Over the course of service week, the Faith in Action group had really gotten a chance to put their Faith in Action. Matthew 25 was our biggest takeaway, truly grasping the meaning of what we were about to do.  

God opened doors for us to serve at The Lodge, where we ministered to the elderly, by playing Wii, chair volleyball, and created bags of candy for them through an assembly line. We stepped into a different environment later on, taking on food by going to Hands Against Hunger, where we had been bagging ounces of food, enough to feed 26 kids for a whole year. We also dove into action at Tikkun Farm, where we built an alpaca area for coverage, fed the animals, poured old plants into compost, prepared the baby chicks for their relocations, and put mulch down. At New Life, we sorted through linens and toiletry cloths, and at Deerfield, we played brain teasing games, made crafts, and exercised.  

But the most important of them all, was at Matthew 25. We took the verse that God had been pouring into our hearts and literally worked at it. We sorted through diapers to cover wounds, organized shoes and clothes, folded gloves together in all to have more than 3,000 pairs and took a tour to really understand what God has done for them there. God gave us an opportunity to serve the hungry, the thirsty, those that are strangers to us, those in need of clothes, those sick, and even those in prison.  

One thing I believe we didn’t even think could’ve happened was to serve those in prison. Although it sounded impossible, God most definitely worked through our hearts to make it possible. Two workers that ministered those in prison and jail time brought us cards of people to pray for and to think of what to pray for them. I personally had a Jesus moment when I received Hannah J’s card. I asked Jesus what he needed me to pray for, and her comfort is what I heard Jesus calling me to pray over her. I could feel the Holy Spirit letting me know my dear sister in Christ needed Jesus and needed the hedge of protection she FELT that she was left without. As many others did, those in prison had certainly been loved.  

This, although it wasn’t maybe what our group had in mind, we knew, it was for Jesus. For the King replied, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Going out and just talking about Jesus to the least of these wasn’t what Jesus was trying to get us to do. Jesus had wanted us to fill their cup of his love. And that is what I believe Faith in Action truly did that week.