We began the day with prayer. 21 volunteers from the young adult community of St. Mark’s Church gathered together in one accord and asked God to bless the services of the day. Following prayer, the team drove down to the kitchen facility in South East Washington, DC. More than 4000 meals were made in just 2 hours! Teams were divided up in assembly line format to cut vegetables for salad and make pasta, turkey, and more. The true blessings came after we prepared the food. A small group of 5 hit the streets to pass out sandwiches to more than 40 homeless people. However, these people were not interested in the earthly food that we carried with us. They were hungry for the Word, the true spiritual food which quenches everyone’s appetitite. Each person we met joined together with us in prayer. We distributed dozens of Bibles and pictures of Jesus with Psalms on the back. The response to these gifts was overwhelming. Many had asked us to pray with them so God can give them hope for a better life. We were amazed by the strong faith that these people had. “We know that there is a life without pain and suffering”, said one man in a wheel chair. They were so thankful for the little things that God gave them. One man was thrilled to receive the Bible as he compared himself to Job. He testified to having seen his father killed by a gang when he was a child. This young man,  also joined a rival gang that murdered his father to seek revenge. He was shot 2 times and lived. He gives God all glory for saving his life physically and spiritually. As we prayed with many groups of people, other spectators on the street were impacted in a positive way as they commented on the boldness we had to come together in prayer with strangers. One man said he had been to Egypt and knew of the Coptic Church. He joined us in prayer as well as he prayed for the Copts suffering in the motherland from persecution. As we said a prayer of thanksgiving for the blessed opportunity to serve the Lord, the man showed us a greeting card made out of papyrus with the words “Thank You” written on the front. We took that as a special message from God and were blown away. Each one of us smiled from ear to ear for hours after we concluded our tour around the block. We plan to go back on a regular basis to visit these people as we feel that we connected with them. We wrote each and every single name down on a prayer list. May God bless the mission in DC.

Filed under: DC Kitchen