Friends,

I am so proud of the Wheatland congregation. All of the donations, volunteers, and love provided to the men, women, and children arriving at Hesed during our October service were amazing. As we all know, there is no one-time fix to the hunger and hopelessness felt as the result of being homeless, and as such, our monthly opportunity to serve, November 4th and 5th, is fast approaching.

The sign-up sheets were posted both in Naperville and Oswego today. We made a core change to the dinner menu for November. We are going to serve soft shell tacos, hot dogs, fruit salad, rice, and desert. This change requires the main pre-cooking to be seasoned ground beef. We will assess how the meal went following the service day. Breakfast and lunch will stay essentially the same.

Please take the time to prayerfully consider donating your time and food donations for this month’s service by signing up at the two campus. Also, if you could mention to your friends and small groups of the upcoming needs, that would be helpful, as we would like to fill all of the needs well before November 4th, so there is limited last minute scrambling for resources.

As a final note, I cannot get over the fact that we are the last line of defense from starvation for approximately 200 of our Hesed brothers and sisters. It is an daunting responsibility we share every month, but it is exactly the responsibility we have been commissioned to do. Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan outlines the choices we have as a missional community towards our brothers and sisters at Hesed. We can blindly ignore the need, choosing a path of ignorant bliss, or we can heed Jesus’ call to action in caring for those who are suffering within our presence. At Wheatland, we face this choice every month, and I am proud to be part of a community whose choice is to consistently and humbly provide.

I look forward to working with all of you in service to our brothers and sisters at Hesed over the upcoming months.

-Mike