Dear Friends,

Your generosity keeps Golden Harvest from having to say “No!” when our partner agencies and churches turn in orders for food. Your generosity keeps food on the table for so many families in need each and every day.

In short, your generosity is a proof to me that, yes, God is still on the throne and is definitely inspiring people all over our community to join together to minister his love to the hurting. And speaking of inspiration, I was truly inspired the other day when I went out to Stevens Creek Elementary School. The lunchroom supervisor there, Mrs. McDonald, had helped organize a fund drive for world hunger and once her goal was met, she kept collecting for local hunger relief. She raised $552 for the Food Bank! I asked her how she motivated the kids throughout the Columbia County School System to get so involved. She said, “You have to reach to the stars before you can make it past the roof!”

It just takes each of us, “reaching to the stars” and doing more than we or others think possible, to make a significant change for the better in the lives of others.

God bless you, and again, thanks for the inspiration!

Yet in spite of this innate knowledge, it is becoming more and more acceptable to “pig out,” load up at a buffet, take much more than we could possibly eat. Our culture today teaches us to deny the curb on our appetites built into each of us by God and even celebrate our excess!

Supporting the mission of Golden Harvest to end hunger in our region can really be “counter-cultural,” especially if we sincerely live by the virtue of moderation so that we might be able to bless others with our extra food and funds, rather than ourselves. Your support is a blessing to those in need of food assistance, AND you are stretching to reach the “high bar.” It is TRULY more blessed to give than to receive.

So may God, who has provided enough on this earth for everyone’s needs, indeed bless you abundantly for your generosity.

This week has been unusual is one respect in that I’ve been challenged to solve two riddles! I’m no good at riddles, but I have to admit they’re fun because it’s always a surprise to see the answer, and who in the group is able to figure it out first. Here’s the first one (attributed to Paul Harvey): “What is greater than God, more evil than the Devil, the poor have plenty of it, the rich need it, and if you eat it you will die?”

The second riddle is an exercise of logic: discover which of three light switches mounted on the wall of one room controls the ceiling light in another room; the door to the room is closed and the door fits so tightly that no light from inside is visible from the outside and you may enter the room only once.

Children are more quick to solve the first riddle than adults! And yes, the second riddle is solvable! For the answers email me at: mfirmin@goldenharvest.org 

Riddles are riddles because they seem to present a quandary, contradictory sets of data that don’t admit of solutions. Sometimes they’re no longer fun, and the longer you think the more upset you can get, especially if others are solving it ahead of you. But riddles are a game, and not to be taken too seriously.

Golden Harvest, however, deals with the very serious “riddle,” if you will, of hunger. Most people don’t understand it because they don’t have all the data; it doesn’t admit of easy solutions. Some families can get upset watching others that seem to have all the breaks and regain self-sufficiency, while they can’t ever gather a necessary critical mass of assets to help get them out of poverty. Your donations help thousands of pounds of grocery products leave our warehouses every day to come to aid of those temporarily in need and those who seem to be stuck in more systemic poverty.

Why not help us provide food assistance all across this region so we can stop, if only for a moment, the real riddle that persists for so many families: “where is the next meal to come from?”

God bless you.

Even though the future was really never “secure,” most of us have lived as though it was. In other words, our assumptions were that tomorrow and next week and next year would offer the same general panorama of opportunities to enjoy life and prosper as today offers. It was very difficult for most of us to identify with the fear and uncertainty that the poor have to live with every day, even for the basics of life, like having enough food to eat. In spite of the “disconnect” with the reality of the lives of many of our needy neighbors, though, we still decided to be generous with our financial support of Golden Harvest, and trusted that its connection with those in need was genuinely helpful and efficient.

Thank you again for that trust. Each day seems to be more challenging than the one before for us to make enough food available for the growing numbers (9,000 more family visits to food pantries this year over last year so far). Again, I can’t say “thank you” enough.

But now, with gas and food prices rising daily, our assumptions about the future are not quite as comfortable. I think more and more of us, if we give it some thought, can “make the connection” a lot more easily with the poor to whom we give help. The times require us to reaffirm our solidarity and community, and help each other stay hopeful and at peace. The Old Testament and the New Testament of the Bible teach us that we are indeed “our brother’s keeper.”

May God keep you and your family in His peace!