By Paul Cizek, Youth Minister

There were five us, adults and youth, in the car that drove to El Buen Pastor to experience our Episcopal brothers’ and sisters’ monthly food distribution on Durham’s East side.  We arrived in the church’s basement-level Parish Hall just as they were praying for the morning’s work and for the people who would receive food (at least, I think that’s what they prayed for, but I don’t speak Spanish so I can’t say for sure).  There were about twenty of them, and half of them were high school youth.  We felt out of place – like intruders.  But they had been expecting us, graciously greeted us, and then mixed us in among them for different tasks.  Slowly but surely, we started to chat-it-up with each other: “Where do you go to school?” “Where’s your church?” “You do this every month?!”  And then a truck-load of food arrived: restaurant leftovers, grocery leftovers, and gleaned produce from farm fields. We sorted the food: fruit, vegetables, greens, staples. And then for the next hour a steady flow of folks from Durham’s East side passed through the line, each leaving with two heaping armfuls (and more!) of food.  And there was enough for everyone, and some left over still!  By the time clean-up started, we were a bit less timid and just scrubbed, carried, and stacked till the job was done.  And finally a quick debrief with our host: “How many families come through the line each month?” “What surprised you about this morning?” “When can we come back?” “Will we see you again next month?” Good question: I sure hope we come back, for our brothers and sisters of El Buen Pastor are helping us learn what it looks like to feed the hungry Christ (Matthew 25:35).  Thanks be to God!

By Thomas Reardon, a Sr. EYC Youth and Jr. EYC Mentor

On December 15^th, 2012, Haleigh Collins and I went Christmas shopping for two kids who would not have had a Christmas otherwise.* We went to Wal-Mart, as bulk bargain shoppers tend to do. Immediately we headed for the toy section, constantly looking over our lists for the two boys we were buying gifts for. First, we decided to tackle Vince, an 8 year old boy whose favorite colors are red, blue, and yellow, and wanted a skateboard, super hero clothes and art supplies. This was mostly because the first thing we saw in the toy section was a rack of skateboards. We quickly went all around the store grabbing up super hero clothing and art supplies as well as coloring books. The next child on our list was Daniel, a 5 year old whose favorite color is blue, wanted a bike and a helmet, Sponge Bob items, books, and cars (which was particularly stressed on the list). We hurried back to the toy section to grab an abundance of Hot Wheels cars, and went over to the bikes and pulled down a Jeep bike with shocks and dual suspension. Next we found a collection of Dr. Seuss books which were off the shelf and into our cart in a heartbeat. After consulting Haleigh’s mother, Ann Collins, we decided that Wal-Mart was not the best place to get our five year old clothing. We checked out at Wal-Mart and drove over to Target and finished up our shopping there by getting Daniel some good t-shirts, including one that had a Tyrannosaurus Rex on it – cause what boy doesn’t like Dinosaurs? We checked out of Target and within two and a half hours we had the trunk and backseat of my 1995 Volvo station wagon chock full with gifts for these two boys. Even though Haleigh and I had a lot of fun, it meant more than we had thought it would. It brought back some childhood memories of coming downstairs to those presents under the tree and tearing off that wrapping paper to find exactly what you wanted.  Without us, these kids wouldn’t have had a Christmas that we had grown up having, and that made it all the more special.

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(*Holy Family Youth partnered with Orange County Social Service to adopt these two kids.  The funds came from the Youth Bake Table held at Holy Family back on Nov. 18th.  For the sake of anonymity, the names of the kids have been changed.  -Paul, Youth Minister)