It’s simple really: feed the hungry, the homeless, and the forgotten. Matthew 25:35 says, “For I was hungry, and you fed me.” It has always broken my heart to see the people on the street corner holding their “Will work for food” cardboard signs. More times than not, I have given them money. Then I began to think, I could do something more for them. I could do something more practical. I could help feed them. I could be part of the “Give us this day our daily bread” thing. I know many people who say these people may be scam artists, but many of them aren’t. It isn’t for me to know. The main reason my heart breaks for these people is because I know it could be me. It could be any of us. We’re all just a pink slip away from desperation.

This idea of the Brown Bag Ministry came to me in 2001, but it didn’t get legs until last month. Our son, Wesley, is required to do community service as part of his curriculum at his Christian school. I asked him to ask his teacher if it would be alright for him to do a ministry with me. We aren’t “official”, but we could still make a difference. Then I told him regardless of her answer, we were going to do this because “there’s never a wrong time to do the right thing”.

So, we got out our brown bags, bread and sandwich makings and started to work. We packed sandwiches, fruit, chips, cookies and a drink. More importantly, though, was the Bible verse handwritten by this special twelve year old with the biggest heart you’ve ever seen. After the Bible verse he wrote, “You are not forgotten.” I thought that was particularly important because it’s so easy to believe the lie from the enemy that makes us believe God has abandoned us during our darkest hours. So there was food for their body, but more importantly, there was food for their soul with a message of hope and encouragement.

After we had our brown bags packed and ready, we hopped in the car and looked for some people who could use something to eat. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long. The first gentleman that we found caused us to create quite a traffic jam. It was a very busy intersection, but he had something to say, so I put my hazard lights on and let him speak. He was so touched that a child would want to feed him and told Wesley he hopes to live long enough to see him become President of the United States. (Wow!).

The next gentleman we came to clearly had some type of mental disability and was missing most of his top teeth. He was ragged on the outside, but there was a certain twinkle in his eyes, too. The light had just turned red, so we weren’t rushed like we were the first time. Wesley leaned over and gave the man the brown bag lunch and the bottle of water. You would have thought he had just been given the keys to a brand new car. He then excitedly went back to his makeshift chair (a paint bucket) and went through the bag. His eyes just kept getting bigger and his smile kept getting brighter as he saw the contents of the bag. He looked at Wesley and said, “You made this?” Wesley nodded and the man’s smile got even broader. I couldn’t wait for him to discover the Bible verse Wesley had handwritten after we drove away.

The light turned green and we drove on looking for the next person to feed. As I turned my head to ask Wesley a question, I saw that his eyes were filled with tears. He simply said, “Mom, I wish we could have done more.”

Well, we are doing more. We’ve done this several times since that first outing, and now we make sure to bring sack lunches with us any time we venture outside the house. It may not be much now, but we have high hopes for our newborn ministry. So many times people are overwhelmed by the many needs around them, and think they can’t make a difference. So they do nothing. None of us can do everything, but we all can do something. A combined little can add up a lot.