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Joe and Kathy Narens serve the hungry in Texarkana.
 With
FHFH being new in our area and with the word quickly spreading, the
question around town is… "What is this new organization all about?"
Dustin Stringer, who
is part of the FHFH team, was contacted by a local chapter of the Rotary
Club and invited to their weekly luncheon to share with their members
more about Farmers and Hunters Feeding The Hungry.
The luncheon was a
buffet, and as we made our way through the line, we looked around the
room to find a table. There, in the front corner of the room, was one
gentleman sitting alone. We asked him if he would mind us joining him at
his table, and he welcomed us very warmly. We began to share who we were
and why we were there for the luncheon. We shared with him the ministry
of FHFH and the great impact this ministry could have on our community.
Much to our surprise, we were sitting with the Pastor of a small church
that has a soup kitchen that serves 110 people every Tuesday and
Thursday. Pastor George shared that his kitchen was suffering from a
lack of food to provide to the needy. We asked Pastor George if his soup
kitchen would be interested in having some of the meat that would soon
ready for pick up from our processor. Pastor George told us that the
meat was greatly needed and would be greatly appreciated.
The Rotary Luncheon
was on a Tuesday, and the next day we were going to Savage Processing to
pay the processing bill for the first batch of meat that they had
prepared for FHFH. While there, we were told that the next batch of meat
was also ready for pickup. We called Harvest Texarkana—a local food bank
distributor for our area—to arrange the pickup of the first batch. While
we were there, our conversation with Pastor George about his empty soup
kitchen was fresh in both of our minds. We knew that it was no accident
that we were at the Rotary Club’s luncheon, and it was no accident that
we asked Pastor George if we might sit with him at his table. In God’s
plan, these things had already been worked out. That Wednesday was the
day that we could look at each other and say, "This is the reason we are
doing this!"
 We
took the second batch of meat from Savage Processing—120 pounds of
processed venison and pork—to Pastor George’s soup kitchen. Upon
arriving at the small church, we were greeted by two of the church’s
elderly deacons. These gentlemen, if I were to guess, looked to be in
their 70’s. As we opened up the back of our suburban, their smiles began
to stretch. As we began to get the packages of meat out, they were more
than happy to help us make the trips back and forth from our vehicle to
the freezer. Words cannot express the feeling that overwhelmed us as we
stood there helping one of the deacons fill a freezer that had been
totally empty with meat which would serve the many hungry people in this
small soup kitchen. When going back for more packages, these elderly men
were more than walking—they were dancing a jig! They told us that
the ladies of the church who prepare the meals would be excited to find
a freezer that had been empty now filled with such wonderful "Manna from
Heaven."
This is what FHFH is
all about. It is not in receiving, but in giving, that we are blessed.
As God tells us, "It is better to give than to receive." That Wednesday
we were truly blessed in ways hard for words to explain. We know for
certain that God had His hands in our lives that week, as we went to the
Rotary Club luncheon, met Pastor George, and provided his church with
much needed meat for their feeding ministry!
God bless,
Joe and Kathy Narens
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