Written by: Jeff Wright
It was early on a beautiful autumn Saturday morning as we were joined by a team of young adults from Columbus to help with today’s produce distribution. We had just finished loading my truck to begin doing home deliveries and I was joined by one of these young adults to ride-along.
His name was Moses...
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. Moses had never served at a food distribution before so he was a bit nervous and uncomfortable. He questioned ... what should I say? ... What should I do?
We discussed the typical activities for the home deliveries - advising Moses to simply follow his heart. It didn’t take long and Moses quickly settled into our ministry activity for the day. His nervousness quickly faded and he enthusiastically followed his heart, going door-to-door introducing himself, offering food to the hungry, and building relationships with the people he encountered.
As we reached the end of the half-mile long street, with the truck nearly empty, we were planning to move along to the next street. But God had other plans for us! We met two young girls walking in the opposite direction to visit their grandmother. The girls informed us that grandma could use some food and asked us to turn around ... going back toward the homes where we had just delivered.
This was a God moment, so you don’t ask questions like "Why?" or make statements like "We’ve already been there and delivered to those that answered our knock on their door."
God was leading us ... We followed the girls to grandma’s house and provided her with some fresh produce and fruit. As we left, we spotted another family peering out the window across the street - we had visited this home earlier but no one answered the door - after all, we were strangers standing on their doorstep early on a Saturday morning - we decided to give it another try.
As we walked up the long hill, the door slowly opened and this time we were greeted openly - after a brief conversation we learned the family consisted of 14 people and they needed food! God lead us again and we were his delivery boys!
When we wrapped up this delivery we noticed a man and woman leaving a house and getting in a car. We approached the car to speak with the couple, and after a short conversation we learned they had just vacated their home - evicted! They had packed all their remaining belongings and stuffed them inside the car. God had called us to give some food and much-needed hope to this emotionally distraught couple, as they both broke into tears and welcomed this food as a gift from God.
Moses was much like the Moses of thousands of years ago as he was being led by God, and he faithfully followed God’s instructions.