The stories of people that have touched Matthew 25 Outreach Center.
And they have no intention of stopping. They love impacting their community in both temporal and eternal ways.
After going on a mission trip, Julie was haunted by the people in need she encountered. She wanted to do something to help, but living hundreds of miles away made it difficult…
I thought about how miserable I was.
No electricity. No AC. No internet.
My mom had to dump everything that was in the fridge and most of the stuff in our kitchen freezer.
I was hot and grumpy. Nothing was good enough…
In today's society, selflessness is a word that seems to have been misplaced… but not in the world of Ellie Harlan. Ellie is a senior at Ashland High School who seems to embrace the true meaning of selflessness…
Several years ago, “These are my People” was a popular country song by Rodney Adkins. After today’s touching interactions, this song kept coming back to my mind…
You guys make it easier by your process and friendly nature. While it's still hard to do (darn my sinful pride) it's not painful with your organization.
This particular Moses was not called to lead people out of Egypt, but he was being called to step out of his comfort zone and help feed the hungry in Mansfield...
As I talked with the client, I noticed that the person who lived in the house on the corner where I parked had cautiously peeked out and looked at my trailer loaded with fresh produce.
She then ducked back inside. I wrapped up getting fresh food to our client and headed back across the street to my truck. It was then that I felt the nudge...
Why in the world would a produce distribution take fifteen hours?! Why would that make me want more?!
The boy eased his way into a conversation with me and our new friendship was kindled. The discussion flowed easily and he decided to hang out with us for more than an hour. During this time, he asked many questions as he watched me pack baskets with food...
As you may also recall, I rather boldly stepped right over the board and knocked on the door. While we didn’t give away any produce, we had made a safe connection with a community member, and at the very least, opened the door to a possible future relationship.
But, as God shows us time and again, that is not what our produce distributions are about. Our produce distributions are about three things: relationships, relationships, and, you guessed it, relationships. Today was no different...
the building manager reached out to Matthew 25 Outreach Center with a phone call when she heard we were doing a special produce distribution as part of the Minority Health Fair in Mansfield.
Originally, we had planned to NOT do deliveries for this event because we knew the quantity of produce we were scheduled to receive was much lower than a typical distribution, and this was a special event that we wanted to be present on-site for the entire time. However, when the need for food calls, we answer...
He stole a quick glance into the back of the truck as we were walking back near it. We seized the moment and offered him food from what produce we had left in the truck...
I informed her that the other truck and home delivery team had just departed and I was in need of help – She eagerly stated that she wanted to go with me this morning. I informed her we would be going to our normal delivery stops, but she quickly interrupted. The exchange went like this...
Today, Walter rode more than a couple miles on this rusty old bike of his in order to get fresh produce. It was 15 degrees outside, and the wind-chill was pretty steady around 0 degrees...
and contemplated if we should postpone the food distribution until the following Saturday, when the weather forecast was to be much warmer.
Then the phone rang...
She had carved out time to come help, and even offered her truck for doing home deliveries. Gail is a good friend, and I was looking forward to having the chance to show her why we liked doing what we do when we deliver produce door to door...
We knew they had need, and that there was a very large family living in the home. When we rang the doorbell, we were greeted with familiarity. However, there was a tone of sadness. The young girl informed us that her step-dad had just learned of his brother’s death that morning...
However, we had to convince the people in the community that we were trustworthy and would be here to stay. Across the board, we were initially greeted with great caution. More accurately, suspicion.
