. In Kalihi we handout upwards of 600 food boxes every Thursday. Since my graduation I have been given the Department Head position. My responsibilities include the Kalihi feeding every week, our Wahiawa feeding twice a month, and a smaller feeding on the West Side of the island once a week. In total, me and a small staff oversee the feeding of over 2,500 people a month, the largest food distribution in the state of Hawaii. It is an incredible blessing and a huge challenge. On paper it sounds nothing short of epic. Getting to bless so many people weekly. But there is a mentality among those in poverty that they are owed something because of their state as well as the feeling that they need to fight to get what they need. It is an experience that needs to be seen. Often times it feels like trying to tame an angry mob. I have never been so stretched in love and grace in all my life. I have never truly understood a desperate need for the Holy Spirit. And I am finding out even more what it means to die to yourself. We have come to find that if the Lord does not fill me before these feedings, then people are going to go away hungry. We spend an hour every Monday, as well as many other empty mornings, begging the Lord to fill us up and to take us deeper, to turn the cheek to screaming, insults, ungratefulness, stealing, complaining, and to choose love in the face of such things takes a power that I cannot muster on my own. No amount of chee, or positive thinking, or herbal remedies are going to get you through a day like that. Buddha won't do it, and Oprah wouldn't stand a chance (trust me we give away stuff too). And the Lord is faithful to give us what we need to continue on and go deeper in understanding. So every week I get the opportunity to watch the Holy Spirit work through me and my staff as we choose to get out of the way. And as we do so, we get to see lives changed. I used to imagine it like a Benny Hinn conference where crowds are falling over and shaking, but what we've found is that through one-on-one relationships, getting to know someone's name and story and loving them for who they are, lives are being changed. One at a time. We've made friends with a man that believes the Government is out to bring him down, a guy who can shake and cry with rage when he is set off, and a woman that used to physically abuse me with hitting and pinching. These are only a few of the lives that are being radically changed by a radical God with a radical, out of this world love. A love that overlooks even the most serious of offenses. Oh how deep the Father's love for us. A love like this puts everything into perspective. I am humbled by the grace and mercy shown to me, that he would use someone like me to extend it freely to others. Continue to pray for us as we interact with so many every week. That we would choose love over hate and anger, that we would be filled when we are empty, and that we would stay faithful in the small things like learning names and listening to stories. God is at work in Hawaii.
Aloha,
Jeremy
