Anniversary

Today is hubby and my wedding anniversary. Not just any anniversary either, mind you, but out 25th anniversary! God is good!

What do we have to show for 25 years together? Not many earthly possessions; retirement accounts, vacation homes, new cars, etc. But we have been blessed with CHILDREN! Twelve and one on the way. Many would say we are "poor", but some understand the richness that children are in a marriage. We consider ourselves very rich indeed!

Yesterday our oldest son and daughter-in-law moved away.... up to northern British Columbia, where dear DIL hails from. We knew this day would come. It is bittersweet. We were so blessed to have them living so close for most of their first year of marriage.

This picture is probably one of the last times the whole family will be together for quite a while. You wouldn't believe how the moon, stars and tides had to line up just to get this picture taken (with a timer too)! **WARNING: for those of you with all younger children still, read ahead at your own risk... it is what happens when children become adults and are all going in different directions at the same time... but ignorance is bliss, so if you want to skip to the next paragraph, I don't blame you!** Second oldest son was flying home from being on staff at the YWAM base in San Francisco, CA all summer the day we took this picture. He was supposed to land at 2 pm. He missed his flight. He got home instead about 7 pm. We ate a hurried dinner together and took this picture. You see, this was the ONLY day we could because my husband would be at work the rest of the week, third son was moving out the next day (to an apartment around the corner from us - so nice!) and four days later fourth and fifth sons were leaving for a week at the YWAM Gleanings For The Hungry base in CA. They won't be back till after oldest son is gone. Did that all make sense? I could make a power point presentation of it...would that help?

So, we took the few minutes we were all together and with a borrowed flash unit (thanks Paul!) and some great editing from my sister (thanks Julie!) we have a picture of all of us together.

25 years... wow! We have so much to "show" for it, praise be to God!

What God has been teaching me

I came to Gleanings last week wanting to serve in the work going on here in some way, as well as caring for my five youngest children who cannot help in the work going on here. I knew I would be covering the “home front”, cooking meals, keeping the house and laundry clean, and homeschooling. Since it is peach season, I had hoped to work somehow in the peach processing work. Yet, when I had a chance to do some cup-up in the field one afternoon, the thought that came to mind was how easy ,mentally, the work was. Yes, it was a bit hard physically to do several hours of cup-up(oy, my thighs after all that squatting!), but mentally it was very peaceful. I could think and pray over the peaches. (The children were at the playground playing, mind you) It was so peaceful.

God then said to me, “Yes, this work, that you were thinking was SO important, so much so that you were feeling bad, useless and unhelpful if you were NOT actively participating in some way, is EASIER; the work I have you doing at home, raising, training, disciplining and homeschooling your children, is indeed much HARDER work. BUT, it is work just as important as the work going on here, at Gleanings!”

In this light it would be “easier” for me to put aside the work God has given me at home with my children to “feel better” by serving in this ministry, or any other (Sunday School, VBS, Women’s Bible Study, you name it!). The enemy wants me to feel inadequate, unproductive, ineffective, discouraged and DISCONTENT over what God has given me as my mission field during this season of my life.

I fall for this trap so easily! It hits me where I am weak. It seems to be a reoccurring attack, even years apart, just with a new “face” each time. Still, it is the same basic issue: In what “field” is it that I am to serve God? Where is it that I can truly be most effective for Him and for the Gospel? It has little to nothing to do with my gifts and nothing to do with my own (selfish) desires. God will supply all I need to complete any task He sets before me! It has nothing to do with my perceptions or circumstances: the father of lies works continually to disguise the Truth.

Press on Mothers. You are exactly where God wants you to be. Don't look for greener grass elsewhere or think in your heart that there is any other ministry or service you could be doing for your Lord that is more important than what you are already doing.

Where do all those peaches come from?

Gleanings For The Hungry was founded in 1982 by Wally and Norma Wenge, who after having spent time in Thailand on outreach with YWAM , saw the need for fruit there. They remembered all the fruit that goes to waste in the San Joaquin Valley, and the idea of Gleanings was birthed. Cull (fruit that can't be sold because its too small, has a split pit, or a mark on the skin) peaches and nectarines are donated by fruit packers in the area. The fruit is run through a processing line where it is washed, sorted, pitted, and put on trays. It is then sulfured for 4 hours to preserve the color, sun-dried out in the field, then packed into 4 gallon plastic buckets to send to the world's hungry.

Gleanings for the Hungry is a ministry of Youth With A Mission (YWAM), an interdenominational Christian organization serving in over one hundred nations. Gleanings' mission is to help feed the hungry spiritually and physically.

We process nectarines and peaches sun drying them to preserve the fruit. In addition, we produce a very nutritious dried soup mix by blending vegetables, spices, a soy protein, and packaging it in quart or gallon bags. Other nutritious shelf stable food products are donated by many generous companies which allows us to provide for many more of "the least of these our brothers."

We partner with many Christian ministries to distribute the dried fruit, vegetable soup mix, raisins, power bars, baby food, beans, nutritious drinks, vitamins, and many other food products to the hungry of the world ---- meeting not only their physical needs, but their spiritual needs as well.

The fruit is distributed by missionary organizations or Church groups to make sure it gets to the needy and there is opportunity to evangelize.

A typical summer day at Gleanings

Each day starts with a time of worship music and a devotion at 7:45 am. This years summer theme is the armor of God, with each day going over each piece of armor. One of the staff members dresses in Roman armor and comes out and talks about the piece that is focused on that day. Then, another staff member does a devotion based on that piece of armor. Even though we are going through it a second week, it is still great and there are different speakers from last week. The teams that come in to volunteer each week usually provide the morning worship music. Some groups are not able to do that, so the staff musicians, like our son Josh(who is here as summer staff- his third summer here), will do the worship. And sometimes Josh will just fill in, since most of the groups do not have a bass player.

After worship and devotions the group heads out to the fields to lay out yesterdays processed peaches and cup them up and to pick up the dried fruit that is ready to be taken in to the dry fruit line for final inspection and packing in buckets. There is usually a short break at 10 am and lunch at 12 noon. Then, work starts up again at 1 pm, with a break at 2:30. Work for the day ends around 4 pm, so that there is time for cleaning up the plant (peaches are very messy!) before dinner. Everyone takes turns with cleaning up, from the bathrooms, to the kitchen to the peach plant.

After dinner is usually free time. On Mondays there is a mission night that the staff do. Tuesday nights some of the groups go bowling (we haven't done that). Wednesday are a half day of work and the teams go to a local water slide park (we haven't done that either). Thursday is open. Friday is the Love Feast. Saturday is a half day of work and deep cleaning the plant and time for the teams to clean up their rooms and pack and depart after lunch. Most of the staff do not get any half days, there is always work to do around here. We went swimming during the afternoon yesterday and had guests for dinner.

Below are some pics of hubby, the younger kids and I cupping up Wed. morning. The little ones don't last long, but we are trying to teach them how to keep working and keep trying. After about an hour they are ready to go home and clean house and do some school work. On the mornings we don't do cupping up we play at the playground for a while. First, we clean up any trash and then I have had a small playground project each day while they play. Sometimes it is sweeping up the sand, or raking the wood chips back under the swings and slides or pulling weeds. There is always something that can be done, even if it is a small thing in the grand scheme of what is going on here.

Peaches at Sunset

Peachy keen!

Here are more trays of peaches drying in the hot CA summer sun!Not sure if you can tell, but look how much the peaches shrink during the drying process. Look closely at the pics from the other day, of fresh trays and then click on these for a close up of how little they are after a few days! Wow!

All the trays from that were processed the day before have to be laid out each morning before they start the peach line up again each day.

A little time to play each morning at the playground before we go back to our house to do chores and some school work. And, before it gets too hot to enjoy being outside!

Here we are again - Gleanings For The Hungry: Summer Edition

After spending a week in the Spring here at Gleanings For The Hungry, A YWAM ministry in Sultana, CA, we knew we wanted to come back and spend some time during the summer "peach" season. There isn't much work the younger children can do, so we mostly play at our home away from home and help out when we can.

After Megan got up from her afternoon nap I took the younger kids out to the peach line and then out to the field to do some "cup up".

First, we found two of our big guys at the end of the line, packaging dried peaches.

Then, we watched the beginning of the line, as the peaches came out of the big crates and got a water bath.We couldn't get over to where Daddy was working, so we went out of the peach line area and over to the sulfur tunnels. After the peaches are put onto the trays they go into the sulfur tunnels for 4 hours, to preserve the color of the peaches. You'll notice we have some friends with us. We are a kid magnet at our "house" with the staff kids hanging out with us while their parents work during the day.

Out to the drying "field". We are "cupping up" - which means making sure all the cored and cut peaches are skin side down, making it look like a cup = cup up! That way they dry correctly. Peaches take about a week to dry in the field. It is a very sticky job, but it smells pretty good!

Here are some of my little workers.

Oh, it is starting to get hot out here!

Here is our youngest son standing in front of the area of the field with yesterdays processed peaches put out to dry and where we worked on cupping up.

Over here you see in the background (be sure to click to enlarge this and any other picture) peaches that have been out drying for several days already. Notice how much darker they are now.

That's all for now. We'll check in again later.

Answering your questions about Gleanings

How old do you think a child has to be to make this worth the trip? What did you do with your littlest one while working?

Because we had a baby who still takes 2 long naps a day, I was really unable to do much of what the rest of our group was doing. I helped in the kitchen one day and went to watch everyone work on the trail mix line and take pictures. At first this was a little discouraging to me, but God gave me a great peace that my "season" is still to care for small children/babies and really, I was so thankful to just be able to be there with our whole family at the same time! After chapel I would take baby back to where we were staying and nap her. We would meet up with everyone else at lunch time at the dining hall and about the time everyone was heading back to work, she would be going down for a nap again. I was able to be "home support", keeping the laundry going, cleaning the house we were staying in, washing dishes, etc. One day I kept some of the other families toddlers with me and played with them so their moms could work. I also had times of great worship, singing and ready my bible, which is a rare thing during the middle of the day in my "normal" life. =)

Our three year old was able to work if she was with daddy, helping with packaging raisins, etc. Since daddy also did concrete work a couple of days, she stayed with me and the baby during those times. Our five year old was fine to work with packaging raisins with other adults supervising. Every child is different, so age doesn't always mean anything. I don't think they ever worked more than 2.5 hours at a stretch before there was either the lunch break or a snack break.

Gleanings is a great whole family short term mission experience in the spring, but....

Just to clarify, during the summer Gleanings isn't a "whole family" kind of destination. To run the peach processing plant they prefer 13 y.o.'s and older. This is fast paced and lots of fast moving machinery going on. It is also very hot in the summer time in Sultana. Even so, I do know some families at our church who have taken their whole families, but it was more like mom stayed with the younger kids doing other things while the older kids and dad worked. Because it takes approx. 80 workers to run the peach line and with what housing is available, there isn't a lot of room for families to stay there during the summer. There are dorms with bunks as well as the hotel type rooms that are used during the summer. I think the suggested donation per day is $10 in the summer, per person.

There is different work to do at Gleanings in all the different seasons. Summer is peaches, Fall is usually clean up/repair from the summer (new this fall, starting in Oct., Gleanings will have a Discipleship Training School starting, which is a 3 month basic training for YWAM. You can read more about what a DTS is here ) In the winter is more repair and prepare for the spring and summer months. Whenever there are enough volunteers and donated product the soup mix plant or the trail mix line can run. They get a lot of senior groups who come through during these times of year when the work is relatively easy and the temperatures are mild. During the spring they like to have groups up to 35 people each week (working Monday - Friday usually, but some folks do a day or two as they are on their way from one place to another. There are even motor home hook-ups available!)to run the soup plant and/or trail mix and raisin lines. And, there are always buckets to be washed when the sun is out to dry them!

There are so many ways to help support this ministry. Praying for the staff (all YWAM staff raise their own support - there are no paid positions), product to be donated, shipments to get through customs without corrupt governments interfering, and that the hearts of those receiving this food will also be receptive to the Gospel message that is presented with it. Financial support is always needed and is tax deductible. You can contribute to the ministry as a whole or help support a staff family (there are three families on staff right now that homeschool, which is really cool!). You'd be amazed at how little money makes such a big difference in these "state side" missionaries lives (though it is state side to us, this is foreign land to many on staff: some are from Canada, the Philippines and Switzerland!). Not only does it provide for their physical needs it encourages them spiritually! There is also the quilt making projects. Quilt tops can be put together and sent to Gleanings or you can work on quilts while you are at Gleanings.

You can even do donations online here. And, for all the information about Gleanings, go here. Be sure to check out the monthly newsletters.

Keep the questions coming!

There and back again: a large family tale

Our trip to Gleanings For The Hungry in Sultana, CA was a complete success! All the planning and preparation done ahead of time made it a very pleasant road trip and our time working at Gleanings was awesome!

First, the road trip. Though we aimed to be out the door at 3 am, it was closer to 3:30 am by the time we were backing out the driveway. Which turned out okay, because we were able to do what others consider a 14 hour trip in 12.5 hours. We ate all our meals in the car while Super Daddy Driver drove and used the potty only when we stopped for gasoline.

One thing I learned on this trip was that most gasoline stations only have one toilet per gender. That means trying to get 12 people to the potty takes longer than it takes to gas up our 33 gallon 15 passenger van. We could save some time if we went to a gas station next to a fast food place and used the fast food bathrooms instead, as they usually have at least two toilets per bathroom. In fact on the way home at one gas stop one of my older boys did just that. He took one look at the line for the mens room and quickly turned around and headed to the Wendy's next door. Smart kid.

After our time at Gleanings we went to So. California to visit my sister and her family (You know who you are!). It was just another 4 hours south from Gleanings, but it was too short of a visit! We got there Saturday afternoon and left Monday morning. We drove about half the way home and stayed at a Residence Inn (to house all of us we needed 2 suites - older boys in one, mom, dad and the little girls in the other). I can't say enough good about this hotel chain (and I spent three nights at one in another state last month for a sisters weekend with my three sisters. The staff were very accommodating. Check in is usually 3 pm and check out at noon. Well, we got in early and checked to see if it was possible our room was ready, at 11:15 AM! And, it was! They let us right in! Then, we had late flights out and asked for a 3 pm check out and they didn't bat an eye. No problem! That is the kind of service I love. At the hotel my husband and I go to locally whenever we can get a night or two away, they are total scrooges about a late check out. As if the occupants of one room checking out more than an hour late is really going to make a difference! Sorry, but I really like to get a whole 24 hours out of the price of a hotel room. But, I digress....) The beds were great, the rooms spacious for a large family to move around in, a full kitchen and an incredibly delicious ,with lots and lots of choices, hot breakfast (buffet style, but hot and ready!). The awesome breakfast was a great start to our last day on the road, though it may have delayed us a little (how many helpings can we cram in before leaving? I mean, it's included in the price of the room, so let's get our moneys worth! lol!). We had hoped to be home by dinner time that night, but we got in later than that. Never fear, I had plenty of things to munch on. The kids did fine, just the driver was getting weary.

Gleanings: The whole reason for the road trip was so that our family could spend a week of volunteer service. The spring is the best time to go as a family or bring a group of families as the work is easier and almost all ages can participate. The accommodations are hotel like rooms, and three meals and two snacks are served a day from the dining hall. We "led" a group from our church of 9 adults and 26 children (some were teenagers). I think we made a new record for the most children in a group! We mostly worked on the trail mix line and repackaging raisins. Some of the dads worked on pouring concrete projects. We all took turns working in the kitchen before and after meals too.


We also worked one day in the Soup Plant and several days working on washing donated dirty buckets (they are used in the summer to pack the dried peaches in for shipping - not only is the dried peaches a blessing to the people all over the world who receive them, but the buckets are an additional blessing! These dirty, used buckets were destined for the dump, but have been donated instead and volunteers clean them up all year to have enough for the summer dried fruit crop.)

Some in our group were able to work in the quilting room. Donated fabric, batting and quit tops (specifically made by a church group and sent to Gleanings) came together to finish two quilts. Quilts get sent with containers that go to COLD climate countries.

The playground was a huge hit with our group. Like everything at Gleanings, the equipment was donated and volunteers put it in. Gleanings is an extremely cost effective ministry: the land, equipment, buildings, machines, etc. have all been donated - they have no debt and no loans. Even staying there is a donation: you can pay whatever you feel the Lord leading you to pay, though $5.00 a day per person is a guideline for the springtime stays. (that includes food and lodging)

A few of our children in front of a wall in the dining hall that lists all the different countries around the world that receive food from Gleanings. (click to enlarge)

Our oldest three boys working on cleaning up some pallets of buckets that had one bucket with a bad seal and so during the winter some yucky bugs had a cozy home and food supply. They had to find the bad bucket, and then clean up the buggy yuckiness that was all over the surrounding buckets. Then, the stacked buckets and pallet have to be wrapped in shrink wrap again before they can be placed in shipping containers and go overseas.

Time serving together as a family and with other families as well as getting to know the staff and hearing so many incredible stories of God's provision made for an incredible 6 days! One of my favorite parts of each day was chapel. After breakfast each morning there was an hour of worship, sharing, devotional and praying together of the staff and the volunteers. So many incredible stories of what God has done and is doing through this ministry. Letters were read written by children from foreign lands thanking the people at Gleanings that would send such good wonderful food for them to eat. The stories can break your heart, and then praise our loving God for giving a man a vision to take the leftovers, the surplus of the peach growing area of California and use it to feed people and share the gospel with them.

All together, we:

• Cleaned about 1,300 food buckets.

• Packaged 240 pounds raisins (85 boxes).

• Produced 4,560 bags trail mix (240 boxes).

• Packaged 148,000 servings of soup mix (26 barrels).

• Helped to pour two truckloads of concrete for a slab.

• Moved and stacked pallets.

• Completed work on two quilts.

• Took turns preparing meals in the commercial kitchen and cleaning the dining hall.

It was good to serve the Lord at Gleanings! We give this a 10 out of 10 as an awesome short term family friendly mission trip.

Stay tuned for the next installment: What's next?

Falling off the face of the earth.....

Contrary to popular belief, I really am still alive. lol. It has been a busy time since I last posted. We did go on our trip to Gleanings For The Hungry, which I will write more about later. We had a fantastic time and highly recommend it as a family friendly mission experience during the spring. (summer time requires participants to be 13+ in age, but the spring work is easy enough for 3-4 year olds to help with!) I think our group had the most children of any group they have ever had: 26 kids and 9 adults!

The day after we got back from that trip (and we spent a few extra days on the way home to visit one of my sisters and her family who were only 4 hours away from Gleanings) our oldest sons girlfriend/fiance' came for a 12 day visit. She lives in Canada and this was our first time to meet her in person. She and my son met at Gleanings where she and her parents served for 6 months.

Just a few days after she left I left for 4 days with my sisters. Between the four of us sisters we live in 3 different and far apart states, so we flew to a more central location, stayed in a Residence Inn hotel (very nice!), scrapbooked, watched movies, talked, went out to dinner each night, and had a fabulous time together!

So, now I am home again, with no immediate plans for anymore travel or house guests on the horizon. lol. Trying to get back to routine (what's that?), back to low carb eating (traveling is a sure kill for that!),have surgery on my jaw (again, but not the same as the huge jaw surgery I had a year ago), finishing up the school year, have a few birthdays to plan and celebrate and graduate our third oldest. And that is just the next 5 weeks!LOL!

I really hope to get back here soon and share more about out time at Gleanings and to share some very exciting things God is doing in our lives that directly relates to Gleanings. Pray for us as we seek to know God's will clearly.