Last Sunday we opened our Harvest café and saw over 90 people join us either in church or on line to have a drink, a pastry, make an autumn wreath, to sing and to pray but most importantly to make a difference.
We were overwhelmed with all the donations of food and toiletries that were brought in both before, on the day itself and even some on the following Monday.
Our next task was to sort and carefully put half of the donations into one huge pile and the rest into another. Only then could we load them into our cars and set off on our first run, to the Leeds North and West Foodbank. Here we were told that as stocks were running short they were ‘very ready’ for harvest festivals. Indeed the following day Martin Lewis the Warehouse and Logistics manager emailed to say “Thanks for the generous donation, the total weight was 257kg! We will distribute the food to the most needy in the community”.
The following day, Tuesday, Zac kindly brought his van up to MBC and we took the other half of your donations to Cragg House Farm at Cookridge, the home of Caring for Life. Here we were greeted by Pam Parkinson and two of her volunteers who helped us unload the van and put all the stuff into a tent ready to be sorted.
Pam was bowled over by all the gifts, and she asked if we would pass on her grateful thanks and told us that she would be praying for Moortown Baptist Church too as we help build God’s kingdom in Leeds together. In fact before we left Zac and I spent some time talking with the CFL team looking at ways in which we might partner more closely with them in the future.
So, thanks again for all your donations as well as the help in receiving them, loading them and taking part, in person or online.
Please keep praying for God to open doors to new opportunities and to renew our vision to see what we can do that is already right in front of us.
I was reminded of this today as it popped up on my phone… I’m not sure who actually said it first but I think it fits pretty well with all that we have been trying to do together this week
“When you have more than you need, build a longer table, not a higher fence”.
Shelley