mission Archives | Heavenly Homemakers

Who I’m Blessed to Share With

First, I’ll tell you about some of the people that I often share food with so you know who I’m thinking of as I’m making grocery purchases for people beyond my family.

College Students – We feed a large group each Sunday after church for “Sunday Lunch.” I often send leftovers in disposable containers, extra cookies in baggies, slices of quick bread on a paper plate, and fresh fruit for them to have in their dorm rooms.

Disabled Widows – I’ve met several ladies in town who are on a fixed income for one reason or another. If anything out of the ordinary comes up during the month, sometimes their grocery budget takes a hit. They know to call me if they are running low on groceries (though they don’t always like to ask so I try to check in with them regularly). I take them small bags of staples and sometimes a small loaf of homemade bread or other homemade goodies if I have it.

Families – There are several families I check in with from time to time to see if they could use a few extra bags or boxes of groceries. Then I go through my freezers and pantry and see what all I’ve been able to stock up on when it was on sale. I put together a variety of staples and even treats if I have them. Sometimes I call on some friends to help me with this, simply because it’s so great to get others involved in the teamwork of loving people.

Local Mission – We have relationships with the employees at our local Living Water Rescue Mission so I keep in touch with them about their food needs. They feed their residents and anyone who walks through the door three meals each day. Plus they give free food boxes to families who have need. They rely on donations for this, so our family donates when we can. But better yet, we’ve gotten our entire church involved in collecting food when the mission was starting to get really low on supply!

Here’s our Elias standing with our van completely filled with groceries donated by our church members. He helped pick it up and deliver so they took this pic to post on their mission Facebook page.

What I Add to My Grocery Cart to Give Away

What you’ll see below are foods I buy for my family regularly. So I find that it’s easy to buy extra whether we need it or not. This helps with my orgniziation so that I always have food on hand to make simple meals for my family. But it’s also been so nice to have these extras ready to bag up and deliver to others. Here’s what I often “over buy” and share:

Sale items – especially meat mark-downs because this is such a valued gift I can give families.

Canned Fruit

Frozen Veggies

Applesauce Cups

Cereal

Instant Oatmeal Packets

Fresh Fruit – If there are great deals on fruit I’ll buy several bags and hand them out to whoever God puts on my heart.

Pasta

Pasta Sauce

Rice

Granola Bars

Fun Coffee Creamers – Because the college kids who come over love coffee! We make several pots on Sundays and it’s fun to have different creamers for them to use. I just don’t read the ingredient label. ;)

Kleenex

Toilet Paper – This sure did get tricky for a while! But it was great to have some extra to share when some of our friends completely ran out!

What ways has God used you to bless others recently?

Remember several months ago when I told you I had a special service opportunity that we could all participate in together? I’ve been so excited to share this with you – but there has been one delay after another…technical difficulties. Finally, after months of hard work on the part of the One Child Matters Team, I am able to announce a ministry I’d love for you to join me in!

The more I get to know you, whether it is “in real life” or through your emails and comments, the more I feel like we are all on a journey together. A journey toward healthy living, a journey toward raising godly families, a journey toward making our homes heavenly, and ultimately, a journey as we all strive toward our heavenly home. The whole concept gives me chills, that through this blog, we can all be working toward so many positive goals together.

That’s why I’m so excited to share this opportunity with you. Together, we can work to make a difference. The best part of this opportunity is that it isn’t just something you and I can do. It is something our families can be involved in too! (Selfless, servant-hearted focus, here we come!)

There’s been a lot going on behind the scenes here at Heavenly Homemakers, and I can’t tell you how excited I am to finally announce this new ministry opportunity to you!

Actually, the opportunity itself isn’t new. One Child Matters has been around for quite some time. (You may have known them as Mission of Mercy.) What is new is a partnership I’m eager to share with you – a partnership between my family, your family, and One Child Matters.

First, let me tell you a little bit about this ministry.

One Child Matters is an organization based out of Colorado Springs that truly cares about kids on a holistic level. They work to help children in 16 countries in the world, meeting their spiritual, physical, socio-emotional, and mental needs. At this point, they are serving over 40,000 children. What a blessing!

All of these children live in poverty. Many of them are on their own much of the day – even the little ones – as their parents work away from home for hours to put food on the table each night. One Child Matters provides schooling, guidance, nourishment, medical care, and most importantly – they teach these children about Jesus!

If you spend some time at the One Child Matters website, I guarantee you’ll be drawn in and begin to fall in love with these children, just like my family has. Together, we’ve spent time learning about the One Child Matters mission, how they work, what they do, and how much they care. Above all, we’re seeing the faces of the children they care for as more than just pictures. These are kids – just like yours and mine. They have needs – and together, we can help One Child Matters meet these needs!

How can you help?

Well, this isn’t a ministry that you’ll decide to jump into on a whim (unless after these few minutes you already feel called to participate!). This is something that I encourage you to pray about with your family. Study this ministry to see if its something you might feel called to be a part of. How cool to think that we can all be a part of this ministry together – your family and mine!

After prayer and discussion, Matt, the boys, and I have signed up to sponsor a child in Honduras. (I’ll share more details soon. I can’t wait to introduce you to our adorable new “family member!”) Our sponsorship involves a $34 per month donation, as well as a committment to connect with our sponsored child, and most importantly, a pledge to pray for our child.

This is something all six of our family members have chosen to be a part of. The $34 monthly donation? Well, we’ve talked to our kids about the fact that while it may mean we need to give up something we want – doing so will help our sponsored child receive the basic care needed each day. Our kids are on board, and we couldn’t be more excited.

Please consider joining my family in a ministry that will surely be a blessing to all involved! We can make a difference in the lives of children around the world – and in doing so, we will be teaching our families more about being like Jesus. If that’s not a win-win situation, I’m not sure what is.

Please head over to the One Child Matters site and spend time in prayer about joining with us in this ministry. I’ll be sharing more in the upcoming weeks about how we can all work together in this!