About half of my job is working with our Isaiah 55 food ministry.
This past Tuesday we had a meeting of partner churches of St. Matthew's Lutheran Church's food ministry program of which we are a partner. Every Monday, I pick up food from them for our Wednesday lunch or 2nd Sunday lunch as well as whatever else they feel called to give us that we can use. They have such a great system in place that serves so many, and meeting with them as well as other churches allowed me a closer look at how their ministry works and what improvements can be made, even for them. It was also interesting being the only person in the room under the age of 30ish not including Vicar Ben. I hope it was cool for the partners to see and hear from me as an outspoken young adult.
Side note: I met a few people from Unity Lutheran where I interviewed for an internship position that I chose not to take but is similar to what I'm doing with LVC. That was really cool to make that connection and hear that they found someone to intern with them.
Our food ministry program is called Isaiah 55 for a very good reason; we're not only feeding those who come through lunch and the food pantry, we also have a bible study in between those two components that feeds all those present in a spiritual way. It's neat to see that we have a core group of people come every week for lunch and bible study, even though they get to shop only once a month. I also love hearing the perspectives of people from so many faith and denominational traditions and walks of life. There's always a few people who always have something to say, some nugget of wisdom to share.
Isaiah 55 (The Message--the translation we most frequently use at All Peoples)
1-5 “Hey there! All who are thirsty,
come
to the water!
Are you penniless?
Come
anyway—buy and eat!
Come, buy your
drinks, buy wine and milk.
Buy
without money—everything’s free!
Why do you spend
your money on junk food,
your
hard-earned cash on cotton candy?
Listen to me,
listen well: Eat only the best,
fill
yourself with only the finest.
Pay attention, come
close now,
listen
carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words.
I’m making a
lasting covenant commitment with you,
the
same that I made with David: sure, solid, enduring love.
I set him up as a
witness to the nations,
made
him a prince and leader of the nations,
And now I’m doing
it to you:
You’ll
summon nations you’ve never heard of,
and nations who’ve
never heard of you
will
come running to you
Because of me,
your God,
because
The Holy of Israel has honored you.”
6-7 Seek God while
he’s here to be found,
pray
to him while he’s close at hand.
Let the wicked
abandon their way of life
and
the evil their way of thinking.
Let them come back
to God, who is merciful,
come
back to our God, who is lavish with forgiveness.
8-11 “I don’t think the way you think.
The
way you work isn’t the way I work.”
God’s Decree.
“For as the sky
soars high above earth,
so
the way I work surpasses the way you work,
and
the way I think is beyond the way you think.
Just as rain and
snow descend from the skies
and
don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth,
Doing their work of
making things grow and blossom,
producing
seed for farmers and food for the hungry,
So will the words
that come out of my mouth
not
come back empty-handed.
They’ll do the work
I sent them to do,
they’ll
complete the assignment I gave them.
12-13 “So you’ll go out in joy,
you’ll
be led into a whole and complete life.
The mountains and
hills will lead the parade,
bursting
with song.
All the trees of
the forest will join the procession,
exuberant
with applause.
No more thistles, but
giant sequoias,
no
more thornbushes, but stately pines—
Monuments to me,
to God,
living
and lasting evidence of God.”
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