All posts tagged: foodpantry

History of FHL Food Pantry

March 2, 2014 Merlin Gonzales FHL Food Pantry, FHL Mobile Food Pantry

The early years of FHL Food Pantries

In the fall of 2006, Merlin Gonzales and a few volunteers agreed to do the first FHL Mobile Food Pantry. FHL partnered with a Hispanic business that allowed us to give the food in the grocery store. One of our partners owned one of the Latino newspapers in town and she did a half-page ad at no cost to us.

The pantry attracted almost 100 families. The first pantry had less than 10 volunteers but was able to give a lot of grocery items from a food bank and other sources. For the next 2 years, FHL food pantries were held in churches, schools and parking lots. FHL did not have problems in attracting recipients because of the follow up system.

After 2 years, FHL introduced prayers at pantries. The recipients seem open and soon it became a regular part of each pantry. Through the process of partnering with different organizations at different locations, FHL developed procedures overtime. The leaders learned how to interact with different denominations, ethnic groups and traditions. The Lord walked the organization through many on-the-job training that were vital to the development creative evangelism. The leaders learned more how to interact with the different segments of our society.

However, setting up and tearing down of food pantry sites at different location became a hindrance to serve more people and to share the Gospel. The idea of starting a food pantry at churches and other sites became obvious. FHL would be able to serve more people and would be able to share its experience with others.

The informal training and partnership emerged. Horizon Christian Fellowship Central was the first food pantry that FHL helped start. It is now a vital part of the Fountain Square neighborhood in Indianapolis.

Through prayers and hard work, God had birth the FHL Food Pantry Incubation. It is now that mission of FHL to incubate food pantries in central Indiana.

The FHL Food Pantry School became a work in progress document. In the class, you will learn that practical and spiritual application of the Bible. You will see that your friends and/or congregation can be a part of the tapestry of a food pantry. Young and old, rich and poor has a place in a food pantry such as the Outreach Team, Prayer Team and Community Relations Team.

An idea of feeding the hungry and reaching out to those in need had evolved to be a powerful tool to engage the community in sharing the love of God. The end result is that the hungry are fed, the Gospel is being shared and more people are becoming Christ-like in their communities. The food pantries are becoming missional communities.

The History of FHL Part 1

June 27, 2013 Merlin Gonzales Backyard Missions, FHL Indiana, FHL Week, KIOM

Merlin with Bri-Bri Indian family, Costa Rica 2002

A new perspective

Most people like to read the beginning of an organization or a church; how it started, who was the visionary and its progression. In the next blogs, you can expect to read the simple but powerful history how God guided Merlin Gonzales, the founder of an organization that is now crossing denominational lines in expanding the Kingdom starting in local communities. FHL has now evolved in mobilizing thousands of volunteers on an annual basis, has helped plant 13 food pantries, encouraged hundreds of volunteers to pursue their passion and has been instrumental in the salvation of hundreds of people

The history was written by Merlin and was taken from his book, “The Kingdom in Our Midst” which is available at www.merlingonzales.com and at any major book retailers and distributors.

It is our hope that the story below would encourage you to pursue the seed of desire that God had put in your heart. Today is a good day to start pursuing your calling!

March 17-23, 2002, was the week my life was transformed and launched a ministry that is now reaching the churches, businesses, government and other sectors of our society. I was encouraged by my friend, Tim, to go for the first time on a short-term mission trip to Costa Rica. Our team would be constructing a church building in a community on top of a mountain with no running water or electricity. We would be ministering to the Bri-Bri Indians and we would be putting our tents in a clearing since the only building available to sleep in was the old church building with lots of windows and thousands of mosquitoes.

I wasn’t sure if I would be able to join the group since I didn’t have enough money to go. But as it turned out I was able to take vacation and raised enough money to join the team. The idea of tenting in a wilderness surrounded by mountain ranges and to interact with the natives gave me a sense of adventure. I felt it would give me a chance to help in construction and also practice my evangelism techniques. I thought that I could provide the natives spiritual answers that could change their lives.

It was an adventure to travel to a mountain with no running water and electricity. The pastor met us when we got to our final destination and we started the construction right away. It was hot and humid during the day, but cool during the evening. I will always cherish the memories of that trip—nights alone in my tent looking up at the starry sky while listening to the fascinating sounds of insects and the wild, or the morning when I was awakened by a loud scream from one of the missionaries as she was about to go into the outhouse and discovered a large snake on the roof.

Almost every day it rained hard, making the clay road up and down the mountain very treacherous to navigate. However, it was refreshing to have rain in a hot and humid place. On our third night, we invited the community for a night of worship. The attendees came walking up the dark, unpaved road; some had walked for two hours just to join us that night. The worship was great and it seemed like it went for a few hours. We were able to pray for everyone. I started to develop friendships with my fellow missionaries and the natives. Somehow, I gained the trust of the natives and their children. It was great to interact and play with the children.

As the days went by, we had accomplished very little construction and I was feeling like we hadn’t really done what we came to do. Then, our last night there turned out to be very special. I felt like the Holy Spirit visited us as we prayed for people. Most of them were weeping and were sweating bullets during the prayer time. It was very special to me to see how the natives worshiped the Lord with reckless abandon. One of the natives who assisted in the construction and whom I befriended accepted the Lord in his heart.

Saying good-bye was very hard and I promised the pastor I would be back. When I returned to the states I was a changed man. It seemed like God had provided me new sets of ears and eyes. The things that were important to me in the past had lost their significance and were replaced by a new zest for my life. My perspectives changed and my priorities were rearranged. My heart was altered and my mind was renewed. I started to hunger for God and wanted to go back to the mission field right away.

I was very excited when my church planned a second trip there. However, I was not able to go with them because I couldn’t afford it moneywise or timewise. I was very disappointed; I waited until the next trip, but the same thing happened.

Stay tuned for the continuation of the story. God bless you!

The only one of its kind

June 10, 2013 Merlin Gonzales Backyard Missions, FHL Mobile Food Pantry

As I was looking today at the FHL web responses that we recently had from around the country, and after researching, I found out that FHL is the only one of its kind that intentionally incubates self sustained food pantries in the US.

Here’s how FHL does it:

Identification of food pantry sites
Classroom and onsite classes (8 sessions)
- Based on:
  - Acts 6 – Organized food distribution
  - Mark 16 – Sharing the Gospel
  - Matthew 28 – Discipling the nation
Provides training and grocery items to the pantries for up to 6 months to help them become self-sustained
In most instances, the food pantries experience more salvations during the food distributions than when the church (a food pantry site) hold their weekend services. For example, one of FHL food pantries, Luz de Vida, (a church with less than 20 members) had 3 salvations in February, 6 in March, 1 in April and 1 in May of this year!

I have written in detail how the “Grassroots Movement in the Kingdom” in my book, The Kingdom in our Midst. I will share with you the details next week.

With the gas prices that continues to increase, more food assistance are needed in our cities. Unfortunately, the poor gets hit the hardest. The income/wages remains almost the same in the past few years, so when you divide the household pie (income) there’s less for food and for other necessities due to increasing fuel prices that jacks up the prices of mostly all commodities.

This year’s FHL Week (July 21-28) theme is “Help feed the hungry in your own backyard”. Below is a list of simple things you can get involved with:

Food Drives/Collections – Your church or your places of work and/or business can do food drives/collections during FHL Week. Another way to be a part of food collection is to help us get your neighborhoods involved. By hanging food collection bags on the door knobs, you can address hunger in our city.
Urban Garden starts or maintenance – FHL partners with organizations who are directly involved in gardening. During FHL Week, you can come alongside us to do some gardening.
Volunteer at a food pantry – You can support some of our pantries through volunteerism or through your financial support.
Volunteer at other food organizations – FHL connects volunteers, resources and needs; you can get involved in serving the FHL food partners and sponsors.

John Mott, a Nobel Peace Prize Winner once said, “The person who does the work is not as productive as the one who multiplies the workers.” Faith Hope and Love is an organization that multiplies not only the workers but also the resources. I am appealing to you to help us answer the hunger problem by partnering with FHL in incubating self-sustained food pantries. By the end of July 2013, FHL should have planted 13 food pantries altogether. Currently, FHL is directly supporting 5 food pantries.

Please consider contributing or sponsoring a food pantry that provides physical and spiritual food to the least, the lost and the last. You can respond to this Blog or email [email protected] to find out how you can be a part of this innovative approach to feed the hungry.

God wants to answer our prayers

October 15, 2012 Merlin Gonzales FHL Indiana, Kindness Weekends, Self-Sustained Food Pantriy

I hope that you will be blessed with the stories below.

We have been busy these past few days with our regular Kindness Days and Food pantries. On October 8, we helped a person in need of yard clean up, household chores, built a chicken coop and light construction. Thanks to Southport Presbyterian Church for sending 17 Youth and 2 adults to bless an individual who is in need of assistance. After the outreach, we found out that this person has been praying for help.

Our Pantry of Faith was on Oct. 13th at Iglesia Wesleyana Monte de Sion. This church has been praying for ways to serve the community and God has been using FHL to plant a self-sustained pantry since April 2012. They now serve between 40-50 families and have 20+ regular volunteers.

There are many ways we can communicate with God and one of them is through prayers.

Just this past weekend, FHL partnered with Northview Church in Carmel, IN to mobilize more than 200 volunteers for their “Good Neighbor Weekend.” We brought a few groups to our Heal the Land Project. Before we gave instructions for the neighborhood clean up, I shared with the group that cleaning the streets is only secondary to their collective presence and prayers in the area. Since we have God in our hearts, we can also release His Presence wherever we are. I encouraged them to do prayer walk as well. We prayed together before we started the clean up.

This particular outreach site is in a tough neighborhood with prostitution and drug problems. It seems like the majority of the residents (and/or the residents near the area) do not care for their surrounding since they have chronic problem of trashing the alleys and the vacant and abandoned lots. We have been bringing volunteers in this same area for almost two years on a regular basis but with some progress. However, we believe that God wants to heal this land.

After a few hours of clean up we gathered together for testimonials and debriefing. One of the testimonials was about a couple that badly needs assistance in clearing and cleaning their backyard. The lady of the house is 81 years old. Their backyard was full of overgrown weeds and all kinds of trash. After one of the volunteers prayed for them, I had the opportunity to interview the man of the house. He shared that he was fasting and praying that God would send help to assist in cleaning their yard. He almost broke down when one of the groups showed up in his backyard that afternoon. His prayers reached God and He got his answer immediately.

We ended the outreach with debriefing and prayer. As our Project Manager , Bill was leading the prayer in front of about 70 volunteers on the side of a street, I noticed a woman walking in front of me. She looked depressed and she looked surprised that a bunch of people in her neighborhood is praying together on the street. I continued to pray and forgot about the woman. Soon, all the volunteers left. As I was gathering our tools, I saw the same woman being prayed for by Bill & Donna. She came back and spilled her heart to them. God convicted her to come back to us instead to pursuing her plan to shoplift. She had a black eye and backache because her boyfriend beat her and left her. She did not have anyone in her life because her children were taken away from her a number of years ago while she was in jail. She was going to help herself at one of the grocery stores to clean her apartment because she will be kicked out in the streets in the next few days. She will go to court the following week because of her habitual shoplifting. Bill & Donna led her to the Lord. I asked her if I can pray for healing of her black eye. She hesitantly agreed and within a minute of prayer she said that her eye was not hurting anymore. Bill & Donna ended up providing her assistance for her clothes, supplies and food.

Daniel 9:23, “As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed.” God had heard the prayers of the church who wanted assistance in starting a food pantry, a person in need of assistance for yard work and household chores, a couple that needed help in their backyard, a woman in desperation and for our group to be a part of what He is doing in a neighborhood.

Be encouraged that your prayers are heard in heaven. God wants to provide the best for His children and He wants to answer your prayers.

Banco de comida de Amor

October 13, 2012 Merlin Gonzales FHL Indiana

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