NorthStar at it's best!!

Below is a note from Kelley Maddox, who is serving with Marlon in our community ministry, and their experience from yesterday!! What I love is a church that does not do something once a year but rather it is something that happens all of the time!! I love this church!!!

Hello MUST Summer Lunch Volunteer,

Words cannot express the gratitude I feel towards all of you(71 families were involved in making this happen)!! You all are amazing, our church is amazing, our GOD is amazing. Here is a recap of what our last 2 days were like:

On Tuesday evening, all the brownies, applesauce, and juice boxes were dropped off. Over 30 people stayed to help pack the 1200 lunches needed for the next day. I could not find my camera memory card before I came-I have no pictures!! Our volunteers just came in and started working. Some were packing bags, some were supplying tables with food, some were emptying trash as the garbage bags filled up, and some were counting and putting lunches in boxes. ALL were having a great time!!! It took us less than an hour to pack the 1200 bags!!!! Oh yeah-we had extras that we sent to the MUST centers for the next day's lunch!!!

Wednesday morning, I was at my house receiving sandwich(278) and Ludell, Eddie, Paul, and Judy were at the church receiving sandwiches(1000+) as well. I was afraid that people would not want to be at the church at 7AM to drop off sandwiches. But none of you felt inconvenienced!! Many of you were dropping off you sandwiches on the way to work. Also, you all followed the directions for sandwiches perfectly!! Again, we had all 1200 sandwiches with extras to leave for the next day!! I love it!! Do you know what 1200 lunches look like?? Imagine a 15 passenger van with 2 seats removed full of boxes with lunches, a full sized truck bed full of boxes with lunches, a 4 door jeep with the back seat down full of boxes with lunches, and a jeep Cherokee full of boxes with lunches!!

At both of the distribution centers(the Walker School and Cumberland Community Church) for the lunches, we had checker/packers there to double check all of the sandwiches and the items in the bags, load bags in crates, and then load vans and cars for delivery. One of the coordinators at the Walker school said you all were the quickest and best help she has had so far!! We could not have sent a more passionate group of people to help get the job done!!
(Again-no pictures-I'm a dufus!!)

Kellie, Diane, and I headed down to Cumberland Community Church to deliver lunches. Ray and Joann were there with their grandkids ready to deliver as well. Deanna was riding the Marietta route with Carol, the lady who started this whole thing. I DO have pictures of this!!! Yeah! I have added them to our website- www.northstarinthecommunity.com. You have to check them out!! The MUST people gave us a map with directions to neighborhoods/apartment complexes they have identified as low income. We put a MUST magnet on our car and drove through these areas beeping our horn and stopped at a designated location. All the kids would come running out of their houses, many with a baby brother or sister on their hip!!! Unfortunately, we did not see many parents!! Now I know why MUST requires a background check for deliverers!!

Our favorite stop was at a lady named Ms. B's house. She was once a teacher and is like the neighborhood grandmother. Many of the kids are left at home alone during the day in her neighborhood. She saw that they were bored and did something about it!! She has games, balls, hula hoops, etc. that they are allowed to check out and have to return to her once they are finished playing with them. She got them on the MUST route so that they could have lunch during the week. She has a Sunday school classroom set up in her living room(she lives in a small townhouse type dwelling) She teaches them about God and encourages them to do their best. For Father's Day, she is helping them to make cards to God-our Heavenly Father. This is because most of these children do not have a dad in the home. One thing I have learned working with Marlon is that you can be working to meet a need and about 50 more will pop up while you are there!! We are going to try to help Ms. B out!! You will hear more about it later. When you look at the pictures, Ms. B is the shorter of the 2 ladies.

I hope it is ok to say that I am PROUD of my church for stepping up and helping!! Like Marlon said, it is hard to believe people are in need just a few minutes away from NorthStar. I saw it with my own eyes. I think most of the need is because these kids do not have parents that are at home with them while they are out of school and they just leave them to make it any way they can. Yesterday, we were able to make these kids feel like some one cared!!
No matter what part you participated in(some of you recruited neighbors and friends to help!), you were necessary to make it all happen!!!

Thanks to all of you!! We have another lunch scheduled for July 9th. If you want to do the same thing for this lunch, shoot me an email and I will get you signed up. Some of you have already done it!!!

Serving Him with you,
Kelley

PS-Don't forget to check out the pictures-www.northstarinthecommunity.com