Amazing as always…

As always, I try to have a very realist view when it comes to things.  I knew we were going to have a hard time reaching our goal of 5000 canned goods this year, but as always our youth came through.  That’s right, we couldn’t have a hard sale this year because of space issues but that didn’t stop our youth.  Nope, they powered through and by going out into our local community and asking for help, we were able to far exceed 5000 canned goods.  I haven’t been able to get a final count, but we had over 7000 canned goods. 

It is so amazing.  I think the best part was the fact that we spent almost 3 and a half hours sorting food on Friday night.  We had 4405 canned items in hand in the church before we even went shopping.  We only had to buy 595 to reach 5000.  That only took about $300.00 out of the $1700.00 we had to spend at Food Lion.  So we were then able to buy almost 2000 more canned goods with the rest of our money.  W also were able to buy some bigger items like detergent and dish soap. 

Of the 7000 items we got, we were able to provide the backpack buddies program with over 2000 items.  We got juice boxes, snacks, pretzels, and other items to help with that ministry.  It was a lot of fun making sure they got what they needed on top of what we took to North Raleigh Ministries.

Our youth worked so hard on Friday night organizing all the food.  When we got to North Raleigh ministries they worked equally hard to help organize it and put it on the shelves.   The whole time they were doing this they were going without food.  It was an amazing site to watch.  I am always so proud of them because I don’t know if I could of done that as a youth.  I don’t know that I would have been able to go so long without food and work so hard on top of that. 

I am so thankful for my youth, my mentors, and the support of our congregation.  We could never provide the program we provide without them.  We are so blessed by the people and support of our church.  We truly are reaching out into our community and providing for those around us!  I am so very proud of them!  I can’t wait to see what we do next year but in the meanwhile, I think I have seen enough canned food items to get me through the school year! 

Awesome job St. Mark’s Youth!