06/06/2016
From Paul Foss:
Soon after last year’s 1st Annual Planting Hope event the leadership began to meet and diligently plan for our 2016 event. Early in the process we held quarterly meetings after the first of the year we shifted to monthly meetings and finally in the final month or so we held weekly meetings – all is good!
Several weeks ago we heard that we might be able to have a new partner, “Hope for Tomorrow” join us. They would bring 15+ dentists to provide a wide range of dental services. Because of licensing issues we thought that this wasn’t going to work. Less than two weeks ago everything suddenly worked out and Hope for Tomorrow committed to bringing 15+ dentists and providing $80K-$100K worth of dental care! Praise God!
Last Tuesday night the leadership team met at the fairgrounds and we prayed over the grounds – God is good. Wednesday I went to a gathering of pastors and prayer warriors, Doug Clarke prophetically prayed an “Even More” Word into this event.
Thursday at 10AM Sharon called me to say the food truck had just arrived and it didn’t have the 70,000 pounds of food we were expecting but only held 30,000. The driver told us that this was it… Our first reaction was – CRAP! The food is the cornerstone of the event – it is why our guests come. Now what? Truthfully the first thing I thought of was “hey Doug, what about the EVEN MORE thing you prayed yesterday?”
After the initial gut punch we reminded each other that this was God’s event, that He was in charge. We realized that HE is the cornerstone! I quieted myself and asked God for wisdom, for direction. I very clearly heard Him say, “WE not ME!” I immediately knew that what He was saying, “With Me and my Church it was going to be OK”. We are all clear that Doug has a prophetic gift so we leaned into his prayer, “God you are an ‘even more than’ God!”
God was up to something. Excitement began to build in our hearts.
I stopped by to pick up some checks and had a very brief conversation with a friend about the situation. He talked with his boss, who made a connection to Debbie Williams. Debbie of “Patty Pollato’s fund – ppfinc.org” did what Debbie (She is an awesome bias to action woman of God) does…….. she started contacting people, organizations and businesses to see if they could help.
After trying for a few hours to contact the original food people with no success, we posted an email and used social media to make 4 asks 1) asked every person listening to bring 2-3 bags of food 2) reach out to any connection each person might have to businesses; resources 3) be available with pickup trucks for potential donations & 4) possibly make a donation to help
By early afternoon Sharon had connected to an organization in Baltimore that told us they had 4 pallets of lettuce with possibly other produce. They told us we would need a refrigerator truck to do the pickup and that they wouldn’t know until Friday what was going to be available. Where could we find a truck? How could we pay for it? God was at work!
A man called me that I almost never talk to. I didn’t get his call but when I saw his name in my missed calls list I figured he might have heard about our God-sized opportunity. I called him back… turns out he was just calling to get a phone number of a mutual friend. When he heard the story he put me on hold and talked with his wife. He came back on the phone and said, “You find the truck – we will pay for the cost of renting it.” After a few more phone calls another friend took on the job of finding a truck. By Thursday evening he had found a 46 foot truck! We didn’t need a truck that big (that’s a tractor trailer). With nothing else available we went ahead and hired him. When he got to the pickup site in Baltimore they said there were 4 other possible pickups. They gave our driver MapQuest directions on where to go next. After the third stop his TOO BIG truck was packed full with watermelons; cantaloupes; carrots; ….. the best produce we had ever had. God knew we were going to need that sized truck. God was at work!
Thursday afternoon I got another call, “I can get 3800 dozen eggs from a free range egg company in Pennsylvania for free. Do you want them?” YES!! I got a call from Nourishment Now!, a nonprofit in Rockville. The gentlemen asked me, “How much bread could you use?” Immediately I said, “5000 loaves!” I don’t even know why I said that number. Long pause on the phone…… “Could you use 1000 loaves?” YES!!!
Strong Tower Christian Church called to offer us their entire food bank…. another pickup truck load. WOW – such generosity!
Debbie Williams arranged a radio interview with a local radio station. Donations began to roll in. Phone calls began to pour in. By Thursday night I knew that God was opening up His store house. I couldn’t sleep I was so excited. Sometime in the night I heard God say, “Do you see where you are right now?” I pondered and suddenly it hit me, we’re living in the miracle of Jesus providing food for the 5000! God said to me early Friday morning, “Do you remember how that story ends?” Yes, I said, there is lots of food left over! He said, “That’s what I’m up too! I’m not finished yet!”
Friday morning three pickup trucks left to get the 1000 loaves of bread from Nourishment Now. So many donations were rolling in, we sent David Kull to Sam’s club with $11,000 to buy huge quantities of canned food and dried food. Mid-morning the third pickup truck called from Nourishment Now to say all the bread had already been picked up. His trip to Rockville was a wasted trip. CRAP! Just then a call came in from Manna Foods in Rockville – they had a truck load of food to donate. God even fixed our mistakes! God was at work!
A man arranged to get 2500 loaves of bread from Wi******er for .50 a loaf. Three trucks headed to Wi******er for the pickup. This is crazy!!!
Cars, Trucks, donations, we couldn’t keep up with it all. By late afternoon Sharon, Ann-Marie and I did a quick count. We were speechless…… 130,000 pounds of food had miraculously arrived. And then I heard from a lady at the radio station that there were six Weis stores that had donations to pick up. Foodpro had a truck load. This is off-the-chain!
Late Friday I got a call from Pastor Ronnie and Pastor Harris from Hope Christian Fellowship. They said, “We have $2000 and we are going to buy more food. What do you need?” I said to them, “We have 130,000 moving toward 140,000 use that money for some other Kingdom adventure.” We laughed and cried together over the phone. God is a work!
By Friday night at the Rally we had close to 140,000 worth of food (double what we had originally been planning on). We all wept and cheered God on! God was at work.
Early Saturday morning I heard God saying to me, “I’m going to restock 12 food banks/churches pantries with the excess!” Do it God! Be God!
Saturday had this feel of uniquely holy space. Kidz zone had no electricity – no worries – just pray – electricity. There wasn’t a long line of guests to start the day. Don’t worry, I’ve got this. Instead we had a steady stream of guests all day long. It was a calm and gentle and amazing day. 50+ folks gave their lives to Jesus.
Someone in the portrait building thought, “where are all the people?”. They added up the number of guests whose picture they had taken at the end of the day. They had taken 986 photos, almost the exact same number as last year. With 24 stylists we had between 250-300 haircuts – similar to last year. At least 1,000 pair of shoes walked out of the fairgrounds. Well over a hundred guests were seen by Hope for Tomorrow at their dental clinic.
By 3:30 or so all the guests were gone, each receiving 7-8 bags of groceries. We looked in the warehouse and there was bags, and boxes, and containers of food still left. We started calling the churches and food banks in the area… “COME AND BE BLESSED!” Mt Airy Net, Strong Tower (they got back more than double what they gave us on Thursday), 2nd Street & Hope, Prodigal Son House, Frederick Rescue Mission, St. Luke's Parish, Quinn Chapel AME church, Dorsey Chapel Church, Asbury United Methodist Church, Urbana Food Bank, Kingdom Gospel Mission, Sagnor church… count them – there are 12!!!
Sunday morning I received a text from a contact at Weis Market, we had missed a pickup in Thurmont. I texted back apologizing and asking if they would be OK with us donating that to the Thurmont Food Bank. They were delighted. This morning a dear brother went to Thurmont, picked up a pickup truck full of food and made the delivery. When I told Ann-Marie she said, “that is an answer to prayer! I realized late Saturday that I had forgot to call the pastor in Thurmont. Praise God!” As my wife said, “God promises a dozen and what He really means is a baker’s dozen. An EVEN MORE!!”
Over 3000 guests and over 1000 volunteers from 30+ area churches came together and experienced our best day as THE Church of Frederick county. God was honored and He receives all the glory! God is an EVEN MORE God! He isn’t done yet……… We are part of a movement not just a moment. God is on the move! God is at work! Miracles did not just happen in biblical times….. we just experienced one! God is done yet….. There is still more… the BEST is yet to come!
