Convoy of Hope Photo Essay

Convoy of Hope International came to our area of Michigan in the summer of 2006.

"Convoy of Hope mobilizes, resources, and trains churches and other groups to conduct community outreaches, respond to disasters, and direct other compassion initiatives in the United States and around the world.

Convoy of Hope, a 501 ( c ) (3) nonprofit organization, serves in the United States and around the world providing disaster relief, building supply lines and sponsoring outreaches to the poor and hurting in communities. During a COH outreach, free groceries are distributed, job and health fairs are organized and activities for children are provided."

Convoy of Hope first chooses about 50 communities to serve each year. Then they contact area churches and businesses asking for volunteer help in mobilizing area resources such as employment agencies, job training facilities, soup kitchens, food banks, "job shops" (temporary employment agencies), and organizations that provide other types of social services to those in need. A group of volunteers is organized into task groups. There is a special group in charge of the Children's Area. Since my daughter was serving her Internship last year with CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship--an international children's ministry organization), she was asked to help the director take charge of the activities in the Children's Area.

A date is set up for a community event day usually in a large community center or a municipal park. In our case, our church contacted us asking for volunteers to meet the Convoy of Hope truck and help set up a warehouse distribution center, bag groceries, and hand out groceries on the day of the event. My daughter recruited her brother to work a puppet show in the children's tent.

Volunteers gathered at a warehouse on a predetermined day to set up an assembly line for bagging groceries to be given away to people coming to the community event. In this picture, my husbandFrank  is in blue on the left and my daughter Keren is in the light T-shirt in the center of the picture. My daughter, son and husband worked about 4 hours with others to bag hundreds of grocery items brought in by the large semi-truck pictured above. I had a job that night, so I was unable to participate.

When the bagging was finished, the volunteers loaded the bags back into the semi-truck. That night volunteer baggers were allowed to take home two bags of groceries for themselves. We were so grateful to be blessed with 6 bags of groceries. In the meantime, other volunteers gathered information about local food pantries, discount food stores, soup kitchens, job training centers, and social services offered in the local surrounding communities being served by this event.

My husband is standing near a pile of groceries ready to be loaded into the truck. These bags will be taken to a community park where the one day community event will be held.

Finally the day arrives. It was a cloudy Saturday, drizzling rain. However, by the time the event started the rain had cleared away. It was somewhat chilly. In spite of the poor weather, nearly 200 people came to the park. Tents had been set up sheltering the bagged groceries being given away, and housing the Children's Area.

 The grocery distribution area.

 Child Evangelism was in charge of the play area. We brought in that huge inflatable playground you see in the background here. The white tent on the right housed a puppet show, a table for face painting, and a storytelling area.

 My daughter took turns with Cheryl, the area CEF director, in telling stories to children as they came into the tent.

 She also helped paint faces.

 My son, Mark, was in charge of the puppet shows.

 Outside under another awning, my husband manned a table which provided a display explaining what CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship) is all about. Along with his table were several others filled with brochures and pamphlets about services such as food pantries in the area.

The event lasted about 4 hours. Most of the groceries were given away. There were balloons and candy for the children who appeared to have lots of fun. Many people had volunteered and many more were blessed because Convoy of Hope cared to come to our area. Our family looks forward to serving as volunteers again if we should ever be in the area when Convoy of Hope arrives.