Growing up, money was very tight in our house. Extremely tight.
I remember trips to the food bank. I remember being hungry and not having food in the fridge. I remember generosity from relatives. While kids in school worried about parties and cute boys, I worried about money and food. Would we be able to pay the rent? Would we have to move again? I could tell they did not know the weight I carried.
Poverty feels heavy. It also made me feel like an outsider in society.
Eight years ago I was asked to help with hampers for The Christmas Project with Relate Community Care. At the time, I was taking the Faithworks course and our class was commissioned to take on the hamper project. Then I was elected to lead the project. When I saw the list of schools we would be helping, I realized I had attended some of those very schools as a child. As I stared at the list, all the feelings of growing up poor flooded back.
Isn’t it amazing how God redeems us?
I can relate to these kids. It was rough for me growing up, but some of these kids now have it way harder than I could have ever imagined. My heart breaks for them.
Recently Relate Church was contacted by the Surrey School Board to help put together a Weekend Emergency Food Program. This is for families that do not have any food on the weekends. Some children rely on the food programs that run at school during the week to eat at all. We learned that many of them don’t eat again until school opens up for the breakfast program on Monday morning.
They don't eat all weekend.
My own kids have not known hunger. They can barely survive two hours before rummage through the pantry, looking for a snack. I can’t even imagine them not eating for two days. How would they even have the capacity to sit and learn in school?
We delivered our first hampers last week. As people heard about what we were doing, generosity bloomed. We had donations of granola bars and freshly baked goods to add.
The Principal and Vice-Principal of the school thanked our representatives numerous times and were amazed by the generosity of our church.
We all get to be a part of this. I know I could not have done this without YOU. I thank God for planting me here, and giving me this mission field. I am thankful for a church that opened its heart to be broken by people in the margins. We are making a difference.
This is church. This is sharing Jesus with the world.
DANIELA SCHWARTZ
Daniela serves in many creative and hands-on ways with Relate Community Care. She's a businessperson, writer and homeschooling mom. She and her husband Ryan have two awesome boys.
