CRM - Empowering Leaders
WHAT TO DO WITH CANNED GOODS
Ministry Division: InnerCHANGE
Location: Los Angeles, USA
Staff Members: John & Birgit Shorack
Shortly after moving into the inner city of Los Angeles in 1987, we began taking some of the young kids from our building to a Saturday morning program offered at one of the historic churches in our area.
Months later, when the Christmas season rolled around, we got a call from the church. They wanted to give us some canned goods so that we could distribute them to needy families we might know.
Our team sat around that evening discussing the matter. What were neighborly relationships. There was a clear consensus among us that this kind of giving felt somehow inappropriate for the kind of relationships that we were developing with people.
On the other hand, we didn’t feel right about turning down the generous donation from our well-meaning Christian friends. We got an idea.
We accepted the donation of canned goods, but respectfully shelved them until Valentine’s Day in February. Then we recruited some of the little kids we had befriended to cook a meal with the food. Our little apartment was converted into "Restaurant Cambria" for a day. The children invited their parents to the dining event.
The canned goods had reached the people they were intended for. The children were proud of their accomplishment. The event was theirs. And a budding sense of community was in the air.
CannedGoods.pdf
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