Manna, Everyday
“We prepared and served 300 meals today, and did not have any leftovers,” my cousin said as she rested her feet and legs. She’d been gone since around 9:00AM...it was 12:45PM. “Our guests were waiting for us as we pulled in, knowing there’d be food and friendship, if just for an hour.” 7 days a week, 365 days a year there’s a meal for at least 300 people every day. The place is called “Manna House” and rightly so, for there’s just enough food provided every day to keep the homeless population re-located to this city from another across the state line, from starvation.
Run completely by volunteers, all hailing from different religious backgrounds, most are above 50 years old and the steady crew above 60. It’s not a formal organization: no 501(c)3, no LLC, no missionary arm of a denomination. It’s the work of a group of people who understand Jesus’ command to love their neighbors as they love themselves, and so put hands, feet, backs, money and time to that very end. They take no federal or state funds, get no grants and they feed that many people every day.
I began wondering how this takes place. How is it possible for this to happen every day, without some steady infusion of dollars? Here’s what I discovered as I questioned, listened and finally got a look at the place. It runs because there is a cadre of people who believe Jesus meant what he said not just in spiritual ways, but in concrete, human, practical, inconvenient ways. Here’s what that belief looks like in action...every single day.
Every manna house volunteer talks about this work. They wear tee-shirts that say “Manna House” on them to invite conversation. They have built relationships with grocers and restauranteurs who know they need food for 300+ people every day. Their individual faith communities also know of this ministry, and provide money, labor and actual foodstuffs...and some storage. They commit...boy do they commit...to clean, cook, serve, encounter and converse, and clean up every single day. They listen, watch, learn, and thereby love their guests. They plan, schedule, cover for one another, donate and shop, drop whatever else they are doing if there’s a shortfall of workers that day, drive sometimes many miles to get there to serve...and they pray steadily for the people and the ministry and for social action that could make a substantive difference for these, God’s beloved people. This is a lifestyle for these workers. Manna House is a non-negotiable part of their days, weeks, months and years.
Love your neighbor as you love yourself. You get hungry and eat every day. I get hungry every day. Homeless, sometimes mentally ill, or entrenched in substance abuse, these are still God’s beloved children who get hungry, every day. Manna House is more than a place. It’s a people, God’s people, who have taken this commandment to heart, to hands, to backs and sore feet and legs, to checkbooks, calendars and inconvenience, to danger and dishwater...every day. They love their neighbors as themselves...boy, do they in the manna they offer, every day!
