By Lisa Muir
5 years ago this weekend , H.O.P.E. Ministries of Delmarva came to physical life. But God had a plan long before this actually came to fruition. He knew what the people of this community and county needed. Even when we didn’t know how or where , God knew. And so , God broke down every obstacle we had to making it happen and supplied every need it would take . This was God’s plan. We and every volunteer and contributor of time and monetary and food donation , were the hands and feet.
Since that initial weekend , we have served approximately 72,500 meals. Since Covid happened , we have had to adjust how we do things. We don’t get to be in close fellowship with our guests and we miss it tremendously. But we pray that soon....very soon , that changes.
What we have seen so much more of since Covid has happened , though, is that the need hasn’t changed. It has intensified. A couple of weekends ago we had served all who had come to get carryouts , it was time to close and so we locked up . Wayne had put away all the food and decided to mop the floor . We don’t have guests come inside the building since the pandemic , we just serve them from the street and so there wasn’t a big need to mop the floors. But Wayne decided to just go ahead and do it anyway because they could probably use them touched up. Well he was mopping when he noticed a man standing on the street outside our door. Wayne asked if he could help him and he only said two words .....“ I’m hungry “. Wayne told him to hang on and he proceeded to go pull the food back out and get him some food and take it back out to him. As he walked back out there was another man on the phone who was talking to his wife and Wayne heard him say, “ I guess I’m too late. I think they’re closed. “. With that , Wayne asked him, “ can I help you ?” The man said , “ I was hoping to get some food for my three girls .” Wayne asked , “ well how many do you need for your whole family ?” He said , “ well if you just gave me some for my three girls that would be great. “ But Wayne asked again , “ but how many do you have ?” The man said , “ well it’s me and my wife and the three girls .” Then the man said this , “ I’m sorry. We just don’t get any more food stamps until Monday and we have nothing in the house to eat .” Wayne told him there was no need to apologize . Wayne told him he’d go get him some dinners together and he also got him some food together from our pantry and freezer to take home to get them through the weekend too.
You know , if Wayne hadn’t been mopping , he would have long missed those two gentlemen. But God knew their need and met their need. That is why we exist. The phone calls we get weekly of people who have no food left in their pantries , and need help stretching through until they get their food stamps , people coming to get food who have totally different beliefs than we do and totally different dietary restrictions , yet come and say “
We don’t care what you have , we are just hungry and need food .” God is a provider. God cares for His people. God is good. God uses us to meet them at their need and we pray that during that encounter , they see Him and that they see that God hasn’t forsaken them and that they would know that He loves them.
We thank God for what He has allowed us to still do even in the midst of a pandemic. We thank Him for being so faithful to our community and for His Holy Spirit who tugs on the hearts of His people to keep us in the minds of you all who pray for us , and help us meet our bills , and who donate so that we can give our emergency food boxes to people like the man above. God we pray for your continued blessings and we pray that you would lead us to do what you would have us to do going forward in this ministry. If there’s more we need to do as we try to get “normal” again , Lord help us to hear your heart . Lead us wherever you would have us go. We love you Lord and we praise Your name. You are exalted on high and Your name is exalted forevermore! Thank you Lord ! Use us Lord! Use us for your kingdom. Thank you for the opportunity to be a light in the darkness. Thank you God!