Its in the Bag

Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he gave the bread to the disciples, who distributed it to the people.  They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers.  About 5,000 men were fed that day, in addition to all the women and children!-Matthew 14:19-21

In my last post, I shared some simple ways to minister to the poor and homeless in our communities and invited you to have some of these things in your vehicle on a regular basis to hand out when encountering them. 

Another simple gift you could have on hand that is relatively inexpensive and easy to throw together but can have a huge impact are little gift bags I used to hand out when feeding the homeless.  This was comprised of a pack of peanut butter crackers(grain and meat), a bottle of water(hydration), gummies and/or a banana(fruit), a cheese stick(dairy) and a gallon zip lock bag to put it all in.  I also included a love letter from Dad which I have linked above on this site. 

Physically, the contents of this bag provides them with a simple but balanced meal as noted above.  You can also include a $5 gift card to a restaurant for a later meal if desired as well.  Mentally, giving of a gift as such reminds them that Dad and others still love them despite their situation.  And spiritually they can read the love letter and potentially enter into a relationship with Him in response to it.  I personally saw many of these things occur in giving out these bags with the giving out of them being my part and the impact they had being up to Dad. 

So again this is a single and relatively inexpensive gift to be able to put together and have on hand to distribute to the homeless as you encounter them, please feel free to duplicate and utilize the love letter if you want to and thanks for your consideration of this idea so that Dad can begin and continue to bless both you and others even more deeply;-)