I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.-- Chandy

This week was a blast with the kids.. it started out with some regular hang out days at Rock Island and ended with a beautiful day at the zoo and competitive game of bowling today.

The zoo was amazing yesterday. It was perfect weather and the elementary kids were so excited. We took exactly 30 kids and about 25 of them had never been to the zoo before. It was so fun to witness each of them get so excited to see elephants, tigers and giraffes for the first time. The highlight of the day were the gorillas. They have so much personality and put on quite the show for us. One of the little 4 year old boys in my group said he wanted to take one home to be his friend.

Today was bowling.. we loaded up 20 middle school/high school kids and headed for a Mcdonalds lunch before hitting the lanes. And then the highlight of my day happened...

In the midst of the hustle and bustle at McDonalds with 20 kids ordering value meals, we some how got away with an extra Big Mac. I was about to throw it away when one of the boys, "Damien", chimed up, "I'll take it". I assumed he was really hungry and didn't think anything of it. After eating we all loaded up to head to the bowling alley. Luke was driving the van and I was driving my car. Damien was riding with me. As we were driving along to the bowling alley he yelled from the back seat, "Pull Over". I asked him why and he said that he had to do something. So I found a side street and pulled over. He hopped out with another one of the boys, "Jose" (who is very hard core and hard to reach), and went sprinting in the other direction. At this point I'm kind of panicked about what is going on. But as I glance in my rearview mirrow I realize that Damien has the Big Mac in his hand and Jose is holding an unopened Pepsi that he found in my back seat. Then I look at the target they are running for... a homeless man crouched in the bushes. I watch as they crouch down to his level, exchange a few words and hand him the hamburger and drink. Then I see a big grin and they shake his hand and come joggin back to the car. As soon as they got back in the car they said, "we made sure and said God bless you!". I was so proud of them. If you saw these two boys walking down the street you might assume they were running drugs or headed to hang out with their gang friends... but these two boys were headed down the side of the road to give something to eat to someone hungry.

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." - Matthew 25:35-36