Gleaning With The Society of St. Andrew

We have spent past seasons of our lives sustained by the support of generous friends and family.

We are currently in a season of community care and absolute dependence on God for our daily bread.

Certain types of suffering bring particular scripture closer and more vividly to mind.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.  

(Matthew 6:25-34)

And because we have been given so much and have sat at the feet of such generosity, my heart has been longing to give back and to keep our hands open.

My children have been taught that life is not about them.   And that’s a life long lesson we all struggle and wade through till we die.

A sweet friend of our family’s heads up a local gleaning project.  I’ve known about it for quite a long time.   My good intentions have had me thinking that one morning we’d join the gleaning.  I’d get the e-mails announcing that week’s glean and I’d stick the date in my mind but something was always interfering.  An appointment, a desire to sleep in, a meeting, overnight guests.  You name it.  

Last week, however, the e-mail arrived, the planets aligned, I fought the self-talk that says sleeping later would be better and I responded to the e-mail and said, “We’ll be there!”

The kids and I headed to a local farm and met up with the gleaning leaders, received our simple instructions and headed to the field.

The squash field.

Mosely has always been the best picker in our family and she did not disappoint.  All of the kids worked hard and gathered the yellow vegetable from its prickly vines.

(Note to self: Wear mud boots and gloves next time.  As a farm kid, I was disappointed in myself for not being prepared for that.)

Standing in those soggy fields, yellow rotting squash everywhere, I was reminded of another verse.

And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Luke 10:2

My word, you guys.

That harvest was plentiful.

And there just weren’t that many people to pick up all those veggies before they literally rotted on the vine.

There’s a lot of preaching right there in that squash field.

At one point, one of the kids said, “Mom – this is just like that story of Ruth in the Bible.  I bet this is what she did.”

And actually, at one particular field that felt so very accurate.  The farm workers had already gone through the field and had simply tossed any unacceptable squash out onto the road.  Squash not pretty enough, too small, too large.  Toss.  And we walked along and filled our baskets.  Basic as that.

The local gleans here are handled through the Society of St. Andrew.

The way it works is simple.  You find out which gleans you can attend.  You go to the field. (Dressed for work.)  You pick all you can.  You either already know a local location that you’d like to deliver your produce to or you get suggestions from the organizer or you simply pick and give your bounty to a leader who distributes it for you.

We hope to get out in the fields more regularly and would love to share this opportunity with you if you are local.

If you are local and are interested, I’d love to send your e-mail over to the Upstate Coordinator for the program so you can begin receiving her e-mails and volunteer when you are able.  (Just send me your e-mail address at SoEveryDay@gmail.com.)

I love that it is a volunteering opportunity that perfectly fits families.  So few actually are.  Otto was just as helpful and capable as London.  (Well, you know what I mean.)

And for a family like ours, a family having lived on the receiving end of such grace, it felt good to pick squash for someone else and to share the love in that simple manner.