103,248

What does that number mean, you ask? Why it's the number of meals 500 people packed at our church tonight for Feed My Starving Children. Yes! Tonight we saved kids' lives. Together as a family. The kids were old enough this year to participate in the big event. We've "done" this event for the past 3 years. We've always packed meals with our Dinner Club but now it's not just an adult event anymore. Kids too!

That number above feeds 282 kids for a year. We showed the kids a few videos on the computer before we left for church so they knew a bit of what to expect. They saw pictures of kids who had eaten the meals after a few months. They saw how healthy they were and the difference it made.

They also saw how to pack the meals. Neither of them said much about what job they wished to have or how many meals they thought they would pack.

Their friend Connor was there too. It was his first time as well. He was a bit skeptical coming into the night because his little brother got to be with grandma and grandpa. It didn't take long for the smiles to appear on his face saying, "Hey, Mom! This is actually fun! Funner than I thought it was going to be!"

Little A made it about an hour before she flitted and flutted around from place to place like the butterfly she is. Attention and focus was a bit gone and legs got tired. Then I told her it would help her legs if she danced. So we danced a little to the WOW! Kids Band that was playing in the background. She was all smiles and loved every bit-no matter if she was dancing or weighing bags of food.

Her favorite job was dumping the chicken powder or the veggies into the funnel. She'll be able to reach a bit better with every year we do this, as they get bigger.

C took the position of the bagger in the beginning. We used a bit of teamwork to get the bags on the funnel-it's a bit tricky! He and A switched positions between holding bags and weighing. C was really good at weighing, being very careful with the extra rice playing a little bit with the extra rice, being very precise and also being across from his buddy, Connor.

The kids got to do a variety of different jobs throughout the night: chicken powder, veggies, bagger, weigher and bag sealer. C said his favorite job was sealing the bags. Not sure why, but he did pretty well at it. All of the kids tried that job. I think they liked it because that "finished" the bags off. Then they were ready to be packed in the boxes!

8 boxes of 36 meals...288 meals! That's what our area did together. Wow!

As we were on our way home tonight we talked about what the kids thought about the experience. They liked what they did. They loved being together with us and some friends. We also talked about saving lives. I can't expect them to understand what this means. Think about it. We live in our first-ring suburb bubble we've created for ourselves. They have everything they need and much, much more. But at least we can talk about it. We can talk about what it would be like to go a day without food. We can talk about what it would be like to eat rice for every meal. We can talk about it at their level and hope it begins to make a difference in their lives. We can talk about how what we did tonight saved lives of kids just like them. And we can ALL feel good about what we accomplished together!