Live. Love.: Project 23

Greetings Family & Friends!

Most of you know about Project 23. For those that don't, here's a quick run down. God led some incredibly cool people to start Project 23 three years ago at St. John's Lutheran Church in Orange (the church that I attend). The premise of Project 23 is to provide a welcoming place with a hot breakfast and some new articles of clothing to the homeless, shelter families and people just down on their luck.

In 2007, we provided food and clothing to approximately 450 people. This year we had nearly 800 people in attendance. It completely blew me away. I knew that we would have more people than last year -- due to our country's economic state but I had no idea what the morning would bring.

Saturday morning started bright and early -- the devotion started at 6 am and the first folks were welcomed in about 7 am. There were several people in line when I arrived at 5:30 am!

Our guests were greeted with a smile, an awesome breakfast on beautifully set tables. After breakfast they were led into the Gym where we had towels, beanies, knitted scarves, sox,sweatshirts, underwear, blankets, sleeping bags, backpacks and toys. We also had Mrs. Keiser (Ricky & Sarah's Kindergarten teacher) drop by some quilts that she had made. What a blessing that was! It was fun to talk to her --- she remembered Ricky!

God's grace and faithfulness is so amazing. The fact that we were able to serve so many people in need was incredible -- it was kind of like the bible story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish! I kept thinking we were going to run out and of course, we had just enough! God does provide just what we need!

The Project 23 volunteers were able to touch so many lives on Saturday morning by sharing the Joy of Jesus with them - as well as socks and underwear!

This year was truly special for me. . . Ricky & Lauren helped with set up on Friday and Evelyn came Saturday morning. Such a blessing!

Here are a few photos of set up and Saturday am.