Feeding the hungry isn't as easy as it looks on paper. When I returned to church after a 12 year hiatus I was refreshed in my idealistic Christian beliefs. As a college student I was enthralled by Jesus' apocalyptic imagery of sheeps and goats divided by their care for the least of his brothers.

At the prompting of my 13 yr. old stepson, we started to feed the hungry with Egg McMuffin's at the local McDonald's on the way to church. Sure enough the food found some empty stomachs.

A short time later the small group I was involved with decided to make feeding the hungry our main mission. We picked a name for our group, made some sack lunches, piled in our minivan and travelled to downtown San Bernardino to find people who looked like they could use a meal. This was our initial foray into urban decay in search of folks who could use a meal.

We learned in our research that the local Salvation Army fed two times a day on Saturday.The Army also turned the residents out of their shelter in the morning and did not allow them to return until evening. We learned that the hungriest congregated in a vacant lot next to the Salvation Army shelter. We had chosen our mission, now we had a target group. We decided to bring a hot meal to the corner up from the cul-de-sac where the Army shelter was located.

I remember how irritated I was with our group leader for choosing to serve hot dogs that first Saturday. Do you know how many possible combinations of favorite condiments can be added to a hot dog? We had about 200 people in line and it seemed to take us forever to serve those hot dogs. We hadn't perfected our techniques.

Simply stated, we drove up to the corner, unloaded some serving tables and the food. Gathered the people in a line, prayed and began to serve. We felt great that first Saturday as we sat around our restaurant table eating dessert and reliving the day's activity. We sensed that we were doing real kingdom work, and it felt great.

What we hadn't counted on was that we were messing up the Salvation Army's program. Because we were feeding in mid-afternoon, they had fewer customers for their 6 p.m. feeding. They no longer could reliably estimate the amount of food they needed to prepare. In addition, we were making a mess in the street!

Eventually they called the police who moved us off the corner. The next week we showed up in the vacant lot and we continued to feed there. More police visits and eventually a fence around the lot moved us out. By this time I was learning the laws surrounding this kind of charitable activity, because we were receiving all kinds of police threats. Health code violations were raised. I learned that this kind of activity was exempt from the health code. We were asked to purchase a business license. I learned that our activity was exempt. Eventually we moved to a park a few miles from the Salvation Army center.

We hadn't wanted to leave the territory of our initial target audience, but amazingly small children and families were attracted to the park feeding. The park had a huge covered area that was convenient in bad weather. We would bring large tubs of stew and meat soup for the feeding. Sometimes as many as 300 people would show up.

On one particular day I was sure we did not have enough food. Certainly we did not have enough meat in the soup. We prayed and kept serving. I superstitiously kept the cover on my 5 gallon canister of meat-soup-stew. Each time I stuck my ladle into the container I expected it to come up with either no meat, or no soup, or both. I served bowl after bowl, ladle after ladle. Each one filled with a large chunk of meat. I began to get a glimpse of how the disciples felt as they served those loaves and fishes to the large crowd. Not only did we serve our crowd, but somehow we had food left over to drop off at the local battered women's shelter.

As the weeks turned into months, the burden grew, and we eventually knew that we could not carry the whole load. So we shared the wealth. A church youth group from 15 miles to the east took one week in four. Another small group took another. Soon we were serving one week in four. Complaints from the city and demands for fees to rent the park drove us undercover. We moved from the covered area and prayed it would not rain.

Each week different folks from our church would show up to help with the feeding, which had become a sort of drive-by event. We would quickly drive up to an area of the park. Unload the tables and food, or sack lunches. Pray and serve the people.

There are many stories I could tell about praying for individuals, about acts of generosity, and at least one of a miraculous healing. I am not sure that feeding the hungry those few years was for the benefit of the hungry. I am convinced that our efforts were for our benefit. To give us a chance to see God bless people in a very tangible way.

37"Then those "sheep' are going to say, "Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? 38-39And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' 40Then the King will say, "I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me--you did it to me.' Matt. 25:37-40, The Message by Eugene Peterson, Navpress

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