Another week and still thankful

This is a photo of Emma and Eleanor and our friends Amanda and Darryl.  

We met them in August and have been blessed by their friendship ever since.  

Amanda and Darryl are both bakers at Bridge Bread and because of their work at the bakery they are no longer homeless.   

 Knowing Amanda and Darryl and their stories changed our hearts.  It hurt but it also moved us to action.  

Bridge Bread provides jobs to homeless residents of  The Bridge, a shelter in St. Louis.  Through working at the bakery, bakers learn a skill, develop a work history and earn money with which they can use to eventually move out on their own!  

Churches purchase bread from Bridge Bread and then sell the bread to their members. 

 The girls wondered why we couldn't sell Bridge Bread at our church.  

Within a week of finding out about Bridge Bread we met with one of our pastors and were told that while the church was very excited about the possibility of a bread ministry there were all kinds of road blocks.  

These girls were not deterred and we kept pursuing the project.  

It took some patience but we figured out a way to do a Thanksgiving pre-sale of Bridge Bread with help from our kids ministry.

  Do you know what?  

Over the last two weekends the folks at The Gathering bought nearly $3000 worth of Bridge Bread. 

What an incredible experience this has been for our family. 

I am thankful:

for friends who stretch us

for children who believe they are called to service

for a community that will pass out bread samples, collect order forms, count lots of money, double check my spreadsheets, pick up bread and organize all those orders 

for an opportunity that showed my kids that all is takes is a couple of girls believing that they can make a difference to actually make a difference.