In ministry, you can have a lot of dreams-both big and small. Yet, sometimes those dreams can take a while to develop because of limited resources, whether it's time, people, or money.
One of our "smaller" dreams has been to have a Blessing Box. It would be a take-or-leave mini-food pantry that our guests could take non-perishable food items that they may need or leave an item for another to be blessed by.
We were in the planning phases of how to acquire the initial stock of pantry items when our dear friends from Passageways, Ltd reached out to say they had a bounty of canned goods that they'd been blessed with. So many, that they needed to find new homes for the items. They wondered if students or our community could be blessed by the abundance of provisions.
Over the past four years, Passageways has been a partner in ministry, a friend, and a big advocate for Fairmount. They have their monthly Executive Board Meetings in our Conference Room, they have dropped off blessings for our students and community, supported our Community Garden, volunteered in our firework tent, provided prayers and encouragement, and so much more! Through the years, we have become good friends and advocates for each other's organizations!
We are thrilled to be able to put out the Blessing Box earlier than we had hoped, thanks to answered prayers and to Passageways! They gave us canned veggies, beans, meat, mac and cheese, Spaghettios, lentils, and more! The items are located in the Living Room on the bookshelf.
So, if you find yourself in need of any pantry items, please, take what you need. And if you ever feel called to leave an item, you are welcome to leave your gift in or on top of the Blessing Box.
Please note, that we do not have a lot of storage space available, so if there is no room in or on top of the Blessing Box, we would like to encourage you to find a way to bless someone in the community through many of the other great organizations who offer food pantries or cupboards.