Written by Marta Bauer, member of Bethlehem Lutheran Church
Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Vinton, IA partnered with Outreach, Inc. to organize a food packaging event for “God’s work. Our hands.” day of service on September 7. It was amazing to see nearly 300 volunteers from Bethlehem Lutheran and the Vinton community come together to package 26,000 meals. 13,000 meals will stay in Benton County and the remaining 13,000 will be distributed to Tanzania and Liberia.
Originally my biggest fear was that we wouldn’t have enough volunteers, then it turned into “how can I make sure that this is a fun experience for all of the volunteers”. We had several walk ins and we made sure everybody had something to do. It didn’t matter what church people belonged to or if they even belonged to a church at all, we all wanted the same thing–to provide meals for someone who doesn’t know where there next meal will come from. It was a fantastic day; you could feel the Spirit in the room.
Since the event I have received emails from several people who participated: moms glad for an opportunity to show their kids the spirit of giving, teenagers expressing what a fantastic experience it was, others just thankful to be a part of something bigger than themselves.
View media coverage of the event online at:
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