Milk and Cake

Almost two hundred families had come through to receive services from our community this morning. I say our community because it comes from several different places. Thanks to the Manna House, we are able to provide a variety of different items to our families each week. Thanks to Publix, we are able to give each family bread and bakery items. Thanks to businesses like Halsey Food Service and Big Lots, we have plenty of things they can use in their kitchens: flour, sugar, etc. We have been giving  out peanut butter and macaroni and cheese thanks to Matt Curtis Real Estate and Davidson Technologies. It’s a community effort that we are able to organize each Saturday. 

And, today, we were within minutes of closing our organized effort for the week. Most of us had arrived shortly after 6:00. We were closing in on three hours. And that is when I saw their truck pull up. Two students from our school. Sweet, sweet kids. Sweet, sweet mother. You can’t help but smile when you see them. I always want to offer them everything we have. 

The truck pulls up, the window comes down, and I see mom and her two children, all three smiling at me. It’s been over two weeks. And not just two weeks, but two weeks of chaos, uncertainty, and anxiety for many. Hard to imagine what it feels like to be a kid in this situation. I can’t think of anything that I experienced as a kid that compares. My own sat at the table the other day almost to the point of tears. He just wants to go back to school. And we didn’t even think he liked school.

So when I saw them, it was almost like relief on their faces. Probably mine too. Like, “Thank goodness you are okay. We didn’t know what to think.” I waved. Asked how they were. You know those moments that are small, hardly anything in a typical day, but then at just the right time, they are a real blessing to your spirit? Like...they just keep you going. It was one of those moments. 

And in that moment, I had this thought. Some friends of ours, Rachel and Daniel Evans, had sent us about thirty gallons of milk from Starbucks just a few days ago. Daniel had brought it over and put it in the fridge at our place. I called down to House of the Harvest because we were at Harvest Elementary running a drive through. 

We’ve served 180 families. Surely that milk is gone by now. I get the answer on the other end. “Is any of that milk left?” And the reply from Hal, “Yep. Two gallons.” How about that? They can each have their own. And as I start to tell them to stop down the road and get the milk, one of our volunteers walks over with a sheet cake from Publix that somehow survived the morning rush. She places it in the hands of the little girl riding shotgun. Another smile. I can’t think of much that goes with milk better than cake. Thanks to Starbucks for not wasting their product. Thanks to the Evans’ family for thinking about us.Thanks to that volunteer who noticed that cake at just the right time.  And thanks to God...who orchestrates all things...even down to gallons of milk and cakes. 

An entire week of coordinating enough of food for almost 200 families to come in, be packaged, and be moved down the road. I wish you guys could have seen the emails between our team this week. I don’t know how many hours, how many people, how many phone calls and texts and emails. Two trailer loads full of food that went to our community. Several new faces that we saw this week in light of the tragedy that is going on in the world. And this is what was on my mind, “If it was all so those two kids could have milk and cake today...it was all worth it.” 

My prayer is that the three of them sit down at their kitchen table and have milk and cake...together. And laugh. And smile. And talk about how great life is. They deserve the world. This week it came in the form of milk and cake. It couldn’t have ended up on a better table. 

Thank you, Father. That was beautiful.