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I n A ppreciation I would not have been able to bring about this vision of God’s work that is Gleaning For The World without the help of many people. First, I have to thank five of the first volunteers that Gleaning had: Wendell Carwile, Claudia Medure, Charles Calhoun, Cabell Crews, and Kendall Foster. Without their help, Gleaning might not have lasted past the first few years. Since its inception, hundreds, if not thousands, of volunteers have helped sort, pack and label goods. Without their help, we would not be able to carry out Gleaning’s mission and we certainly would not be able to do it as efficiently and effectively as we do. This efficiency has been recognized by one of America’s premier business magazines and we owe much of that recognition to our volunteers.

I also want to thank those who helped read and edit this book: Dave Early, Suzanne Ramsey, Linda Meadows, Jeane Smiley-Mason, Andrew Young, Daphne Inge, Nancy Engler, Michael Justice, Mike Tilley and Melody Ramsey. ~ Rev. Ronald T. Davidson

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F oreword I called him “The Entrepreneur in Robes”, and I asked myself… how did a set of character traits like this ever end up in a minister’s cloak??? Perhaps he had asked himself the same. For here was a man, jawin’ away at the front of my Northern Virginia Methodist church in this Southern Virginia twang… and I was totally captivated. His presence at the altar divulged the dozens of years during which he had held attentive audiences while leaning on the holy podium. Speaking to a congregation was as familiar to him as reading the newspaper, yet he was the one bringing the news.

This was not the normal Sunday announcement from our church’s pastor, Reverend Ed Pruitt, but an alluring stranger with a bona fide authentic Virginia drawl, a Santa Claus wink in his eye and a message so unique, and so selfless, that I felt inexorably drawn to explore this man’s quest further. You see, I was on a quest of my own, and the attraction between these two journeys was immediate and akin to “love at first sight.” The future born from that philosophical union was as irrefutable as the sun rising in the east, and I became complicit in an instant.

It was clear to me that this blessed messenger was savvy enough to grasp the inherent “business sense” of what he was doing.

He was, after all, an intelligent and gifted speaker. Yet, he had abandoned a comfortable life as a Methodist pastor to “glean” the surplus of modern commerce to serve the needy. He had even begun to spread his gleanings across the oceans to assist impoverished communities in the Third World. However, he may not have noticed that he was slowly building a unique and efficient business model which would become the envy of most

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non-profit organizations across the U.S., and even the world. All he needed to grow his fledgling nonprofit organization was some luck (in the form of repeated “divine coincidence”) and a good Board of Directors to lean on. With these, his “gleaning” ministry could make a meaningful contribution to an entire billion-dollar industry focused on the provision of domestic and international humanitarian aid. I had become the oblivious soul chosen to join this crusade and to hasten the business education of this enlightened “entrepreneur in robes.”

His name is Rev. Ron Davidson, and the organization is Gleaning For The World. ~ Rick Peterson

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C hapter O ne THAT NIGHT CHANGED MY LIFE “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God” (2 Corinthians 3:5 NKJV)

Question: If God is sufficient, then why do the poor suffer?

It’s still hard to believe that God chose a small-town boy from Rustburg, Virginia to start a nonprofit organization that would one day help millions of people in need and see tens of thousands of people commit their lives to Christ.

Often I am asked how I came up with the vision of starting this humanitarian organization that has reached so many people. The truth is, Gleaning For The World was and is an evolving ministry that God ordained. God never asked me what I wanted to do.

There wasn’t any great vision. He just created the circumstances where saying “no” was not an option. It all started the day that God got my undivided attention.

“You can play basketball now, but you will be mine in the future.”

I was only sixteen when I first heard God’s call to enter the Christian ministry. I experienced that once-in-a-lifetime moment during a high school basketball game in my sleepy town of Rustburg, Virginia. My team had just scored a basket and I was running down the court on defense. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I heard a voice say: “You can play basketball now, but you will be mine in the future.”

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No one else had heard the voice. Just me. It scared me to death.

I thought maybe this had something to do with my father, who was a minister, wanting me to follow in his footsteps. I had resisted this idea and desired no part of it. For a while, I ignored what I’d heard. Yet, that voice I heard during a simple basketball game would speak to me again, refusing to let me go.

When it came time for college, ministry was the last thing on my mind. I decided to pursue a business major at Ferrum Junior College, and began my freshman year in 1968.

The seed is planted One year later, I made three important decisions: first, I decided to transfer from Ferrum to Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia; second, I decided to change my major from business administration to religion; and third, I decided to get married at the age of nineteen. Jackie, my wife-to-be, was only eighteen. The month before we married, we made a quick trip to Ashland so that she could interview for a job. The income from this job as an administrative assistant would be enough to cover our rent and food, while the United Methodist Church was covering most of my tuition through a scholarship. We thought we had it made.

The week after we were married, we packed everything in a car and headed to our new home in Ashland. When she reported to work she was told that the job had already been filled. Several weeks passed; we had no income and had run out of food. We were two weeks from being on the street when Jackie was offered a job in Richmond. Her income was $54 a week. The rent was $54 a month. I knew what it was like to be hungry.

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In later years, when I thought about starting a gleaning ministry I remembered that feeling. To be the head of a household and know that you cannot provide for your family is one of the most desperate feelings a person can have.

Perhaps the best way to illustrate this concept is through a comment shared by a woman who was raising her five grandchildren. She had raised her children in a Christian home but her son and daughter had become addicted to crack cocaine and couldn’t care for their children. She said: “Reverend, it hurts me when the grandchildren go to bed hungry and are crying; however, the worst pain is when I go to bed and know there is nothing left to feed them when they wake up.”

That is the way millions of parents and grandparents feel every day. It does not have to be that way.

Becoming a pastor When I was five, my father decided to answer God’s call to enter the ministry. He was running a credit union for a major industry, had a 200-acre farm and four children. Since he could not be a full time pastor, the United Methodist Church allowed him to pastor part-time. On Saturdays, he visited church members and shut-ins and often took me with him. This gave me some time with my Dad that was special; I also realize that God was using that time to train me to be a pastor. I learned how to pray with people and show them that I cared, as well as conduct church services and revivals.

Due to this experience with my father, I received an unusual offer to become a young pastor after my second year of college.

Dr. Lewis W. Darst, the Lynchburg District Superintendent of the United Methodist Church, called and offered me two churches

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in Altavista, Virginia. It was unheard of that a twenty-year-old man with only two years of college would get a full-time appointment in the United Methodist Church. While fulfilling my pastoral duties, I could transfer to Lynchburg College from Randolph Macon College and finish my bachelor’s degree in sociology and religion.

The appointment would double our income, provide a house to live in, and I could begin fulfilling my call to the ministry.

It also meant we would not have to be hungry. I will never get over the feeling of an empty stomach and not being able to provide for my wife. I believe God made the impression on my heart so I would have the compassion for the poor.

During the next twenty-seven years I pastored churches in Virginia localities, including Gloucester and Lynchburg.

Throughout those years, I knew there was something else I was supposed to do, but I didn’t know what was in God’s plan.

The homeless become real In 1992, I was serving as the pastor of a church in Gloucester, Virginia. During a board meeting, I suggested to the church that we get more involved in working with the poor and homeless.

We decided to provide dinner for every homeless person in the Hampton Roads area. I thought the number would be less than one hundred people until I called a homeless shelter in nearby Newport News and learned there were five major homeless ministries that collectively served several hundred people.

To prepare for the event, the ladies of the church made beef stew, sandwiches and cakes and collected clothing, shoes and stuffed animals. Since I also wanted to minister to the homeless, I contacted the American Bible Society to see if they had any materials we could use. When I called, I talked to a lady who was 8

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in charge of distributing Bibles to homeless ministries. As I told her my request, she was quiet for so long that I thought she had hung up. Finally, she said, “Rev. Davidson, isn’t it amazing what God can do? We had an order placed months ago by a man in the Midwest who was going to work with the homeless, but he changed his mind. The tracts have been paid for. If you want them you can have them for free and we’ll ship them to you.” I asked her to describe the tracts to make sure she had something we could use.

The tracts were made of a special paper that wouldn’t tear, were waterproof and told the story of Jesus Christ. They specifically targeted homeless people, emphasizing the fact that throughout His life, Jesus, too, was homeless.

In that phone call, I had my first experience with how God gives us exactly what we need at exactly the right time so we can do His work. I’ve come to see that over and over during the years of Gleaning’s ministry with the poor and homeless. These tracts were worth thousands of dollars, yet cost us nothing, and shared the story of Christ in a way I’d never heard.

As we set out to deliver food and clothing to the homeless, I had no idea that night was going to change my life and plant the seeds of the gleaning ministry.

The first homeless person I met was an electrician who had lost his job. In the space of three months, he lost his apartment, car and all his furniture and had gone from making $25 an hour to sleeping in abandoned cars.

The second homeless person I met was a lady whose husband had left her for another woman. She could not pay the bills or mortgage so she ended up on the street in less than six months.

The courts ordered him to pay alimony, the house payments and cover her health insurance, but he decided not to pay. Since the

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courts work slowly, she found herself sleeping in an alley The third person really hurt my soul. The girl was eighteen, mentally challenged and had a four-week-old baby. When I saw her she was holding the baby by its arm like a rag doll. She wanted us to take her picture with the baby. I asked the director of the homeless shelter how in the world the young girl was going to care for the infant. Her answer was grave. “We will keep her until she heals from the birth, and then she will be back on the street. She is not mentally able to care for the baby, but the courts will not allow us to take it away. In the next month we will probably find the baby in an alley dead.”

Why in the world would government agencies established to care for infants and children allow a baby to die on the streets because the mother is not capable of caring for it? Since meeting this young mentally-challenged mother, I have learned that in this country a large percentage of people placed in mental institutions are released. Most end up living on the streets. Also, state governments have had to cut their budgets and they have often done so at the expense of those least capable of caring for themselves.

These three people opened my eyes to the realities of the homeless in America, but the next place we visited was the catalyst in making the night’s work a personal journey. We took the stew to a children’s care facility in inner-city Hampton and encountered thirty-five children who screamed with excitement at the prospect of receiving stuffed animals. We served them food while one of the facility’s staff members shared the horrific experiences some of the children had experienced. Every child there had been taken from his or her parents because of sexual, mental and/or physical abuse. All of a sudden the visit turned into a hugging session that 10

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I will never forget. These children showed the resilience of the human spirit. Regardless of the abuse they had suffered, the one thing they wanted was someone to love them.

The last location on that night’s journey was in the toughest area of Hampton Roads, where gangs ruled the streets. When we arrived with the stew and clothes, a young black man stepped out of the shadows and asked in a hate-filled voice, “What are you doing here, honky?” My feet wanted to run but my legs wouldn’t work. I told him who I was and that we had brought food for the community center. While I was talking to the first man four other young men stepped out of the shadows. I figured that Jesus and I were getting ready to meet face-to-face.

The young man turned to his fellow gang members and told them that we were preachers and not to harm us or the truck.

He escorted us into the shelter, showed us around and helped distribute the food and clothes. I asked him why he was being so helpful and he responded, “These people need help and no one else has cared enough to even show up.” He told us that we would be welcome anytime because we actually had taken action to give his people what they needed, rather than just holding a Bible study.

That night was the night I learned that you must earn the right to share the Gospel by meeting people at their point of need as Jesus did. If you aren’t willing to roll up your sleeves and “get into the trenches,” then you should not have the privilege of ministering among the poor.

That night, the “good deed” of helping the poor became personal. It hurt to see the pain in these defeated people; they just wanted another chance. They felt that they were separated from the love of God and that no one cared for them or about them; we were

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there to reassure them that wasn’t true.

For months to come, I would wake up and remember those children’s desperate hugs, wonder whether the baby lived and if the lady ever got her money from her cheating husband. I did not know how to help them, but I felt a stirring in my soul. What I experienced that night continued to haunt me for years.

Christmas Angels The following December, the Major of the Salvation Army in Gloucester called me several days before Christmas and asked our church to help with the Christmas angels whose names were on the tree at the new Wal-Mart. These poor children would wake up on Christmas morning with no presents unless someone provided them. I could not imagine being a child and waking up on Christmas morning without a tree and without gifts. I quickly agreed to take all the angels. After some thought, I called back to see how many angels needed gifts.

“One hundred fifty,” he said. I let the number sink in. There were one hundred and fifty angels waiting for me to provide Christmas gifts for them!

I went before the congregation at my church that Sunday and asked for their help by donating the money for these children’s gifts. We collected over two thousand dollars. Twelve women offered to help me shop early the next morning.

Keeping in mind how much money we had collected, I used a calculator to add up the cost so the women did not buy more than we could afford. The manager of the Wal-Mart came up to us and we talked about the need in our community for food, clothing and baby products. Surprisingly, he offered to donate all the items that customers returned to his store, if we could use them 12

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If we could use them???

It surprised me when, ten minutes later, the Wal-Mart employees rolled out three carts loaded so high that they had to hold the clothes on top of the carts. I had no idea that so much was returned to Wal-Mart! Later we learned that returns are a multibillion dollar industry and that thirty percent of the cost of any item you purchase covers the cost of returning that item.

Because of the generosity of the people in my church, we were able to make Christmas special for those 150 children. Because of the generosity of Wal-Mart, we were also able to provide each of the angels’ parents or guardians a new piece of clothing as well.

We asked permission from Wal-Mart to come back every Friday to collect any returned items. Next, we set up a distribution center in our church basement and stocked it with the baby clothes, baby products, adult clothes, food and other supplies that Wal-Mart generously provided. These items, in turn, were given to those in need in our community. This was my first pass at a gleaning ministry.

Socks and the Homeless In the winter of 1993, I received a call from a man who was in charge of homeless ministries in the area. The temperature was predicted to drop below zero and the blowing wind was expected to create a brutal night. This man needed a creative way to draw the homeless out of abandoned city buildings so he could give them blankets and help with other basic needs. The only thing our church had was several hundred pairs of athletic socks.

That night, I learned that homeless people have a myriad of uses for socks. They can be used to cover the feet, hands and head and to carry their few possessions. For a new pair of socks, a

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homeless person who has learned not to trust anyone, would come out of hiding. I contacted Wal-Mart and they donated even more socks—enough to fill a van.

Homeless people across from the White House in Washington, D.C.

There is something eternally wrong with people suffering in the cold weather when we live in the wealthiest country in the world. No one should face starvation, the cold and wind, and feel that they had fallen from God’s favor simply because difficult circumstances have forced them to live this way. How could the Christian Church allow this to happen without providing assistance and reassuring these people that they were not forgotten by God? If the Scripture is true and God is sufficient to meet all our needs, why was I warm and well-fed while the homeless suffered? There had to be some way to change the circumstances and the future these people faced.

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When Super Storm Sandy destroyed so much of New York and New Jersey, Gleaning was one of the first nonprofits to place food, water and blankets to care for the people living in extremely cold temperatures.

A homeless man living across from the White House, wrapped in a blanket from Gleaning For The World.

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C hapter T wo SOMEONE WHO IS WILLING “Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?” (James 2:5 NKJV)

Question: What does God want you to do?

“What does God want you to do?”

In 1995, my wife and I met with Tom Stockton, the resident Bishop of the United Methodist Church of Virginia, to discuss the church I was pastoring. After more than an hour of discussion, Bishop Stockton stopped talking and asked me, “Ron, what does God want you to do?”

For the next thirty minutes, I verbally laid out a plan for a gleaning ministry. I told him that if we could raise $100,000, we could ship $1,000,000 in supplies to people in desperate need. I outlined how we could buy a used truck, get volunteers to help load and unload, get storage space donated and options of where to get the supplies. His interest was piqued, but he did not have $100,000 available to fund this project.

On the way home, my wife, Jackie, was quiet. Finally, she turned to me and asked where I had gotten the answer to Bishop Stockton’s question of what God wanted me to do. Actually, I was wondering the same thing myself! Before that conversation with the Bishop, I had never considered a full-time gleaning ministry and was as surprised as she was when the words came out of my mouth.

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I think Jackie realized that her life was getting ready to change drastically. I did not know this at the time, but God had a plan for my life to develop this gleaning ministry. It would soon to become a reality.

“Since you have all of that figured out, we may as well do it.”

In 1996, Bishop Stockton transferred me to a beautiful church in my hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia. I was in heaven! Being back around my family and friends was better than I could imagine. The church staff was great, the sanctuary was beautiful and the salary was more than sufficient. I remember feeling that I had arrived.

On the outside, everything seemed great. On the inside, I knew something was wrong.

After a year as the pastor of the church, I knew that God had plans for me to do something else, but I did not know exactly what He wanted. My soul was as restless as a leaf in a hail storm. On November 14, 1997, I was home preparing for a church meeting.

Suddenly, I turned to Jackie and told her that I could not be a pastor anymore.

She was shocked. Her first question was, “What in the world are you going to do? Being a pastor is all you have ever known.”

I told her I wanted to start a gleaning ministry. After spending twenty-seven years as a pastor, I only needed seven more to retire early from the United Methodist Church. That could be done under special assignment; I could devote the majority of my time to the gleaning ministry. Jackie and I could have our weekends free for the first time, take vacations and even finish building a home on my family’s land.

She had a few questions about finances. I had to admit that I

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did not know any of the answers. Jackie’s response was priceless: “Since you have all of that figured out, we may as well do it.”

How can a 48-year-old preacher with a bad back and attentiondeficit disorder make a difference?

The next day, I sent a letter of intent to Bishop Stockton and our District Superintendent, outlining the fact that I would not be available for appointment in June 1998. That evening, I presented a letter to the church leadership announcing my intention to not seek re-appointment as pastor so that I could establish a mission ministry working with the poor. Clearly, this was a leap of faith. I had potentially closed the door on twenty-seven years of church ministry, having no idea what ‘a ministry to the poor’ even meant.

Later that evening, I sat on the porch and wondered if I could retrieve those resignation letters. I was scared! My thoughts went to the electrician at the homeless shelter and how quickly he had gone from earning $25 an hour as a certified electrician to living on the street. If this dream of mine failed, Jackie and I could be living on the streets in a matter of time.

Imagine how surprised I was when four months passed and no one at church said a word about the letter or my decision. Finally, I asked a man in our church who I respected, what he thought and why no one had mentioned the decision.

“First of all,” he said slowly, “we think you have lost your mind.

Second, it is your decision and we do not have a voice. Third, we expect you to change your mind and be back next year.” Then he added, “Most of us wish we had the guts to do what you are doing.”

Wanting validation for my choice to leave the church for the uncertainty of a ministry to the poor, I asked him for guidance.

“Of those three points you mentioned,” I asked, “which do you 18

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think is the most important?”

“Number one,” he responded. “We think you’ve lost your mind.

You are seven years from retirement, you have a beautiful house, a great income and are on top of the world,” he continued. “You are giving all of that up for what? A chance to help people that already have other social agencies helping them and an army of churches that are supposed to be helping? How can a 48-year-old preacher with a bad back and attention-deficit disorder make a difference?”

He was right. There were thousands of nonprofits who were already making a difference by working with the poor. In addition, churches were supposed to work with the poor. However, the reality is that many churches haven’t identified the poor in their own community, nor have they put in place a ministry to help them. I knew that this gleaning ministry is what God had called me to do. I was determined to do what I felt in my heart was the right thing to do, regardless of what others thought God moves in mysterious ways In March 1998, a member of my church was at the local hospital, scheduled for open-heart surgery. I went there to visit and pray with him. As he was being wheeled down the hall on the gurney, he turned to me and said, “We have some medical goods -- bandages, sutures and catheters included with the medical equipment we purchased from the government to resell. If you can find some use for them, I would love to give the products away.”

At that time, John, a businessman in salvage material, did not know of my plans for the gleaning ministry. After he was released from the hospital and returned home, I visited John and shared

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the story of the nonprofit I wanted to establish and my goal to reach people in poverty.

Over the next few months, John and I spent hours talking about his work as a salvage dealer and how that could be used for the gleaning ministry. For example, the United States government sells medical supplies, along with good medical and dental equipment, for less than ten percent of their value. We realized that we could buy tractor-trailer loads of medical goods for a few hundred dollars and, in turn, use them to provide help to the poor.

Over the next few years, John and I would work together to move millions of dollars worth of medical supplies for the poor. Isn’t it amazing that God can use a man on his way to the operating room for open-heart surgery in order to save His children from horrible medical conditions all around the world?

Since beginning this ministry, I have learned that God indeed “moves in mysterious ways” and He does not need my intellect to change my life or the ministry. The plans for this ministry were His. He only asked for me to be obedient. He then set in motion and blessed a ministry that was vastly different from what I had envisioned at the beginning. In fact, He has even used me without my full knowledge of what He was doing. I often find myself in the middle of a miracle and wonder how I got there.

You may wonder, what is my primary qualification for leading this amazing gleaning ministry? I was willing. Are you?

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Ray Buchanan of Stop Hunger Now and Rev. Davidson loading a truck of medical supplies.

The owner of Valtim that gave us the first warehouse space in Forest, Virginia.

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C hapter T hree THE MEANING OF “GLEANING” “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the LORD your God” (Leviticus 19:9-10)

Question: Can the poor teach us to love God and not things?

Naming the ministry In February of 1998, I learned that I had to apply for a nonprofit certificate with the Commonwealth of Virginia and the federal government in order to set up this new gleaning ministry.

An attorney in the church agreed to file the papers, but I had to complete them. I started around 11:00 P.M, but about 2:00 AM I came upon the blank that asked for the name of the organization.

I had not even thought about a name. I sat for a long time trying to come up with something that would catch attention and define the ministry.

For years, I had worked with a nearby ministry that incorporated the “gleaning” concept to procure food for the hungry. While serving on their board, I had researched the term “gleaning,” which is God’s way of caring for the poor by allowing them to collect grain on the sides of a field. If a person was willing to work, even the poorest of the poor could have food through the 22

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gleaning method.

After an hour of writing names and playing with different possibilities, the only thing that made sense was “Gleaning For The World”. We were an organization that would be gleaning stores, industries and manufacturers for the supplies they could not sell.

“Gleaning” is not a word used in many day-to-day conversations and therefore, many people do not know what it means. As soon as we started Gleaning For The World, people would see my shirts with the name printed on them, and get the word “gleaning” confused with “cleaning.” Late one night, I was at a local electronics store getting some wire to work on a trailer. When I approached the counter, the manager looked at my shirt and said, “Man, do I need your help!” That caught me off-guard. He continued, “I need a company to come in after hours and clean the showroom. Would you make an offer to handle that? If we can agree on a price you can start tomorrow night.”

I assured the manager that I would do it for nothing! If he would just leave me a set of keys when he came in the next morning, everything in the showroom would be gone and he would not have to worry about the dust. I would even vacuum the floors after I removed all the products.

The poor guy was totally confused until I smiled, and explained the meaning of “gleaning” and how we collect supplies for the poor. I joked that if I were gleaning, I would remove all his products, load them on a truck and be gone before the sun came up. He suddenly realized that gleaning meant he would be giving away hundreds of thousands of dollars in supplies, rather than getting his floors cleaned.

There have been many people who have approached me about “cleaning” for them. It gives me a chance to explain the

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meaning of gleaning and how God cared for the poor through the process of collecting grain. At one point, we seriously considered changing the name and removing “gleaning” since very few knew what it meant. However, after talking with a number of marketing professionals, we decided to keep the word in our name and use it as an introduction to what we do. It is so unique that it developed into a solid brand.

What does “gleaning” mean?

I’m often asked, “What exactly does ‘gleaning’ mean?”

Gleaning is an Old Testament concept that refers to a method of sharing of one’s wealth in order to care for the poor. God has always loved the poor and provided for them, so He incorporated the concept of gleaning into the very fabric of the Nation of Israel by making it a part of Old Testament law: When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

20 When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. 21 When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow (Deuteronomy 24:19-21).

The workers would reap the field of its grain, but God instructed them to leave the grain from the edges of the field so the poor could have something to eat. After the harvest, poor people — the foreigners, fatherless and widows from Scripture — were permitted to “glean” the leftover grain around the sides of the field. Some farmers who were faithful to what God had

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commanded even planted extra grain just for the poor to glean.

Through the gleaning concept, the wealthy had all they needed and their abundance was used to bless the poor. Gleaning was — and still is — one way God’s people can share with those in need.

At Gleaning For The World, we incorporate a modern concept of gleaning by accepting surplus and unused products from businesses, government agencies, factories, hospitals and department stores. When hospitals and medical centers upgrade to new technology, we collect medical supplies and equipment.

We take products that don’t meet quality control standards, but are still usable and have a good expiration date. You would be surprised how many products are no longer salable just because they are the wrong color or fragrance. We purchase equipment from government auctions at a steep discount. We gather products damaged in shipping that are still usable and collect products with packaging or labeling changes.

God enables us to ship valuable products all over the world to help the poor because we are willing to glean things that otherwise have been considered unusable or unsalable. These products, most likely, would have been slated for the landfill.

Since its founding in 1998, Gleaning has saved many acres of landfill space by incorporating the “gleaning” concept.

A Bible story about gleaning The best example of gleaning in the Bible comes from the story of Ruth, Naomi and Boaz. Naomi and her family had moved from the Bethlehem area to Moab after a terrible drought struck Bethlehem. Naomi’s husband, Elimelek, then died, leaving her with two sons who had married two Moabite girls, Ruth and Orpah.

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When Naomi’s sons also died, their widows were allowed to remarry and had no commitment to Naomi. Orpah immediately went to live with her family. When Ruth lingered behind, Naomi told her she was free to leave as well. Ruth’s response must have surprised Naomi: But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you.

Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” Ruth 1:16-17 Ruth’s commitment to her mother-in-law went above and beyond what was required of her. She showed her devotion to the God her mother-in-law served. She also showed loyalty to her mother-in-law by her willingness to care for her for life.

Naomi and Ruth eventually moved back to Bethlehem where the rest of Naomi’s family lived. When they arrived there, they were poor. Ruth offered to glean leftover grain from neighboring fields just so they could survive.

By the sovereign grace of God, Ruth just happened to glean in the field belonging to Boaz, a relative of Naomi’s. He was a devoted believer and had instructed his laborers to leave the grain on the edge of the field so the widows, orphans and poor could find food.

When he realized Ruth was related to him through Naomi, he commented on the reputation she had earned for her loyalty to her mother-in-law. Because of this and her beauty, Boaz offered Ruth special privileges to glean additional grain from his fields.

Ruth and Boaz eventually married. God blessed Ruth, not only for her great faithfulness to her mother-in-law, but her faithfulness 26

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to Naomi’s God. Tithing and financial gifts At Gleaning for the World, some people give us financial gifts to help with operational costs. The gifts are honored as a gift to God. Most nonprofits use forty to fifty percent of donations to raise more money. Gleaning decided early in its ministry not to follow that path. So, for every dollar donated to Gleaning, we use the majority to care for the poor. Through our program of using volunteers to pack and sort materials, we can even multiply the effects of that donated dollar. That’s what makes Gleaning the most effective and efficient charity in America, according to Forbes Magazine.

We appreciate all donations and know that some people are going without so they can send money to help the poor or they incorporate the concept of “grandmother’s egg money.” Years ago, when people did not have money to make their church tithe, women would raise chickens, gather the eggs and sell them. The money from the eggs went to their church as part of their tithe.

When I started Gleaning, my brother talked to me one night about how we were going to fund the ministry. After a short discussion, he said, “Always remember that the people who will donate to Gleaning are like the women who gave more than they could, like the ones with grandmother’s “egg money”. I knew what he meant and he was right. Our donors often had to make sacrifices to give monetary gifts, but it was important to them to help the poor.

To show our appreciation, I made a commitment at that point that still holds true today. Every person who donates to Gleaning, regardless of the amount, receives a letter back from me that is signed and has a personal note in it. When we were just starting,

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it would only be a few letters a day. When we are responding to disasters now, there are times when it can be a hundred letters. I never leave at the end of the day without signing the letters and writing a short note of thanks.

One Sunday morning, a gentleman at a church stopped me.

He had received his thank-you letter and note and wanted to let me know that he knew that it was done by a computer. I listened for a few minutes and stopped the conversation. I assured him that it was my personal signature and I had written the note always have and always will. He asked why I would “waste” my time doing that. I assured him that it was not a waste of time or a way to get more money. It is simple appreciation. I told him about my brother’s conversation and that it meant more to me than I could express that people gave generously when they did not have to.

He left for a few minutes and came back with another check. His comment stuck with me when he said, “I give thousands of dollars a year to groups who don’t care and don’t even express a thank you. From now on, it is coming to you.”

Our greatest resource is volunteers It took about two weeks of being the President and the only employee of Gleaning before I realized that I had to have help handling the weight and volume of our donated supplies. Four older men from my former church agreed to help me load and unload products. When we had to move, clean and load the equipment at Halifax General Hospital, I needed more than four volunteers. I asked everyone I knew for help. Each week we had six to twelve people volunteering their time. A local teenager worked side-by-side with me, loading and unloading supplies. My assistant at the last church where I pastored came to help with 28

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Gleaning For The World’s early volunteers, who helped pack, sort and load containers (from left to right): Wendell Carwile, Cabell Crews, Chuck Calhoun, Kendal Foster, Jackie Davidson, Rev. Ron Davidson, and Cokie Davidson

paperwork and inventory. The list of volunteers was growing.

When we had especially large shipments to load, I was helped by my wife, son, friends, and others. Soon, churches began sending groups of volunteers. Trinity United Methodist Church was the first to do this; soon others heard about the need and called to volunteer. Within a few months, the ministry went from a lone staff member to an army of volunteers.

We are unique among nonprofits in that we utilize volunteers to help with sorting and packing duties. Gleaning is built on the backs and souls of awesome Christian people who come weekly, monthly or when we have special needs. They are our staff and are treated with respect and appreciation. The annual value of our volunteer hours at Gleaning is more than $187,000.

Our volunteers are comprised of teens, adults, senior adults

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Loading a 53 ft. truck with supplies by hand. In two hours we could load 35,000 pounds.

and the mentally and physically handicapped. Each one of them has a calling from God to work with us. Our volunteers are God’s army and we can only thank God for bringing His people together to bless the poor.

I often walk through the warehouse to take a break and thank our volunteers for helping. One day, I noticed a lady in her eighties working at a table. I had known her for several years and knew that she had horrible back problems and lived with severe pain every day. That day, I sat down beside her, and for thirty minutes she told me her story. When she was a teenager, she said, she felt the call of God to become a missionary and she told God she would. Around the same time, financial doors were opened so she could afford a college education. While in college, she met her husband. After marriage, the children came and she never fulfilled her call as a missionary.

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This lady was a faithful wife and a great mother. She worked in her church and supported mission work through her tithe, but that feeling of not fulfilling God’s mission never left her.

At age seventy-eight, she became a volunteer at Gleaning For The World and we gave her the job of going through medical supplies and separating them by expiration date. Since she had back pain, she sat at a table to work. Every week, she volunteered for two to three hours. Regardless of whether she was sick, in pain or had other duties at home, she showed up to volunteer.

While we talked that day, I thanked her for the hundreds of hours she spent helping us. I assured her that her faithfulness was not overlooked by us or God. She turned to me with tears in her eyes and said that I had it all wrong. In the three years that she sat there separating medical supplies, she found peace between her soul and God. For the first time in sixty years, she was a missionary. She sat at that table knowing the next person who touched the supplies she was separating would use them to save a life and possibly a soul. After sixty years of feeling that she had not been obedient to God, she had finally found peace.

Another story comes from a young man in his late twenties, who shared why he was so committed to helping us. Previously, he had some serious problems in his life such as alcohol, drugs, and a failed marriage. After getting in a violent fight with a friend, this young man was placed at Gleaning by a local judge to work out his hours of community service. When those were finished, he had months to face in prison.

From people witnessing to him and encouraging him to turn his life around, he made such a change that the judge gave him additional community hours so he did not have to go to jail. After the hours were completed, he continued to volunteer. “If I had

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not been sent to Gleaning,” he said, “I would be in prison. No one has ever treated me with so much respect. I had never heard about Jesus so this is the first time since I was 15 that I am clean of drugs and alcohol and feel like I have a chance. I just cannot leave this place.”

Using “gleaning” to help the poor When beginning the ministry, I researched other nonprofits in the area and found several that incorporated the gleaning concept. I used one as a business model and translated that concept into collecting lifesaving supplies and sharing them with the poor.

This gleaning concept also has translated into helping our environment. According to a recent study by environmental nonprofits, more than three billion pounds of useable supplies, which could be used to save lives, are destroyed each year in our nation’s landfills. We have saved many loads of products and supplies from being disposed of in those landfills and have used them to help those in desperate need. The powerful concept of gleaning is a win/win for everyone involved.

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C hapter F our THE POOR ARE YOUR SHEEP “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd” (Matthew 9:36)

Question: Who are your sheep?

There was no turning back In April 1998, during morning worship service, I announced my decision to the congregation to resign as pastor, effective in June. I told them I was leaving to begin a ministry to the poor.

There was no turning back now.

Then the depression began. I had trouble getting out of bed and did not want to see anyone. I made an appointment with a local doctor to determine what was wrong. After our discussion, he prescribed medication for depression. However, I felt even worse a month later. As the date approached for me to leave my position as pastor, the more depressed and defeated I felt.

We had signed a contract for the new home, secured a loan and cleared the land on the farm where I grew up in Virginia.

During the next few months, there were many changes that occurred, which only worsened the depression. My wife and I had secured a loan for our new home, which was to be built on my family’s farm. In June 1998, Jackie and I moved into my brother’s basement while our house was under construction. To afford this new home, I took a part-time appointment at a small country church.

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Being closer to family was wonderful. Even though our new living space was smaller than what we were used to, I loved being with my brother, his wife and son. Also, my mother’s basement apartment was the site of the office for our new ministry. I could see my Mom every day – she even fixed my lunch!

Everything was in place, but I could not shake the constant depression, which also caused physical pain. My bones ached.

The pills were not working. Depression had consumed my life and I felt that I could not fully concentrate on the work God had given me. I loved establishing the new gleaning ministry, but leaving a beautiful church, giving up a great salary, moving with my wife to a basement apartment and losing touch with people who had needed my guidance made me feel like a failure. I have always been a “people person” and enjoy having people around. This gleaning ministry was brand new, and I was the only employee. I was lonely, scared and dealing with an entirely new situation.

I contacted a friend of mine, who is the most intelligent person I know, and asked him what could be wrong with me. He said, “I don’t know what your problem is. You asked for this and now you are depressed. Normally, when we get what we ask for, it makes us happy.”

“You have lost your sheep” In August 1998, I was continuing to see my doctor, who offered to place me on long-term disability. I told him I did not want to go on disability at that time, but wanted to keep the option open. Suddenly, I began to cry. “What do you think is wrong with me?” I asked.

My doctor put his notebook down, looked straight into my eyes and said: “Since you were young, you have had one calling—taking care of others. Now you are driving a truck picking up supplies. I 34

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am not trying to be biblical, but you have lost your sheep. When you find them, this depression will lift.”

I thought about his comment for a few minutes and asked the obvious question. “Who are my sheep?”

I knew my problem was not about driving a truck compared with being a pastor. I loved driving and the long hours on the road. The stress was less, driving the truck was fun and the exercise of loading and unloading the supplies was great.

However, there was something missing. At night, the darkness came to visit and nothing could make it leave. Without a change, I knew the depression would get worse. My question still hung in the air, so I asked again. “Who are my sheep?”

Dr. Scott thought for a while, then gave me a brilliant answer.

“The poor are your sheep now,” he said. “They do not have a voice. They are lonely and hungry. Few people really care whether they live or die.” He continued, “No government agency is going to be there long-term. Even many churches will not allow them to be members.”

What came out of his mouth next went right to my heart.

“The poor are your sheep now, and there are very few shepherds who care enough to help them.”

After leaving the doctor’s office, I went home and cried and prayed for hours. Then an amazing thing happened; I literally felt the depression lift and I had absolute knowledge that it was gone.

I took my medication for depression and threw it away, knowing that it was no longer necessary.

I finally realized what I had been missing -- people. I had gone from leading a congregation of many people to leading no one.

My doctor’s words were sinking in. The poor were now my sheep, my “congregation” if you will. I began to more fully comprehend

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the depth of the ministry to which God had called me. I was called not just to a cause—but to people in need.

Once I had this epiphany and embraced it, the depression lifted. Occasionally, I will feel mildly depressed at times, but I have come to realize that is when I forget that God is in control and that he is the One who makes miracles happen.

The gleaning ministry takes shape After I realized that I was a shepherd to the poor, the ministry really began to take shape. As I began to nail down some of the specifics of how the ministry would work, I received clear direction from the Lord that our ministry to the poor would be different from other ministries. Instead of having people on site doing the hard work of saving lives and saving souls, we would be working hard to salvage supplies and products to send to people in desperate need.

We started small, but in a matter of time we began to do our gleaning from a number of businesses, government agencies, factories, hospitals and department stores. We began to see God provide many valuable items for us to ship to people in need.

Through His blessing, we were able to bring in useful, life-saving supplies that would have ended up in a landfill or even destroyed had we not taken the time to go get them. But because we did, many people were going to have a chance at a better life.

The ministry goes global The ministry that I had envisioned and had described to my wife was a part-time ministry which provided supplies for homeless shelters, centers for abused women and people in poverty in the United States. My plans were regional at most, certainly not 36

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international.

You see, I am not a world traveler. By 1998, I had only visited five states in America in my entire life. I had never even flown in a commercial aircraft much less traveled internationally. I am a homebody at heart, and love to be home at night with my family, secure in my own environment.

But God isn’t concerned about our comfort. He is concerned about our commitment to Him and our fellow man. I did not know it at the time, but God had a plan to take us international.

The first large donation of supplies we received came from Halifax Memorial Hospital in Halifax, Virginia. The hospital’s materials manager had heard me speak at a church about Gleaning’s ministry in April1998. At the end of the service, he met me at the door to tell me that his hospital had collected a warehouse full of used beds, gurneys, exam tables and other hospital equipment.

We could have anything we wanted. The next day, I met him at this three-story warehouse and could not believe that 12,000 square feet could hold everything I saw stored there.

There was only one problem with this amazing donation we were about to receive. The beds, gurneys, exam tables and other supplies were older equipment and used; therefore, they could not be used in U.S. hospitals. It had never occurred to me before this point that our supplies would go anywhere but the U.S. I contacted a few friends and found that they knew of a ministry in Texas. This ministry wanted everything we had for a medical ministry they were establishing in North Korea. The president of the Texas-based ministry had traveled to North Korea and worked out an agreement with the government to open a seven-story hospital and a four-story dental clinic. Since North Korea is not an approved government for American nonprofits to work in,

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sending supplies to this hospital had to be approved by the U.S. State Department. Once we secured that approval, which was accompanied by their offer to pay for the shipping, we were able to ship those supplies to the Christian ministry in North Korea.

Now we had our product, a market for the product, and a chance to help open the only Western-style hospital in Communist North Korea.

Just like that, God took Gleaning global. However, getting the supplies out of the warehouse and shipped to North Korea was to be a difficult process.

Supplies from Gleaning For The World being delivered in Guatemala.

Since the equipment had been stored for years, we had to take it down a freight elevator, wash it clean and load it into a 53-foot truck. It was summertime; the temperature on the third floor of the warehouse was over a hundred degrees with no breeze. With an army of volunteers we could have handled one truckload a day, working twelve hours a day. Unfortunately, I did not have an army 38

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of volunteers, but I did have one teenage boy, who volunteered and worked like a grown man, helping me load and unload supplies. Together, we cleaned, loaded and inventoried five 53foot trucks of supplies and four 24-foot trucks of equipment out of that three-story warehouse. It took many days, but knowing that a hospital in North Korea would be happily receiving and using the equipment made it all worth it.

When God provides a product, He already has a place for it Soon after we had cleaned and loaded the tractor-trailers from Halifax Hospital, I got a call from a man at a local company. I had known him at my last church as a wonderful guy and a leader in the early service. His job was to pray for the offering, but there was a major problem. He talked so softly that no one could hear his prayers, so I asked him one morning if he could speak up so we could hear him. His response was typical.

“When I bless the offering I am not talking to you,” he said.

“God hears it and the rest just have to wait until I finish.”

The company he worked with had four tractor-trailer loads of a cleansing product in Italy. This product was worth almost $1 million, but it had to leave Italy. It could be used anywhere else in the world; it was free and had good dating—so I took it.

I have to admit that geography was not my strongest subject. I had to get a globe to find out where Italy is located. Later, when my brother asked me what I had gleaned that day, I told him about the cleansing product from Italy. He was curious how we were going to find a recipient for it. I told him, “I have learned that when God provides a product, He already has a place for it.” That is God’s job; my job is to find out where He wants the product sent.

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When we visited the coast of Sri Lanka, a small girl walked beside me the whole time and asked many questions. Where we were standing, the water from the Tsunami had been twenty feet high. She had lost her family and still wanted to learn and be loved

About an hour later, I received a call from the Texas ministry that had been instrumental in placing our first international shipment. I had sent out an email to several of my contacts that a cleansing product was available in Italy, but must be sent elsewhere.

We discovered that this cleansing product had a high alcohol content. Every product has a primary use for which it is manufactured, but may be used for other purposes, depending on the ingredients. The challenge is finding out what these additional uses could be. We had researched the product and had an idea.

In North Korea, they do not have a preoperative scrub to 40

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clean the skin before surgery. As a result, the infection rate is horrible; more people die from infections than from surgery. This cleansing product was approved to ship from Italy to North Korea to be used as a preoperative scrub.

Now who, other than God, can take a product manufactured in Italy, arranged for shipment through a company located in Virginia, and send it to North Korea so that people can have a higher rate of survival after surgery?

God can make anything happen This is when I first started to realize that God can make anything happen if we will stop being hard-headed, listen to Him and follow His calling for what he wants us to do. Many more of God’s children could be blessed if we would just open our eyes and see the needs of the people around us.

During the visit to Haiti, Rev. Davidson met this small five-year-old girl. Most orphans had not seen a white man before, much less one that knew how to play.

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I was setting up a nonprofit Christian ministry for the poor in the United States but in thirty days it became an international ministry changing the lives of thousands of people in North Korea.

Soon, we were shipping supplies to the Republic of Georgia, then the Congo and dozens of other countries.

In those early days, I realized God had used someone who had never flown on a commercial airplane, had not previously known where North Korea or Italy were located on a map and had no idea how to ship supplies overseas. This was not a very impressive resume, but God had led me to care for the sheep I never knew existed.

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C hapter F ive GOD LOVES ALL CHILDREN “Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward” (Psalm 127:3)

Question: How do we become like a child in God’s eyes?

Things were tight, but God is sufficient In Gleaning’s second year, we moved to a warehouse on Kemper Street in Lynchburg, Virginia. We were renting the space, but finally had our own building with about 18,000 square feet of storage and a dock where we could load supplies into tractortrailers for transport. We also bought a forklift, which made things much easier. Loading 30,000 pounds by hand into a 40-foot-long tractor-trailer container was tiring and dangerous. So far, we

We moved to this location on Kemper Street in 1999. This was the first building where we had a loading dock and our own warehouse, which was 12,000 square feet.

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had shipped more than 75 of these containers. The ministry was growing faster than we ever imagined.

Looking back, I can see that God was supplying everything we needed, but things were always tight. There were two new payroll commitments in addition to the rent and equipment expenses.

We had hired a young man to help drive the truck and pick up product donations, and I had hired my wife as the administrative assistant.

An unbelievably big offer A church denomination located in Texas had heard about our work and called to see if I would meet with them. They were willing to fly from Texas to Lynchburg for the meeting. On a cold Wednesday morning, we met at the Gleaning warehouse.

They looked at the supplies, medical equipment, new clothes and everything we had in stock. On the day they visited, the warehouse was full, waiting for containers so the items could be shipped.

This group had done their homework. They knew about our work and loved the concept of Gleaning. Their goal was to help us double in size every year. In addition, they had missions’ ministries all over the world that needed the supplies we could provide and they wanted to expand their missions work. After some discussion, they offered to partner with us and made me an unbelievably big offer.

They offered to financially subsidize Gleaning, providing us with several millions of dollars per year to cover our expenses.

They would keep our current staff and increase my salary from $25,000 per year to what I was making when I left pastoral work.

The increase in funds would allow us to hire more people, locate more products and greatly expand the ministry.

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This offer was amazing; it seemed like a partnership made in heaven. We didn’t have any major monetary donors at the time.

Every week, we paid the bills we could afford to pay, and if there were funds left over, I received a salary. I was working long hours and the stress was taking a toll on my health. To have someone come to our warehouse, offer to pay the bills, plus provide for my salary and make funds available to expand the ministry had to be sent from God. Or was it?

The defining question It continues to amaze me how God prepares us spiritually and mentally for temptation. Several weeks before meeting with this denomination about taking over the ministry, I had received an email from a missionary friend. The picture showed a six-year-old boy in rags, dirty and hungry, standing at the gate of an orphanage watching well dressed, well-fed and happy children playing in the yard. The missionary’s comments were, “This is a paradox that hurts my soul. This is the way the poor see the church. They stand on the streets poor, hungry and defeated while we stand inside and never acknowledge them.”

As I stood in the warehouse, considering the denomination’s generous offer, I heard God’s voice prompting me to ask a question based on this picture of the young boy. Please understand, when I pray I don’t see lightning or hear thunder.

Like the poem, I can see God’s footprints when I look back at things that have already happened. I seldom see the footprints when I am moving forward.

I looked at this group, who had just offered to take over Gleaning and provide millions of dollars each year so the ministry could not only continue, but thrive, and I asked the ministry’s

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leader the defining question I kept hearing in my head.

“Guys, I certainly appreciate the offer, but before we continue, there’s one thing I need to know,” I said. “You mentioned an orphanage in India. Let me ask you, if a six-year-old Hindu child came to the orphanage and was hungry, would you feed him?”

“No,” he replied, matter-of-factly.

“No?” I asked in disbelief.

“No,” he repeated.

“So, you’re saying you would feed only Christian orphans? If they were Hindu, you wouldn’t feed them?”

“That is correct,” he said. “Our responsibility is to the Christians and not the Hindus.”

His answer was shocking. I was absolutely incensed. By matter of creation, every child is a child of God. The heart of Gleaning’s mission statement is clear: No matter who, no matter where — whenever human beings are suffering — Gleaning For The World will do whatever it takes to provide the supplies — the hope — they so desperately need.

We are committed to feeding any hungry child, regardless of religion. The child’s parents may be Hindu, but that child is God’s child and deserves food. The child will make his own decision about his faith when he is older, but at six years old he is simply a hungry child.

I waited a few moments to gather my thoughts, took a breath and finally asked them where they thought the discussions were at this point. They assured me I would have a document from their attorney within a week and the first check for several million dollars as soon as I signed the ministry over to them. Gleaning’s financial problems would be solved.

I had my own solution. “I’ll give you two choices,” I said. “First, 46

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you can leave my building and never come back.”

They looked at each other, shocked. I emphatically told them I would never work with anyone who would allow a child to die for religious reasons.

The ministry’s leader asked me what the second option was.

“You can leave in the next five minutes or I’ll throw you out myself,” I said.

They quickly gathered up their things and left.

I can’t tolerate religious bigotry. Before I would “sell out” our ministry, I would close it down. This was created to honor God and be faithful to his vision of helping the poor, regardless of race or religion. My job is to show His love in a practical manner. His part is to move in their hearts as they respond to the love of Jesus Christ.

Refusing to sell out When I got home, I told Jackie that the ministry leaders from Texas had come to the warehouse and looked at everything we had in stock. I told her that they loved the concept of Gleaning and wanted to see us double in size every year. I mentioned their ministries all over the world and their desire to expand their mission work. Then I told her about their unbelievably big offer, particularly the money they were willing to pour into Gleaning.

She became really excited, started dancing around and was ecstatic to finally have some financial security.

Soon, she noticed that I was not as excited as she was. She stopped dancing.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

That was when I told her about hearing God’s voice and the defining question about feeding a Hindu orphan. I told her their

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answer and the two choices I had given them. I thought she would kill me, but I was wrong. Instead, she only said, “Well, let’s go back to work.” She totally agreed with what I had done. We were still struggling financially but the integrity of the ministry remained, and so did ours. We had not sold out.

Through our work since then, keeping this integrity has resulted in tens of thousands of people becoming Christians.

Earning the right to be heard What the leaders of that Texas ministry didn’t understand was that humanitarian aid opens the door for the Gospel. When it comes to reaching the poor, you need to feed both the body and the soul. However, whoever first reaches those in need with supplies has the advantage in sharing their faith. The poor are not interested in our message until we have earned the right to be heard.

The earthquake in Haiti affected the poorest of the poor. In two days, Gleaning placed over a million meals of food in Port-au-Prince.

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When we began Gleaning For The World, we chose not to place people on-site (or “in the field”) delivering the food, clothing and other supplies we gathered. That decision stemmed partly from the fact that we didn’t have experience in fieldwork. There are people on-site in the mission field who know how to care for the natives of the area. Every country has its own culture and anyone going “in the field” must be knowledgeable and respectful of that culture. I felt my job was to stay home and ship supplies to those valued missionaries in the field who knew how they should be used. Because I’d never traveled overseas, I would have been what missionaries call a “tourist Christian,” meaning people who come and help for a week or two, then leave. Another reason we didn’t place people in the field was simple — we didn’t have the funding for travel.

Because of our connections with missionaries in the field, our limited overhead, our flexibility and access to supplies, we are often the organization that gets supplies to a disaster site before anyone else. We contact organizations and churches in the area and arrange for them to be a distribution point for people receiving these supplies. Afterwards, those who were helped will remember that their needs were met by Christians. This opens the door for them to be receptive to the Gospel of Jesus, but only because we were able to meet their physical needs first.

The one non-negotiable Several years later, I was introduced to Dr. Jerry Falwell, senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church and chancellor of Liberty University. I told him I’d like to discuss how Gleaning and TRBC could partner together to reach the poor and bring them to Christ. Dr. Falwell invited me to lunch and I invited him to

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tour Gleaning’s warehouse, which was now located in Concord, Virginia.

I rode with Dr. Falwell as he drove down Route 460 towards Concord, and we talked about a partnership. I told him there was one nonnegotiable that would have to be honored if we were going to work together. The nonnegotiable was that we would feed any child, regardless of faith or country of origin. Gleaning would feed Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Hindu — any hungry child.

I told him that if he was uncomfortable with that, the discussion was over.

Dr. Falwell looked at me for a long time, then he smiled. He assured me we would not have a problem.

Most people who were acquainted with Dr. Falwell knew he could come across as a tough conservative. However, I found him to have as great a love for people as any man I’ve ever met. He had great compassion for people who didn’t agree with him and would have, and did, help even those who considered themselves his “enemies”.

We eventually formalized the partnership with Thomas Road Baptist Church. After Dr. Falwell’s death in 2007, we continued that partnership with Dr. Falwell’s son, Jonathan, who is now TRBC’s senior pastor. Together, we have stayed true to our commitment to serve every person, regardless of his or her faith.

We have placed supplies in locations where Christians are not even allowed to openly worship.

When U.S. troops entered Baghdad for the first time during the second Gulf War, the city was a dangerous place for Christians.

The pastor of a Christian church in Baghdad contacted Jonathan for help, telling him that the Taliban had assured church leaders that if the church was still open in one month they would blow up 50

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the church with the people inside. The pastor was desperate to know how to save his church.

Jonathan consulted me, asking me to contact the pastor in Baghdad. My suggestion to the pastor was for the church to share humanitarian supplies with the people in their community.

We then shipped several containers of clothes, shoes, food and medical supplies to the church. The pastor and members immediately distributed the supplies and shared the hope for salvation and safety that only God can provide. Church members, who were extremely poor, got clothes, shoes and food, and a nearby medical clinic was reopened to care for the sick and injured. The church membership grew, as well as its commitment to the Gospel.

When the Taliban returned a month later, people from the community met them at the township’s border. The Taliban leaders reminded the townspeople that at the next service the church would be destroyed and everyone would die. Community leaders listened to the threats, then told the Taliban leaders, who had been in the community for many years, that the Taliban had never done anything to help the people. However, the Christians had been there for only a short time and they had fed children, distributed shoes and shown compassion the likes of which they had never seen.

After several hours of discussion, the Taliban leaders were given a few minutes to make the decision to leave permanently. Since then, this Christian church has grown significantly and continues to care for all the people in the community. Doing ministry God’s way, by showing love, is evangelism at its best. When we show love to all of God’s children, God blesses the work.

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God loves all children The Bible is clear that God loves all His children, not just those who already know Him. His heart hurts for the hurting and He wants us to help them. Without our help, the door may never be opened for them to hear about Christ or come to know Him as their Heavenly Father. Over the years, we have kept our commitment at Gleaning to feed ANY child, regardless of religion.

We have not sold out, and God has continued to bless this ministry.

Children are children wherever you find them. In Sri Lanka, children had lost their families and were living in a chicken coop, but they were still playing and happy – until we mentioned the storm.

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C hapter S ix GOD SUPPLIES “The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you” (Psalm 9:9-10 ESV)

Question: When times get tough, do we trust God or man?

Trusting in Him When we first started this gleaning ministry, Jackie was working at a local doctor’s office. At the time, I knew that if our new venture failed, we would have enough income from Jackie’s job to have food. However, when she came to work at Gleaning, we knew things were going to be tight financially. If we were to fulfill this commitment to God, we had to trust in Him completely.

I know beyond a doubt that this ministry would not have worked without God. Gleaning For The World’s legacy is that God has continuously met all of our needs — in His way, in His time.

Over the years, we have repeatedly seen God provide the supplies to help the poor, the volunteers to ship those supplies, and the funding for staff to oversee the ministry.

God supplies the staff Currently, we have fifteen people on our staff, but Gleaning For The World did not start out with a full-time staff. As the president and CEO, I was working full-time and pastoring a church part

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time. I had volunteers, including one local teen and four men from my last church, to help load and unload supplies. Another friend from my former church offered to ride along on long trips to keep me awake.

We would often leave Gleaning at 6 a.m., travel all day and arrive back in Lynchburg around 10 pm. We would then unload the truck and return it to the rental company by 5 am. so that we didn’t have to pay for an extra day. That made for some long days and short nights. However, when the budget for the entire first year was just $25,000, we had to do whatever was necessary to keep going.

Because the ministry was in its infancy, I thought we would be blessed if we shipped five or six loads the first year. However, God had a greater plan. We actually shipped twenty-seven tractor-trailer loads in the first six months.

Since we didn’t have a warehouse when we began in 1998, I talked my brother, “Cokie,” into allowing us to use his three-car garage, which was huge. In addition, a local company soon offered to let us use two 48-foot storage trailers. A company in Forest, Virginia offered us a place to park those trailers, plus gave us access to about 4,000 square feet of their warehouse for storage.

With volunteer help, we could transfer 30,000 pounds of medical equipment and supplies from the storage trailers to the tractor-trailers in roughly two hours. We often loaded the trucks at night, because I could get more volunteers to help after they finished their day jobs. Some nights, we loaded 75,000 pounds in three hours with a half-dozen people, a borrowed forklift and a lot of perseverance.

My wife, Jackie, soon became my administrative assistant. Her main job was keeping up with paperwork and answering the 54

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phone, but with such a small staff, she was often asked to do other things, including helping load tractor-trailers. Luckily, she had grown up on a farm, working in tobacco fields, so she was no stranger to hard work.

To work together would strain the relationships of most married couples. However, Jackie is a special woman, and those years of working together brought us even closer.

When God supplies the product, He supplies the workers The first few years, we received many donations of used uniforms and work clothes. Some were given to us in bales, making them easier to move, but others were given to us as piles of loose clothing.

At one point, the clothing comprised a pile eight feet tall by sixty feet long by thirty feet wide in Cokie’s garage — enough clothes to fill two tractor-trailers. We begged for volunteers to help box the clothes and several churches sent large teams to help. Even then, we were almost buried in work clothes.

Cokie’s garage, filled with work clothes to be sorted and packed before shipping.

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Late one afternoon, I got a call from a judge at the Lynchburg General District Court. He had recently sentenced some people for speeding and other nonviolent offenses. He decided to have them do community service, rather than pay a fine, and wanted to know if they could complete their community service at Gleaning.

In a few weeks, we had a dozen workers. We were able to fill two tractor-trailers with boxed work clothes.

God provides for Hurricane Mitch victims In November of 1999, I was counting product inventory at the borrowed warehouse space in Forest. The company’s president asked me to come to his office. We began discussing Hurricane Mitch, which had recently struck El Salvador and Honduras, leaving thousands of people homeless and in need. The hurricane had destroyed most of the bridges and flooded whole communities. Roads were impassable and getting food to the people was critical, but seemingly impossible.

This man had talked to a church in Northern Virginia whose members were collecting food, clothing and other supplies to send to the hurricane-affected area. He wanted to know if we could get some medical supplies together for a children’s hospital in El Salvador. Many of the children injured in the flooding were being sent to that hospital and they were out of supplies.

He also wanted us to restack and repack the supplies that had already arrived from Northern Virginia. Putting three or four loads together in a few days was a daunting task for our small staff, but we agreed to help.

We collected the medical supplies and got them ready to ship.

Hospital beds, gurneys, bandages and other supplies (valued at more than $500,000) were shipped in two days. Then, the 56

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floodgates opened as God continued to provide. Rather than collecting one or two loads, the church in Northern Virginia collected nine tractor-trailer loads of supplies.

We needed an army of volunteers and God sent us a battalion.

They came from local churches, community groups and our families to help repack and restack the pallets. We could load 20 pallets (a four-foot by four-foot wooden pallet holds sixteen boxes, which are stacked to a height of six feet) in a forty-foot, oceangoing container. We had 240 pallets to repack box-by-box, shrink wrap and get ready to load on containers. In seven days, working twelve hours a day, all of the supplies were either shipped or ready to ship.

A local businessman had heard about the need for food and called to help.

This man is in his seventies and loves to help those in need.

Every time there is a disaster in the U.S., he calls and donates a truck, driver and gas to deliver any supplies we need to ship. Since he works in the food industry, he wanted to donate two tractortrailer loads of pork loin (about eighty-two thousand pounds of meat). Shipping medical supplies was one thing, but shipping fresh meat was a completely different challenge. How would we be able to safely ship the meat and keep it at the right temperature?

A well-known fruit company had 40-foot-long, refrigerated, ocean-going containers in Norfolk, Virginia, that were used to ship fresh fruit from Latin America to the U.S. This company agreed to donate a container to ship the pork to Honduras. The meat was packed, placed on pallets and loaded into the containers; the storage temperature was set at minus ten degrees. When the product arrived in Central America, it would be frozen.

Before the meat shipped, we got in touch with a church in

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Honduras. They alerted local pastors to meet the ship at the port on the day it arrived. To get to the port, these pastors had to walk for two or three days. When the ship arrived, they packed the frozen meat in a burlap bag, and then walked back to their communities. By the time they arrived, the meat was thawed and ready to cook. God had provided for these people, who now had healthy, solid food for the first time in weeks.

We also were able to send medical supplies to a children’s hospital in El Salvador. This small hospital was built to serve about 40 children, but after the hurricane, the hospital was inundated with about 200 sick and injured children. Most of these children had lost family members in the floods. Doctors and nurses were desperate for help and supplies. Our shipments of medical supplies were literally a Godsend, and offered hope for the first time since the disaster hit.

This boy lost his family in Hurricane Mitch. The woman sitting by his side had lost her children to the same storm. She sat by his side during his healing, later adopting him as her son.

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God not only provides supplies, but comfort as well. After the hurricane, one six-year-old boy hung onto a tree limb for two days, waiting for someone to save him. His skin was worn off his entire right side from holding onto the tree. When our supplies arrived, the hospital staff was able to bandage his wounds for the first time. The hurricane had taken the lives of his family and he was alone. Likewise, a woman had come to the hospital looking for any surviving relatives. Finding none, she learned of the injured boy who had lost his family and kept a vigil by his bedside during his days and weeks of healing. God brought this child and woman together. We do not know, but hope that those two survivors found a way to form their own family to heal from the tragedy.

God provides help In February of 1999, I talked my brother, Cokie, into helping me deliver food, blankets and clothes to the Cherokee Indian Reservation in Cherokee, North Carolina. The Cherokee people are a great people. Previously, my sister, Wanda, spent about ten summers teaching in the schools at the reservation, where she also did missionary work. The tribe had adopted Wanda as a Cherokee because the final paper she wrote for her graduate degree was about the Cherokee people and their faith. Tragically, she had died the previous September from injuries sustained in an automobile accident. This trip was special because the supplies were being delivered in her name.

Cokie and I planned to drive eight hours to the reservation, unload 24,000 pounds of supplies, then drive to Clemson, South Carolina to pick up a load of cloth. We left early on a cold morning and drove to Cherokee. When we arrived, only two men were available to help unload the truck. When they saw our load

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of supplies, one of them used his walkie-talkie to issue a general appeal for more help. Within ten minutes, dozens of workers had shown up. In 30 minutes, the truck was empty.

After leaving Cherokee, we traveled to Clemson. The next morning we loaded 24,000 pounds of material normally used to manufacture sheets, pillow cases and comforters onto the truck.

We estimated we would arrive home that night at around 8:30 p.m.

Closer to home, I remembered we had to get the truck unloaded and returned to the rental company before going to bed. Cokie and I were both exhausted and I had severe back pain from the long road trip. It would be impossible for the two of us to unload twelve tons of cloth by ourselves. I called Jackie and asked her to get six or eight men ready at around 8:30 p.m. to unload the truck.

When we got to my brother’s garage that night, we had four volunteers ready to work. Without the aid of a forklift, we had to unload forty rolls of material, which weighed several hundred pounds each. It took four men per roll of fabric to handle the weight. We finished unloading the truck late that night, got it refueled and returned on time.

God provides Over the years, there have been hundreds of times when people called asking for specific supplies to help the poor. Often, God provided the supplies and the manpower to load and unload those supplies. Sometimes, however, we receive perplexing donations, like the time we received eight tractor-trailer loads of automobile carpet.

A man called the ministry one Friday afternoon offering the carpet if we could move it in four days. Because of the way it is 60

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manufactured, he said, it’s the toughest carpet made. We agreed to take this product donation, although at the time we did not know how it would be used. As always, a need soon appeared.

In areas of Central America, people were sleeping on the dirt floors of their houses, and children were cold and muddy when they awoke in the mornings. We sent the automobile carpet there, where it was cut into eight-by-eight-foot pieces to be used as bedding. The carpet provided a soft place to sleep, and kept people dry and clean. They would roll the carpet up in the morning and then unroll it again at night. It was the only luxury the people had.

Who would have thought that thousands of yards of automobile carpet would make life easier for thousands of families living in poverty? Only God knew where the carpet was and how it could be used for His children sleeping on dirt floors. God knows how to bless His children and Gleaning is just the vehicle for His work.

In another instance, a man from Nigeria visited Gleaning, asking for shoes and other supplies for his people. Several hours later, we received a call from a manufacturer that had exactly what he needed. Another nonprofit organization called from Central America, asking for cloth so the women could learn to make clothes that they could sell to buy food. The next day, we received a call from a manufacturer that had a tractor-trailer full of the exact cloth that was needed.

If God can do those amazing miracles, connecting charities from all over the world to bless His people, think what He can do for us! Sometimes, we feel alone and think no one cares. We think the problems we face are so great that we can’t make it another day. We forget that God is always with us, ready to provide for any need we have. I love to watch God work and I’m so

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thankful He allows me to be a part of His miracle-working grace.

It continues to amaze me the way people are inspired by Gleaning’s mission and want to help. When we began, we started with about a dozen volunteers. Now we have more than 2,000 people that volunteer at Gleaning annually. It would be impossible to repack, sort and inventory sixteen million pounds of supplies each year without the army of volunteers that God continues to provide. Gleaning has about one-third as many paid staff as other comparable organization, yet is one of the most costeffective and efficient humanitarian ministries in the world. We have been repeatedly recognized by Forbes Magazine as the most effective and efficient charity in America. Gleaning has also been recognized by the Virginia General Assembly, the governor of Virginia and many others as the most efficient charity. It amazes me what God has done and the honors we have received.

Here we are loading containers by hand at Moody’s Transfer in the early years of Gleaning.

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All of our work and our awards honor God. The funds to sustain the ministry have come through Him, and the supplies that change millions of lives a year are sent by God. One important lesson to remember is that God can create miracles that are beyond human imagination. God will use that same spiritual power to bless your life. Regardless of the circumstances we face every day, God is sufficient to meet our needs, and He will if we learn to trust Him.

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C hapter S even PEOPLE WITHOUT A VOICE “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:16-18 ESV)

Question: What is our responsibility as Christians for those who suffer?

Gleaning’s first mission trip My first mission trip was a very traumatic event; it challenged everything I thought I knew about the poor. I had prayed long and hard about this first trip to Guatemala, but God kept telling me to trust Him. In order for me to go into the field, the first hurdle I had to overcome was my fear of flying. I had never flown in a commercial airliner before, much less travelled internationally. I was terrified.

Again, I heard, “Trust me.”

Three Gleaning staff members and I flew from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Miami, Florida, and then on to Guatemala City. Our final destination would be the Hope of Life school, orphanage and mission house in Llama Verde. These are run by a man named Carlos Vargas. We were going to tour Hope of Life, where we had sent shipments of food, clothes, and medical supplies.

That first night in Guatemala City, we stayed at a beautiful, five64

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star hotel with excellent food, beautiful rooms and great service.

This was a stark contrast to what we would see on the rest of our visit, seeing some of the worst sights imaginable. The next day, we traveled for two hours to Llama Verde. Along the way, we stopped at a Texaco gas station to use the restroom and refuel.

As I walked into the gas station, I was surprised to see a man with a shotgun. He wasn’t dressed as a policeman or soldier. He appeared to be protecting the service station, although from what I wasn’t sure. Were there rebels? Robbers? What had I gotten myself into? I thought it was a little strange and asked Carlos what would happen if the guy shot someone. His answer was alarming.

“They would just throw the body down the hill in the back of the station,” he said, nonchalantly. “No investigation, no hearing in a court. Just throw him down the hill.”

“Does that ever really happen?” I asked.

“About every three weeks,” he said, with a wry smile.

Carlos told me that when people are poor and hungry they’ll do almost anything to get food, even try to steal from a service station. In that country, if they are caught, they will be shot. While I was in the store with Carlos, I kept my hands in my pockets. I wanted to buy a soda and some snacks, but I wasn’t going to take the chance of that man turning his gun on me.

Back on our journey, we found the roads to be in good shape — better than I expected. However, I’m used to having guardrails that protect us on curves. Here, there weren’t any. When you went around a curve, you could look straight down for a thousand feet.

The part that amazed me was that the driver passed on curves. The road was one lane each way, with a solid line down the middle. In America, that means no passing. In Guatemala, it apparently means pass when you feel safe or just run the other guy off the road.

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When we arrived at Hope of Life, I saw one of the most beautiful places anyone could imagine, despite the fact that it was the hot, dry season. Carlos told me he had bought land right on the mountain top, cleared off the trees and brush, and graded the land so they could build. The school, orphanage and the Mission House, where we stayed, were on top of this very tall hill. The home for the elderly and the cafeteria were at the bottom of the hill. The buildings were all solid white with red clay roofs, and the view was unbelievable.

Landfill people Many people that I met on this mission trip made an impact on me and what Gleaning would eventually become. One of the first people I met at Hope of Life was a woman who crawled around on her hands and knees. Carlos and his staff found her in a landfill, where she had been born and had lived all her life. She spent her days crawling through the trash, looking for food, clothing and whatever she needed to survive. Carlos had brought this woman from the landfill to Llama Verde six months before my visit, and had tried to teach her to stand. Each time, she became dizzy, because she had never stood at her full height before. The woman looked like she was a hundred and ten years old, but was only in her early seventies.

It was hard to believe there were thousands of people who lived and worked at the garbage dump, eating what food they could find, collecting recyclable materials and sleeping in the trash. This was a dangerous place, run by mobs who took a portion of the money people made from collecting plastic and cardboard. They were the law; no one crossed them or they were dead. They called themselves “mayors,� and every one of them had a gun on their 66

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hip. We were told they would have killed us in a minute. Carlos was friendly to the men who welcomed him, but he didn’t trust them.

We were told we could take pictures through the car windows, but under no circumstance should we get out.

When I visited that landfill in Guatemala City, there were so many people that they looked like ants at a picnic. I couldn’t believe the smell. The garbage wasn’t covered with dirt like it is in America, so the smell of rotting garbage permeated the whole area. Some of the garbage was burning, which made it smell even worse and difficult to breathe. Carlos said people who had babies there often left them to die, and he had saved many babies from that landfill. It’s hard for most of us to accept that a parent would allow a child to die, but when there isn’t food to feed all of the children, one might have to decide who will live and who will die.

No parent should ever have to make that decision.

The sight reminded me of the way we could change people’s lives by sending supplies that would have been destroyed in America’s landfills. More than three billion pounds of useable supplies are destroyed in our landfills each year. They could be used to save the lives of people like those living in the landfills of Guatemala, or in other countries around the world.

Even in America, approximately 5.8 million people live out of dumpsters and in abandoned buildings. They are our homeless, who are overlooked and forgotten, except by a few people who spend their lives caring for them.

Children at the railroad One day, we loaded several pickups with food and went to an area where there were houses next to some railroad tracks.

The men in that area worked in the fields, planting and picking

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melons for an American company. They were paid three dollars a day for twelve hours of hard labor. Their “homes” were made of used plastic sheets from the fields. These sheets previously been used to keep weeds out of the vegetable rows. After the crop was harvested, workers could use the plastic for housing. If they were caught with new plastic, they were beaten or killed. When it rained, the workers and their families slept in the mud. They were also hungry, and needed help just to survive.

We took food to the children who lived in these conditions.

They often were sick from drinking polluted water and from poor diets. For these reasons and because they didn’t attend school, they lived a hopeless life.

Everywhere we looked, there were children. I asked Carlos why there were so many little ones. His answer was that the families didn’t have money for medical care, so they would have four or five children, hoping that two would live. I also noticed that every place where a family lived had a four- to five-foot-tall fence around it. When I asked about that, Carlos was reluctant to answer. When I insisted, he took me aside and told me that predators would come late at night and steal the children. The children were then either sold into sexual slavery or sent to medical schools in the Caribbean, where their organs were removed and sold for organ transplants in other countries.

Carlos had been asked for a wheelchair for one of the “railroad” children, who was physically and mentally challenged.

To get around, the boy had to crawl around in the mud and would often eat dirt, which caused him to have parasites in his system. When we visited, we brought him a child’s wheelchair that Gleaning had sent to the orphanage. At first, the boy was scared of being in the wheelchair because he had never been so far off the 68

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Carlos Vargas holding children along the railroad when we handed out food.

ground, but in a few minutes he calmed down. He was so filthy, he reminded me of Charlie Brown’s friend, “Pigpen.” We cleaned him up, changed his diaper and put him in his new set of wheels.

What a thrill to change a boy’s life with a simple wheelchair!

Teddy bears When Gleaning first started working with Carlos Vargas in Guatemala, he asked for any toys we could provide. He had thousands of orphans he was feeding, plus many others who lived in the landfills, and he wanted to give each child some kind of toy.

That was when we started Gleaning’s Teddy Bear Brigade Program.

We collect good, clean, used stuffed animals from people across the United States and then we ship them to various ministries in Central America and Africa. Each year, we place more than 60,000 stuffed animals into the arms of children, so they can have a special toy that provides unconditional love.

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At first, the stuffed animals were given to orphans so they could hear the story of the birth of Jesus. Receiving a gift would draw the children in and after they were holding a toy, they would sit and listen to someone tell them about Jesus. Today, we also give many of the stuffed animals to children simply to give them a chance at a normal life.

On our trip to Guatemala, we met with the president’s wife, Evelyn de la Portillo. She had heard about the stuffed animals we were sending Carlos and explained that the toys had a secondary benefit, beyond helping children understand the gift that is Jesus Christ. Often, she said, families who can’t feed their children will drop them off in the larger cities, hoping someone will take them in. These children might be as young as four or five when they are abandoned. These children form gangs for protection and to survive, and often become addicted to drugs, especially sniffing glue.

The president’s wife told me about how she sent her people out to “collect” the children. They had to use throw nets to capture these children, who were literally as wild as animals. Once caught, they were placed in government orphanages in “cages,” rooms that are ten feet by twelve feet, with wire around the walls and doors to limit escape. These sound like horrible conditions, but these children were dangerous. If placed in the general population in the orphanages, they might have killed the other children.

The president’s wife explained that when they started giving the wild children stuffed animals, they saw a dramatic change.

These children had never known anyone who truly loved them unconditionally, not even their parents, and many had never owned a toy. They certainly had not seen a stuffed animal. The president’s wife said having a stuffed animal “re-humanized” these 70

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children in half the time, so they could leave the “caged” rooms more quickly and begin to move toward a more normal life.

When I visited one of the government-run orphanages and saw the cage, I couldn’t believe the condition of the children.

While they were clean and well-fed, the pain I saw in their eyes was heartbreaking. Many of these children were clutching a stuffed animal in the same protective way one might carry a newborn baby.

One young boy in particular looked like a wild animal. His breathing was shallow and his eyes were opened wide, constantly darting from left to right, seemingly always on the lookout for danger. He was huddled in a corner, as if to have protection. I couldn’t imagine the fear this boy had felt during his young life.

A few months later, that boy was placed among the other children. Because a child in America cared enough to give up one of their many stuffed animals, a child was given a gift that helped him take his first steps toward a better life.

The healing power of sharing When we got back home from Guatemala, we called every church and community group we knew to get more stuffed animals. The following stories show how sharing can change not only a person in Guatemala but also the one who shares.

A small church in Virginia collected stuffed animals for Gleaning. One of the members, a mother of a three-year-old girl, later called to share her story. The girl’s bed was covered with stuffed animals, she said. When she told her daughter about how Gleaning uses the toys, the little girl gathered up most of her stuffed animal collection, sat them up and said goodbye to each one. She asked her mother to help, and together they bagged up

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the animals and sent them to us. The love that little girl showed must have made God smile.

A grandmother heard me talk about the Teddy Bear Brigade and decided to spend the next three years collecting stuffed animals from yard sales. Her granddaughter, she said, had just gone through her parents’ separation and had gotten lost in the battle. The grandmother wanted something special she could do with her granddaughter that would help her through her parents’ divorce.

Twice a year, the grandmother called Gleaning so that we could pick up what she and her granddaughter had collected. They would wash the bears, make outfits for the dolls and pack them for us. Her living room would be waist-deep in bags full of stuffed animals and dolls. She and her granddaughter went to yard sales every Saturday morning, and collected about fourteen hundred toys and bears each year.

Receiving stuffed animals is therapeutic for children. This can also be a valuable experience for the children who give the stuffed animals, as they are taught to share with children around the world who need their help.

Gilmore That first night in Llama Verde, I realized sleeping might not be so easy. Guatemala is hot! Two of my staff members were outside in hammocks. I was lucky enough to be in a dorm room with a comfortable bed, mosquito nets and protection from things that crawl at night. About the time I finally drifted off to sleep, I awoke suddenly to a loud scream and then a loud crash.

I ran outside and literally right into a man whose appearance scared me to death. His hat was on sideways, a cigarette was 72

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clenched in the side of his mouth and his clothes were filthy. But the thing that really caught my attention was the big shotgun he had slung over his shoulder.

Carlos had heard the noise, too, and had run out to find my two staff members lying on the cement. One of the staff, Mark, had opened his eyes and saw a man with a gun standing beside him. Frightened, he screamed and jumped so fast that he jerked the anchors holding the hammock to the wall loose; he then fell with the hammock to the ground. Hearing the commotion, the second staff member woke up, screamed and fell out of his hammock. Luckily, no one was hurt.

We eventually found out that the man with the shotgun was named Gilmore. He worked for Carlos and patrolled the hill at night to protect the mission from looters. When Gilmore was twelve, he was a gun runner with his dad, carrying guns from Guatemala to Honduras. On one of the runs, he saw his father murdered by a rival gang. Gilmore was in his late teens at the time and had heard about Carlos and Hope of Life. He walked for days, if not weeks, to get there. Carlos offered him a new life and some hope. From that point on, Gilmore worked for Carlos.

Gilmore was not a Christian, because no one had shared God’s love with him. Since he was a smoker, many people thought that he was spending money on cigarettes that should be given to his family. This kept people from ministering to him, because they believed someone who did not take care of his family could not become a Christian.

One night, while we were all sitting around, Gilmore saw me smoking a cigar to keep the mosquitoes away. After this, he not only wanted to become a Christian, he wanted to become a Methodist minister. That night, we led him to Christ. For the next

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few years, whenever we sent a shipment to Carlos, we included a box of cigars for Gilmore.

Government-run orphanages Several months after we returned home from Guatemala, Carlos called me with some news. While in Guatemala, I had met three children whose mother had dropped them off at one of the government-run orphanages. She could no longer feed them and didn’t want them to die. At the time, I prayed for her, wondering how a mother could give up her entire family, even if she was trying to save them.

The government-run orphanage where the three children had been left was a dismal place, surrounded by a cinderblock wall with broken glass embedded on top. To escape, the oldest girl, who was ten, had climbed the wall, and had pulled her eight-yearold sister and two-year-old brother up and over with her. With cuts all over their legs and backs, these three children walked for almost twenty miles over four days to get to Carlos’ orphanage.

They had heard from the older children at the government-run orphanage that Carlos not only had a loving place for children, but he also had plenty of food. The oldest girl wanted a better life for her brother and sister. They were able to find that life, and still live at the Hope of Life orphanage.

Children at Hope of Life The children in the orphanage were beautiful. Those dark eyes, their olive skin, and their desire to be held and loved won my heart immediately. There must have been a hundred or so children there at that time. Since then, Carlos and his staff have found thousands of children in alleys and in landfills with no 74

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one to care for them. These children were not used to seeing an American, so I always had a few children hanging on each leg and two in both arms. They just wanted love and to be held like every child.

Carlos and the staff kept the children clean, well-fed and loved; when they got old enough, they received a Western-style education. The orphanage’s clinic was stocked with medication. It wasn’t fancy, but all of the children’s needs were met. A few days later, when I visited children in the alleys and saw the way they lived in the landfill, I fully understood how much better life was for children living in the Hope of Life orphanage.

The beauty of the Hope of Life ministry is how it has changed the lives of children and the elderly because one man made a decision to follow God. When we make the same decision, the results are eternal.

People without a voice While in Guatemala, I saw a level of poverty I never knew existed. I saw children malnourished and without hope, and people suffering from diseases you only read about in magazines and on United Nations reports. I met children and adults who lived out of garbage bags. I saw workers mistreated and men who looked in their eighties when they were only in their thirties. At that time, in 2002, the average lifespan was forty-two in Guatemala.

For these people, life was not fair. My visit proved to me what I had felt all along: these people and many like them around the world have no voice. They are poor because they don’t have a voice, or simply because there is no one who cares to listen. The poor don’t often vote. They have no political influence; they are not wealthy. They have few people who care about them or how

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A family in Guatemala that received some of our first supplies.

they live. In many countries, the top five percent of the population are wealthy and there is no middle class. They are either extremely wealthy or extremely poor.

There are mission groups in these countries who care and try in every way possible to make a difference, but they can’t reach everyone. We know that “it’s always about the money.” If you have it, you can do anything. Without money, you don’t have a chance.

So much of what causes poverty is greed. I worked with a Nigerian governor in 2004. He called and said he needed supplies for his people, who were living in extreme poverty. I did not work directly with him, but did decide to work with a Christian mission group in his state. He helped us get in touch with the ambassador and the United States Agency of International Development (USAID), which helped provide funding to ship the supplies.

When the shipments (worth almost $500,000) arrived, the governor tried to take the supplies for himself, rather than allow

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the Christian group to receive them. We had a fight on our hands, but we won. The head chief of the local tribes could use his influence to either get the governor elected or removed. He went to the governor’s office, where he stayed for three days, threatening not to leave until he received the shipment that had been promised to his people. After the third day, the governor realized he would lose the upcoming election if he didn’t release the supplies, so he turned them over to the chief.

Two years later, that same governor was charged with stealing thirty billion dollars in kickbacks from oil companies. While his people lived a life of extreme poverty, this man had more money than he could spend in many lifetimes. If he had not been so greedy, his people could have lived better lives. When is enough, enough?

Even here in the United States, almost half of our children live below the poverty level and almost that many children don’t get enough food to eat. The bottom line is that in the richest country in the world, almost half our children have learning problems because they are hungry and do not eat enough protein to help them learn.

With all of the poverty I saw in Guatemala, I was told things were even worse in many African countries. That made me more determined than ever to keep shipping supplies to mission organizations that worked with the poor. We may not be able to save everyone, but everyone we saved would be worth all of our work and commitment. God willing, I would spend the rest of my life trying to save supplies from our nation’s landfills so they could be used to care for the poor.

When I say we are saving supplies from our nation’s landfills, these items are not trash. Our products are new shoes, new

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clothes, food that is still in date, medications that were overproduced, hospital beds and supplies, baby supplies, and so many other products in new and excellent condition.

Some laws make it difficult for us to be as generous as we would like. Over-the-counter medication has a much longer shelf life than the expiration dating reflects. We know from tests, completed by federal agencies, that aspirin has a shelf life of twenty years. Ibuprofen has an eighteen-year shelf life. Many other medications carry a shelf life of five years or more after the expiration date.

Since drug companies want us to buy more medication, they place a six-to twelve-month expiration date on the product. If we could extend the expiration dating to its actual life span, all of the meds that are currently destroyed for being “out of date� could be used for humanitarian purposes and save many more lives.

We Had to Do More When we left Guatemala that first time in 2002, I realized the work we were doing at Gleaning was more important than I thought. We had to do more to help Carlos and missionaries like him. God had given these missionaries a ministry of saving lives and souls. They deserved to have the supplies they needed, and we could help them with that.

When we arrived back in Raleigh, North Carolina, it was late at night, and we still had a three-hour drive home. We stopped at a Shell station to get some coffee and snacks. I marveled at the food lining the shelves of the service station. I had just left thousands of people who had nothing. On the shelves in front of me was more food than I had seen all week. I wondered what someone who lived along the railroad tracks in Llama Verde would think if he 78

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was standing where I was, rather than climbing a tree after twelve hours of hard work to collect wild fruit so his family could eat.

Sometimes life just isn’t fair.

When I got home late that night, I went out to the porch, where I have my devotional time. My wife came outside and I hugged her for a long time. I shared what I had seen and about the people we had fed. I told her I had never been more certain of the importance of Gleaning’s mission than I was at that moment, and that I was going to spend the rest of my life blessing others as He has blessed me. Jackie went back in to go to sleep, but I sat there on the porch for hours, thanking God for Gleaning and crying for the poor who didn’t have a voice.

Why are we so blessed? What is required of us because we are so blessed? Can we just forget about those who suffer? Are we required, because we are the wealthiest people in the world, to reach out to others who need our help?

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C hapter E ight AND THE CHILDREN DANCED “Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them” (Psalm 139:16)

Question: What dream has God given you?

The dreams were real Meeting homeless people was a pivotal point in my life. For years they continued to haunt my dreams. Sometimes, I would wake up in the middle of the night and wonder how they were doing.

My greatest concern was the young mentally-challenged girl with the new baby. Since the courts wouldn’t allow the baby to be taken from her, I wondered if the caseworker’s prediction had come to fruition. Had that poor baby died after the girl was forced to leave the shelter?

The electrician was a presence in my dreams as well, and I hoped he had gotten a job and a new apartment. The lady who was forced to leave her home because her husband wouldn’t pay alimony deserved to have a place to live. Was she still homeless?

I would also lie awake wondering about the children who had been removed from their homes because of mental and sexual abuse, and if they ever would be willing to trust another human being. How many other children were still out there being abused without hope of protection from their abuser?

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To me, the dreams were real, and the pain I felt for their suffering was real. I would pray and weep for them, but I didn’t have enough money to cure all of their problems, nor could I change their situation. I wanted to help, but I just didn’t know what to do.

Something was different These dreams went on for several years. One night, however, there was something different about their faces. I realized I had been missing a crucial detail.

That night I woke up at 2 a.m. thinking about the electrician and the lady whose husband wouldn’t pay alimony. The usual feelings of sadness for their situation began, then I realized something was different. In my dream, they were smiling.

That’s when I remembered that these two people were not distraught when I talked with them. They were anxiously awaiting the next day, believing a job was out there; it just had to be found.

They also talked about the freedom of not having “things” to worry about. They missed their homes and cars, but the rest of the possessions that were so necessary to them at one time, no longer mattered.

Why were these homeless people smiling? I think it was because they were free to experience God as the One who is sufficient. They woke up each morning waiting to see what God was going to do next. They felt a freedom many people will never know.

They taught me about faith and the kind of trust in God that kept them going. I learned from the homeless that when you have nothing, the only place you can turn to is your faith.

I realize this is a paradox of feeling far from God yet still

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trusting Him for the next day‌the next meal‌the next place to sleep. When there is nothing else, there is God. Due to those dreams of the homeless, I learned to trust God in ways that I did not know were possible.

During this time, my dreams started to include the faces of children. In my dreams, they would just come up to me and just stand there as if they were waiting for something. Perhaps it was for a bag of food to satisfy hunger pains or medicine to improve their health. I could see their faces and knew they were in desperate circumstances. These dreams would cause me to wake up in the middle of the night, then pray and weep as I grieved for these precious souls. I wondered how many more children we could help if we could just find enough supplies.

Children in an orphanage in Haiti that just wanted to be loved.

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Like my dreams of the homeless, these dreams of children started haunting me. They spurred me to make more phone calls, find more supplies and raise the money for shipping those supplies. I worked long hours, and my health began to suffer.

However, the more I did to help children, the less often the dreams came. Sometimes, I dreaded sleep, fearing that I would see the children’s desperate faces and feel that I wasn’t doing enough for them.

Like my dreams of the homeless, I began to notice differences after some time. One night, I saw something that I hadn’t seen before - the children looked happy. They were smiling and dancing. It was the same dream, the same children and the same houses in the background. I had simply been missing the message God was trying to give me.

God was allowing me to see them The children who were now smiling in my dreams were the children we had been helping. God was allowing me to see them.

It was a treasure of immense reward and an inexplicable feeling of freedom and purpose overwhelmed me. I knew we had made a difference. This knowledge made the long hours and hard work worth every minute.

I didn’t tell anyone about my dreams for a long time. Several years ago, I decided to share my dreams with a friend who had started his own nonprofit organization. I told him about the homeless people and the children, who were sad at first but then happy and dancing. He looked at me for a long time without speaking and I just knew he thought I had lost it. Finally, he responded, “You, too?”

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After I shared my dreams with this man, the dreams stopped and they have never returned. In a way, I miss them. At least I got to see the children dance and smile, and knew they had a better life because of Gleaning For The World.

From time to time, especially after I visit ministries who receive our supplies, I dream of the people I have visited. Also, when God is planning something special, I will dream of people who need help. To me, the dreams are a message from God saying: “Get ready! We are going to change the ministry’s focus so we can reach more people.”

Continuing to help It continues to amaze me what God can and will do. American industries destroy three billion pounds of useable supplies in our landfills. Part of the miracle of Gleaning is we can save industry millions of dollars by taking the supplies, remanufacturing them and using the supplies to help the poor. We have enough. All we have to do is learn to share rather than destroy these life-saving products.

Recently, on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic, I saw children who were dirty, hungry and had never had medical care.

Gleaning For The World had provided food, stuffed animals and toys and other supplies in that country. To help with their medical needs, we are equipping a mobile medical clinic at the Good Samaritan Hospital in La Romano, Dominican Republic. This clinic would be fully staffed with doctors and nurses, who would be able to provide medical care for 150 people a day.

A major problem in the Dominican Republic is the death rate for new babies. With the mobile clinic, we can take OB/GYN care to the communities. When there is a problem, the delivery can 84

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take place in the mobile clinic; afterwards, mother and baby can be transported to the hospital.

There are more than 1,200 people in the Dominican Republic waiting on cataract surgery. We planned to set up surgery clinics

A Pastor at a bateye (a village where sugar cane workers live) in the Dominican Republic who invited Rev. Davidson to preach in his church.

there to provide this life-changing surgical procedure.

Even providing shoes can make a huge difference in a community. Around the world, there are three billion people without shoes. Here in America, there are children and elderly who don’t have shoes to wear. Through partnerships, we are working each year to provide hundreds of thousands of pairs of shoes to people all over the world.

In Guatemala, I saw an elderly woman who was walking barefoot up a steep hill, carrying a bundle of sugar cane. The temperature was over 105 degrees that day, and the temperature of the blacktop road must have been unbearable. When her feet

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got too hot, she would step off the road long enough for her feet to cool down, but she never stopped walking.

The image of that woman reminds me of the good we can do by supplying a pair of shoes to someone in need. Recently, I got a phone call about 287,000 pair of shoes in the Netherlands, donated by the manufacturer of a well-known brand of children’s shoes. It was difficult, but we were able to send every pair from the Netherlands to Africa. It took weeks of negotiating with other non-profit ministries, setting up shipping and getting the shoes through customs in each country.

My only thoughts were about how many children 287,000 pair of shoes could help. I wanted to give back to God’s smallest ones a gift that would remind them that God does care.

We also touch the lives of those who have lost everything.

When disasters happen in the United States, I am reminded of a picture of a woman in an area of Alabama that was hit by a tornado two years ago. She was sitting in front of what used to be her house -- the place where she and her husband had raised their family. Now all that was left was a foundation and an eightfoot-high pile of rubble. The storm had also claimed the life of her husband of nearly fifty years. She had lost her husband, her possessions and didn’t have enough insurance to rebuild. Her dreams were destroyed.

She had been sitting by the rubble for three days when the members of a local church found her. They offered her food, water and a blanket. She refused the supplies at first and sat mutely, looking at the destruction. After the volunteers continued to reach out to her, she began to tell them about her house, her children and her husband, whose body was still under the debris. It was the first time she had spoken since the tornado came through.

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The church got some emergency workers together and they removed her husband’s body from the rubble. They provided the lady with a place to sleep, a hot shower and new clothes. Most of all, they listened to her story and cried with her. No one could change what had happened. However, the supplies that Gleaning had sent to the disaster site and the support provided by area church members gave her much comfort and support.

God is able. He can use unwanted automobile carpet to change children’s lives by giving them a clean place to sleep. He can use high-protein soy milk to keep a hungry child alive. God can use a simple wheelchair to keep a mentally and physically-challenged child from crawling in the mud. God is able to take a truckload of surplus candle wax and use it to put one hundred families to work making candles, so they can sell them and buy food. He is able to use a pair of discarded shoes to keep parasites from entering a child’s body.

In Kenya, God can use a simple number-two pencil to totally change a child’s life. Since HIV/AIDS has claimed the lives of many parents, it is not unusual to see a child eleven or twelve years old caring for his or her siblings. If the “caretaker” child can attend school, he or she can get food for the family. If not, then they all go hungry. However, without a pencil, children in Kenya can’t attend school. If they can’t attend school, they can’t get an education; without an education, they can’t get a job. The lack of a pencil will cause them to stay hungry, continuing the cycle of poverty in their family. However, with a simple number-two pencil, children have hope and a future.

I can’t create miracles the way God can. I can’t connect the dots between companies in America that just happen to have eight tractor-trailer loads of surplus bandages and the clinics in Africa

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that are in desperate need of those bandages. This connection is brought about by God. Millions are helped every year Every year, millions of children are helped because God allows us to come to work each day and find supplies that would otherwise end up in America’s landfills. We find a way to get those supplies to people who need them.

To do God’s work with us, you have to learn that this ministry is “God’s sandbox” and we just get to come to work each day and play in it. When we stand back and let His work happen, we get to watch His miracles.

When the people of Afghanistan fled the Taliban, they settled in a desert near the northern part of Turkey.

The first year, 250,000 people died from exposure.

The next year, 25,000 died.

The 20 tractor trailer loads of supplies from Gleaning saved a lot of God’s children.

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C hapter N ine ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER MIRACLE “Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.

Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked” (Psalm 82: 3-4)

Question: Are you so used to seeing miracles that you’ve stopped looking?

The women need shoes One afternoon, I got a call from a Liberty University (this university, which is located in the nearby city of Lynchburg, is the largest Christian college in America) graduate named “Uche,” which means “God’s will” in his native language. He was from Imo State, Nigeria and said he wanted to ship some supplies back to his native tribe. However, he did not have enough to get the supplies out of the U.S., much less all the way back to Nigeria.

Uche and Dr. Adu-Gyamfi Yaw, a Liberty University professor, visited Gleaning’s warehouse. When Uche walked in and saw the warehouse stacked from floor to ceiling with supplies, he told me he wanted everything we had in stock. I reminded him of the cost of shipping and reluctantly told him that Gleaning couldn’t pay to send all of the supplies (about ten tractor-trailer loads) to Nigeria.

Then I asked him what product was needed most and he said, “The women need shoes.”

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shoes?” He told me that in his village, the women and children would each take two five-gallon buckets and walk six miles to a spring for water. When they got to the spring, they would fill their buckets and walk six miles back. I did the math. They were carrying about forty pounds of water in each hand. Uche said they did this every morning and evening, so they were walking a total of twenty-four miles a day while carrying up to eighty pounds of water!

Uche said the weight of the water over so many miles was

bruising the women’s feet and ankles. The bruises would turn to sores, he said, and the sores would get infected. Sometimes, the women would die because they didn’t have antibiotics or medical care. Uche’s own sister was only twenty-six when she died from an infection.

In the U.S., the antibiotics to save Uche’s sister’s life would have cost $3.84. The cost is not much different in Nigeria, but his

Pastor Pendleton in Nigeria visiting the Children’s Hospital where we provided medical supplies, food and clothing.

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family lived on less than a thousand dollars a year and could not afford the medication. Not being able to save his sister, Uche felt he had to do something for the rest of the women.

The Nigerian blessing I told Uche that we did not have a supply of shoes at the present and I did not know of any available sources where we could get them. However, knowing the power of God, I assured Uche that if he would pray, and if the shoes came in, I would make certain the shoes got to Imo State, Nigeria.

Uche held up his hand and told me to stand still. He walked about six paces away, held up his hand again and gave a Nigerian Blessing. If you haven’t experienced a Nigerian Blessing, you’ve missed out on something very special.

First, Uche prayed very loudly and forcefully for me as the leader. Then, he prayed for all of the staff. He prayed for the ones he knew by name and generally for the others. He cast out the demons, blessed the building, foot-by-foot, and asked God to place a shield around us. Then, he prayed for his family in Imo State. Finally, he prayed for the shoes. He didn’t just pray for them; he claimed the shoes by faith. Then he blessed me for shipping them and his father for receiving them. By the time he had finished, the whole Gleaning staff had gathered in the warehouse, wondering what was going on. He was praying so loudly they initially thought he was yelling at me.

That prayer was exhilarating! I could feel the Spirit as he prayed and knew that Uche had an amazing relationship with the Heavenly Father. It was one of the most intense spiritual moments I’ve ever experienced.

After the prayer, he held out his hand and said something in his

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native language. Then, he hugged me and told me how his father, the tribal elder, had anointed him when he left for America. This gave Uche the right to pass on the blessing of his family to special people. That night, he told me he was going to call his father and have my name written on the tribe’s prayer stone, where every member of the tribe went every morning to pray. I was now an official member of his tribe, he said.

Being added to his tribal family meant a lot. To have people halfway around the world praying for me and the staff every day was amazing. I knew there had to be some way to fulfill Uche’s prayer — and that God could make it happen.

The Answer Soon Uche left and I went back to work, wrangling a mountain of paperwork on my desk. Within two hours, I got a call from the warehouse manager at Consolidated Shoes in Lynchburg.

About a year before, he said, some marketing guy had convinced Consolidated’s owner that if they would build a boot with a tennisshoe sole and sides made of tough cloth, the boots would sell like hotcakes.

Well, they didn’t.

Consolidated Shoes had made 10,000 pairs of these special boots and still had 7,900 pairs left. The warehouse manager said he realized this was a unique shoe and assured me that if we didn’t want them he’d understand. Of course, he added, there is likely very little need for women’s canvas boots with a tennis-shoe bottom. Or so he thought.

Just like that, we had Uche’s shoes! Excited, I called Uche to get the shipping address for his tribe.

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Later that evening, my administrative assistant came into my office and sat down on the sofa. She was young, just beginning her spiritual walk, and she was in awe of the miracles she had seen.

Her first words were, “We have got to talk.”

She told me that she felt we had gotten so used to seeing miracles that we actually expected God to answer every request.

When she saw me back in my office, shuffling papers, she wondered why I wasn’t more excited.

What she did not see was the excitement inside my soul. I just kept thinking, over and over, about how special it was to see a miracle as great as any miracle from the Bible.

She reminded me that earlier in the day, Uche had prayed for a miracle and two hours later, it had happened. From out of nowhere, the shoes just showed up. Also, they were exactly what Uche had prayed for, including the canvas sides to protect the women’s ankles. Soon, almost 8,000 women, who had never owned a single pair of shoes, would have sturdy and serviceable shoes. God had miraculously brought all of this together: • a marketing person with an idea that would never sell • a shoe company that took a chance on a product that was a bad idea • a man from Imo State, Nigeria, visiting Gleaning for the first time, who needed shoes for the women in his tribe.

All of this had come together, in perfect timing and in a perfect way. It was the greatest miracle my administrative assistant had ever seen. Her comment still rings in my ears: “Rev, the rest of us don’t live like this. We don’t pray for miracles and see them happen, day after day. I am afraid that you’ve gotten so used to it

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that you don’t pay attention to the miracles anymore.�

More miracles One manufacturer of breakfast cereal had a problem with a specific cereal. When it went through quality inspection, the inspectors found that the cereal flakes were twenty percent smaller than normal. Since the company advertised the cereal to be a certain size, it was deemed unsellable and was donated to a nonprofit organization that helped children in Latin America.

This donation comprised one hundred tractor-trailer loads of nutritional cereal.

There was just one problem. How do you provide milk for that many boxes of cereal? The flakes could be eaten as a snack, but the children would not be receiving the intended benefits of a nutritional food without milk. Leaders of the nonprofit organization called me, asking for help. We did not have the funds to buy milk and I could not find a way to help them nor

Children in Latin America enjoying donated cereal and soy milk.

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the children. Soon, I received a call from a nonprofit ministry in California. They had dozens of tractor-trailer loads of a highnutrition soy milk that did not have to be refrigerated. We shipped the soy milk to the children, who now had the nutrition they needed.

God is able and willing to bless His children regardless of their circumstances. He creates miracles, as we call them, when He pulls together the supplies from all over the world to change the living conditions of His people.

To me, this is a miracle. How did God put this “unsellable” cereal together with a soy milk donor in California to feed children millions of meals of breakfast cereal? That is the work God does; He loves His children of all ages and makes “miracles” happen so they have what they need. God amazes me every day and I hope I never get used to seeing His hand at work.

One of the best examples of how God creates miracles so that we may do His work happened several years ago. A company outside of Lynchburg, Virginia called and offered 7,200 pieces of top-quality hotel furniture. The retail price of the furniture was more than three million dollars. They offered it to us at twenty-five percent of its value ($620,000) and would load it professionally so it arrived in excellent condition. I met with one of the company’s representatives and saw the quality and value of their offer. She assured me it was God’s will that we move the furniture to people in need. I told her, “Then talk to God, and the two of you figure out how I’m going to pay for the furniture and shipping because I don’t have any money.”

She smiled, as if to say God had all that figured out. I knew she was right, this was God’s will, but He hadn’t told me how to make this miracle happen and I wasn’t going to write a bad check for

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more than $600,000.

That night, I called U.S. Senators John Warner and George Allen to see if there was any way FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) could pay for the furniture and for the cost to ship thirty tractor-trailer loads to the disaster area. I was assured I would get a call that night. The government worker who called was a FEMA representative named Barbara. She assured me the furniture was needed, that FEMA would pay for it and to start making arrangements. She was a believer and believed God was in charge and would make it happen. I called Senator Warner back and told him the great news. Five months passed before I heard from the federal government again. The follow-up letter that I received stated that they didn’t have a way to distribute the furniture so they were rescinding their offer.

I wish I had known that before I signed the contract with the furniture company. In my world, your word is your bond and you never commit to anything that you don’t plan on completing. To make matters worse, no one, not even Senator Warner or Senator Allen, could find anyone named Barbara at the number she had given me. Gleaning was in debt for $620,000.

Several days later, a man named Cal from the Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort in Nashville, Tennessee called Gleaning to ask about two loads of bottled water that we had available. I assured him it was his and that we’d ship it the next day. I had never talked to this man before, but I told him about the furniture and that it was also available. He recommended that I talk with Brother Joe Dudney, the CEO of this disaster relief organization. Cal transferred the phone call and I gave Joe all of the information. I will never forget what he said: “Well, we need furniture and you tell me it’s good. I’ll take it for what you owe if 96

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you can set up shipping immediately.”

We agreed that he would pay for the first half immediately; when half the furniture was shipped he would pay for the second half. In thirty days, all thirty containers of furniture were loaded, sent to various states in the disaster area and placed in people’s homes.

That was the first time I ever talked to Joe Dudney, but it wouldn’t be the last. If Joe ran the government, we would not have a deficit and people would have what they needed. Joe is eighty-four years old and still works every day. We’ve never had a contract on anything we’ve shipped together. When Brother Joe speaks, it’s the Gospel. Over the past seven years, we’ve shipped millions of dollars’ worth of disaster supplies to Joe without a signed agreement of any kind.

One of the recipients of this furniture was a man who lived beside a Mississippi swamp. He was a veteran and had lost both legs in a landmine in Vietnam. When the surge of water from Katrina flooded his home, he crawled on top of the house and waited to die. When the water receded, he crawled down and started to wash out the mud. No one even knew he lived in the area and no one showed up to help — except Joe’s army from the Church of Christ.

When the men arrived, they cleaned his house, moved in new furniture, made his bed with new sheets and placed a new refrigerator in the small kitchen, filling it with food. While they were doing this, the man kept telling them he couldn’t afford the furniture or the food. After finishing, the leader of the workers shared the news with the veteran that the bill was already paid.

“You have served your country, lost both legs in battle and deserve anything we can offer,” the leader said. When the veteran asked

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who had paid for the furniture and food, the leader replied that God had. He assured the veteran that his sins had been paid by Jesus’ death, which freed him from guilt, shame and hell.

The veteran began crying and told the workers that he felt no one cared whether he lived or died. After he had returned from Vietnam and recovered from his wounds, he was bitter and his family deserted him. Feeling abandoned, he continued to live alone in that small house, just waiting to die. The leader of the church group assured him that never again would he feel left out. Churches of Christ would be his family, not only for now, but for eternity. The next Sunday, the veteran was baptized into the Christian faith. It all started with Joe Dudney and the Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Effort in Nashville. It will all end in eternity.

We might not believe that furniture can lead to a soul being saved, but the hand of God works miracles. First, a manufacturer in Central Virginia had an overstock of high-quality furniture, which was offered to Gleaning at twenty-five percent of its value.

FEMA committed to pay for it, so I signed a contract with the furniture company that Gleaning could not afford. Soon, the government withdrew their offer. A man from a disaster relief organization in Nashville, Tennessee, called about two loads of water. His boss, Joe, bought $620,000 worth of furniture, sight unseen. We shipped the furniture (thirty loads in thirty days) to five states affected by Katrina. A man who lost his legs in Vietnam, who was waiting to die with no purpose in life, was baptized into the Christian faith because a team of men from a local church showed him that someone cared and witnessed to him that God had already paid the price for him to be free. The end result is that Heaven will gain a man of God. Also, God worked a miracle for Gleaning. After I signed the 98

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contract for the furniture with the intention that FEMA was going to pay, then found out they had withdrawn their offer, I felt defeated. I knew I had made a grievous mistake by not getting a written agreement from the government. There’s no way we could have paid for the furniture. However, God brought together a company that needed to dispose of furniture, and a nonprofit that needed furniture, using Gleaning as the catalyst.

Miracles do happen. Sometimes, however, we are so busy that we overlook the work of God. If we continue to listen, ask and believe, God will do more than we could ever imagine. I hope that we never get so used to seeing miracles.

Another early location of Gleaning For The World. We moved to this Appomattox warehouse in 2001. After building our present building in Concord, we used this warehouse for storage and some deliveries of shipments.

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C hapter T en A CHANGE IN FAITH “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4: 18 – 19)

Question: God is always sufficient. Do you trust Him?

Steadfast faith in God It took a lot of faith to trust God for salvation at the age of eighteen. It took a different kind of faith to answer my call for the ministry. It took yet another kind of faith to spend time with the terminally ill, or to preach God’s Word. Each walk of faith was a different relationship with God. Gleaning was and still is a unique kind of faith experience. I’ve seen miracles that have astounded me. I’ve had to trust God for the funds to run the ministry when we were within hours of having to close the doors. There have been times when I’ve stayed up all night long, praying for the ministry to last one more day, but knowing that when the sun came up it could all be over.

At one point early in the ministry, we had borrowed all the money we could and had used up our line of credit at the bank.

We only had a few thousand dollars left and no way to make payroll the next day. That night, I sat on my front porch and starting pleading to God. “Our people work hard and deserve 100

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Early Gleaning staff at the Appomattox facility.

every dollar they make,” I prayed. “Many would lose their homes if we couldn’t pay them. Some would be on the streets.”

My staff members were coming to work on Friday expecting and deserving a check. It was hard to believe that God couldn’t make this miracle happen. At around 2:30 a.m., after hours of praying, I finally asked God what He was doing. We were trying to help the poor and God had blessed the ministry in so many ways.

I had the faith, but something was wrong. The more I prayed, the emptier I felt.

I must admit again that I don’t hear thunder and see lighting when I pray. Often, the answer to my prayers is a small voice that lets me know God has heard the prayer and will answer it in His time. I finally asked Him, “God, what are you doing?” God’s answer was, “It isn’t any of your business.” Well, I wasn’t so sure I agreed with that. I had my house against the loan, my car against the credit line, and Jackie and I had put everything we had into making this ministry work. I received one other message from God that night: “Trust me.”

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The next morning, I called my administrative assistant into my office and told her to write the payroll checks but not to give them out. We were going to trust God. I assured her that I would not sign the checks until God provided the funds. Then I called the staff together and told them about my prayer the night before.

I explained that the checks were written and that when God provided the money, they would get paid. I also assured them that if any of them wanted to quit there wouldn’t be any hard feelings.

We prayed for God’s mercy and then every staff member just went back to work.

I worried all day long. I trusted God, but I trusted Him more when there was more time for Him to work miracles. As the afternoon ticked by, the emptiness I felt got worse. At around 3:30 p.m., a man came to the office. We owed him seven hundred dollars for some work he had done. My assistant came in and asked me what she should do. I told her the man had done his work and to write him a check. She gave me a questioning look, then went to fill out his check.

After the man left, she came in with the payroll checks, and told me to sign them. I reminded her that I couldn’t sign the checks until the money was in the bank. She explained that we now had the money, because the man who had just left had made a ten thousand dollar donation - two hundred dollars more than we needed to make payroll! To this day, I believe that if we had not been honest in paying the man what we owed, he would not have made the donation.

After I signed the checks, I headed to the bank to make the deposit. When I returned, I called the staff together and gave out the payroll checks. We prayed and thanked God for His faithfulness. My heart was filled with thanksgiving and also with 102

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shame. The night before, God had said, “Trust me,” but I had not.

I wish I could tell you it was the last time I had to get on my knees and ask God for forgiveness for not trusting Him, but it wasn’t.

Even though it is sometimes a struggle, I decide each day to trust God. God’s business plan In 2007, my board of directors was made up of ten men and women in Northern Virginia who were entrepreneurial, successful and had a lot of faith. They loved Gleaning and tolerated my lack of knowledge of business methods. They asked me to write a business plan, but I had no idea how to construct one. I searched for “business plans” on the internet, found an example, and filled in the blanks. I added a lot of big words to make it sound like I knew what I talking about and gave the board the best business plan I could offer.

After asking me a lot of questions, they finally passed the plan as our blueprint for the next three years. Afterwards, they jokingly advised me to follow the plan without making any changes before our next board meeting. I drove the four hours home praying to God that He wouldn’t let me disappoint them. Two weeks later, I got a call from the president of another nonprofit. He had new shoes — several hundred thousand pair.

It might surprise you to learn that there are three billion people in the world who have never owned a pair of shoes. The problem is when their feet are not protected, they are vulnerable to infections from cuts. Most of us know that if we get a cut and it gets infected, we can get a prescription for antibiotics so the cut will heal. The poor can’t afford medical care, or it may not even be available in their location. A minor wound can get infected,

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then without treatment, can turn into gangrene. This can lead to a foot or leg being removed. As one might imagine, having a foot or leg removed without anesthesia, a common practice in poor countries, is an excruciating ordeal. As a result, many choose to die rather than endure amputation.

For young children and the elderly, there are also parasites that feed on bare feet. A few days after we were offered several hundred thousand pairs of shoes by another nonprofit, we received a phone call from a missionary in Kenya. He said there was a horrible outbreak of sand fleas there, and the infestation is horribly painful. The missionary said there were people in the village that were covered with these parasites, and they needed insect repellent and shoes.

Helping them was not in our recently-approved business plan, but I made a phone call to the man that had offered several thousand pairs of shoes to us. I asked him how many pairs he could provide over the next year. His answer was twenty tractortrailer loads of shoes. He went on to tell me that over a period of three years, he could provide 140 tractor-trailer loads to us.

I ran the numbers. We needed more than $50,000 to send several hundred thousand pairs of shoes to locations in Latin America and Africa. I called everybody I knew in missions work and in business and procured most of the money for shipping costs. By the time I met with the board of directors again, just thirty days from the date they approved the business plan and told me not to change anything, I had doubled the number of shipments per year, raised almost all of the shipping costs, and had twenty thousand pairs of new shoes and insect repellent on a ship heading to Kenya.

At the next board meeting, I had to relay this information.

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After hearing what I had done, one of the men on the board, a businessman who has a great faith in God, shook his head.

Finally, he broke the silence and told the board, “Folks, why are we surprised? We knew he wouldn’t follow the business plan for thirty days, even though we knew he would try. I believe God can’t be put in a box that the rest of us call a business plan. We had the Rev. write a business plan and we blessed it, but we never asked God what He wanted. I believe this is from God and the Rev. has done the right thing. When we can save lives, we have to try.

When God moves, we have to follow.”

After Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005, we started moving shipments from all over the United States. News of the devastation was the main focus of television news. People wanted to do anything they could to help. Somehow, they found out about Gleaning and called us, offering supplies. Calls came in

With Katrina more than homes were destroyed. Each home was someone’s dream that could never be reconstructed.

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from thirty states. Amazingly, many times when I received a call asking for a specific product, someone would call ten minutes later offering exactly what was needed.

One morning, Red Cross and FEMA representatives called from Mississippi. They had come to assess the damage and had forgotten to bring sleeping bags, food and many other supplies.

Surprised that they were not prepared when going into a major disaster area, I got their names and phone numbers. I reluctantly told them, however, that we didn’t have any of the items they needed.

About an hour later, I got a phone call from the materials manager of Mississippi State University. The university wanted to help, so they offered four tractor-trailer loads of food, water, beds, bedding, towels and other supplies. My first question was, “How soon can you load the trucks?” Everything the aid workers in Mississippi needed was just two hours away. The trucking firm we were using for transport had trucks in the area and could load immediately. The materials manager told me to put the trucks on the road and he would load all night, if necessary. In three hours, the exact supplies the Red Cross and FEMA had asked for were sitting at a warehouse in Pascagoula, Mississippi, waiting to be unloaded.

After I dispatched the trucks to Mississippi State University, I sat back in my chair and realized I had just committed to $2,400 in shipping. One afternoon a week later, we moved seven loads in one afternoon with a value of more than one million dollars, and shipping costs of more than $10,000. We didn’t have a dime left in the checkbook, but we were still moving supplies to desperate people.

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for more than $14,000. When you see and feel the Spirit moving and see evidence of God doing powerful things, you have to trust God. I did not take time to pray and ask God for the money or the supplies. People were calling from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and all over the Gulf Coast area begging for supplies. I felt they had already talked to God and the calls were a confirmation that God was going to answer the need. So, we just kept shipping and God just kept providing.

The faith that is required to reach people worldwide with supplies is different. It’s not better or worse than another form of other faith. I remember one dream that woke me up during the third year of Gleaning’s ministry. There were people of different countries, different cultures and different faiths all standing around. There must have been a thousand people. They were all

Hurricane Katrina destroyed whole communities in America in 2005.

Gleaning placed 126 tractor trailer loads of supplies in the damaged areas in four months.

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waiting for something. They were dirty, hungry and looked sick.

There were children, elderly and all types of people who were just worn out — a throng of people in desperate need.

I got up from bed and went outside on the porch to sit for a while and figure out what God was trying to say. I was reminded that these people were my sheep. Whether we succeeded or failed as a ministry would determine their physical well-being, as well as where they spent eternity. I knew God wasn’t putting the whole load on my shoulders, since these people were His children.

However, I also realized that what we do at Gleaning makes an eternal difference. If we sort, pack and provide the best supplies, people live that would have died. If we don’t do the best we can, then people that we were given the opportunity to help will suffer more. This is true of those lacking food, clothing and other supplies, but also those that have never experienced the Gospel.

I have to trust God. One of the most difficult things after we started Gleaning was realizing that I didn’t have a church where I could take an offering if I had some wild idea that needed funding. For twenty-seven years, I could count on the church people helping me find the money. Now, I was alone with God and the only real source of funds was from Him. It was in that aloneness that I had to take another look at my faith and realize that my world had changed. If I had a wild idea, I could either make certain that what I was doing was God’s will or go broke trying to pay the bills. If it was His will then God would be sufficient.

Every time I preach in a church or speak to a community group, I ask them to pray for my ears. I don’t always hear God as well as I should, but I’m not alone in that human condition.

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or we choose our own course of action without asking for God’s guidance. When we stay in God’s will, we can never fail. Having spiritual ears to listen is a valuable gift that takes time to develop.

Normally, we have to fail a lot before we learn to listen.

In the Bible, 2 Kings 4: 1-7 tells the story of Elisha and the poor widow. Her husband had died and the family owed money. The person who held the debt was going to take her two sons into slavery unless the debt was paid. Elisha told her to get empty jars from her friends and neighbors, and pour oil into them until she ran out of jars. She did as she was told and every jar she had was filled. When she returned to Elisha, he told her to take the jars of oil, sell them, pay off the debt and her sons would be set free.

How could the widow fill empty jars? Humanly it was impossible, but with God all things are possible. Gleaning faces a world where people are hungry, sick, lonely, poor and in slavery.

It is as certain as if someone had placed chains on their legs and arms and put them in a dungeon. Life is not fair to the poor. They are abused by the wealthy, overworked for low wages, sold into sexual slavery, killed when they don’t obey their wealthy masters and often live a life that most of us couldn’t survive.

When we started Gleaning, it was just a concept with an empty warehouse. There was no money to start a nonprofit. We were an empty jar with the hope and expectation that God could and would work miracles. We were operating on blind faith, because there was no evidence that anything would happen. The only thing I knew was that God had put me in a place where I had to do something other than pastor churches. I had no idea that years later we would have shipped more than $550,000,000 in supplies with millions more committed.

I have met some of the poor we have helped, but most of them

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The tornadoes in Alabama took a lot of lives and destroyed a lot of dreams. The supplies shipped to The Church of the Highlands helped the people recover.

will never know Gleaning directly, why we care and why we try to follow God. They will just know that life is a little easier, that their children were healed by missionary doctors using our supplies, and that for another day they had some food to eat and a chance at life that they would not have had without Gleaning. All of these miracles have happened because of God and His commitment to His children who suffer. I love the prayer from Mother Teresa of Calcutta, India, called, “O Jesus, You who suffer.”

“O Jesus, You who suffer, grant that today and every day I may be able to see you in the person of Your sick ones, and that by offering them my care, I may serve you.

“Grant that, even if You are hidden under the unattractive disguise of anger, of crime, or of mental illness, I may recognize you and say, ‘Jesus, You who suffer, how sweet it is to serve you.’

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“Grant me, Lord, this vision of faith, and my work will never be monotonous. I will find joy in fulfilling the needs, both great and small, of the poor who suffer. Dear forgotten one, you are even more loved to me because you represent Christ. What a privilege I am granted in being able to take care of you.

“O God, since You are Jesus who suffers, be for me also a Jesus who is patient, indulgent with my faults, who only looks at my intentions, which are to love You and to serve You in the person of each of these children of Yours who suffer.

“Lord, increase my faith. Bless my efforts and my work, now and forever. Amen.”

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C hapter E leven GOD CHANGED OUR DIRECTION “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer” (Romans 12:12 NIV)

Question: If Jesus is our Lord will you follow his directions and let him control the circumstances?”

God Works in Mysterious Ways Rev. Ed Pruitt, pastor of one of the largest churches in Northern Virginia, invited me to preach at his church, giving me the opportunity to speak to his congregation during three services. Ed had been a pivotal influence in my life as a pastor, and was a friend that I admired. When I found out I had to attend seminary after college, which involved spending five summers at Duke University, Ed contacted me and traveled with me to Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. During the trip, he convinced me to attend Wesley and looked for a church to pastor in the suburbs of Washington.

As I delivered the sermons at Ed’s church, I laid out the mission of Gleaning and asked the congregation for help. It was a great opportunity to reach a large number of people and hopefully find a few new donors that would help us grow the ministry. We received some monetary donations that day, but little did I know that this day was going to dramatically change the ministry of Gleaning. God had a plan to make this miracle happen.

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One of the people I spoke with after the 11:00 A.M. service was a gentleman by the name of Rick Peterson. He seemed interested in Gleaning’s mission, and grilled me with so many questions that my head was spinning. We parted and agreed to keep in touch. I had not the slightest expectation of what came next. In retrospect, the entire trajectory of the ministry would be changed by this chance meeting. After about a week, I received a generous check from Rick and a phone call that included dozens of additional questions and a final request. Rick, who headed his family’s corporation, The Peterson Companies, wanted me to come to his office and meet with his family about Gleaning. We set a date and time, and I wondered what God was bringing about.

As it turns out, The Peterson Family was in search of a nonprofit ministry that could benefit from their funding and entrepreneurial expertise. I didn’t know it yet, but I was actually being interviewed.

When I arrived, I met Rick, his sister Lauren and his mother Carolyn. The office complex was amazing. They were three of the warmest and friendliest people I have met, and obviously brilliant business people. They asked tough questions like: How Gleaning started? What were my dreams? How I would finance my dream?

What was our brand?

Lauren kept turning to her Mom and saying, “This guy is just like Father. We have to get them together.” At the time, I had not yet met Milt Peterson, but knew that he had started with almost nothing and had built one of the largest real estate development companies in the Washington area. I wondered why he would want to talk to me.

On the way home, I told my wife, Jackie, that the meeting seemed surreal. Why would these brilliant business people be

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interested in our small ministry? I had enjoyed meeting them, but wondered just what was in store.

A few weeks later, I received a call from Rick. He told me that Milt Peterson wanted to meet me. We set a time, date and discussed the agenda. When I arrived, Milt’s administrative assistant told me that Mr. Peterson had a full schedule and I had 45 minutes to meet with him. That first 45 minutes flew by quickly. Milt and Rick greeted me and once again I was impressed with how they were easy to talk with and very warm-hearted. Like his children and wife, Milt asked tough business questions. The answers I gave must have been what he wanted to hear. When Mr. Peterson was alerted that he had another meeting, I knew I had to prepare to leave and had my “elevator speech� ready. Milt patted me on the back, asked if I could stay for lunch so we could keep talking and told his assistant to cancel all his appointments until further notice.

Our present office and warehouse building in Concord, Virginia. This building was constructed in 2007.

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We kept talking, asking and answering tough questions, discussing business plans and concepts, and I listened to Milt describe what he would do if he ran Gleaning. I knew that this man understood the ministry, my desire to help American industry and the poor at the same time. Rick had joined our meeting, and he did not say much. He just sat there grinning as if to say, “I am going to rattle your world.”

After another month, Rick called and asked if I could come back up. I dreaded the heavy traffic of Northern Virginia, but I had to meet Rick and find out why he had that grin.

When I arrived, Rick asked more questions. After an hour of talking, I decided it was time to find out what he wanted. He kept referring to me as “the entrepreneur in robes” and describing “how to scale the business model”, “operating leverage” and spoke of other business terms. I finally asked him if he would consider becoming the Chairman of the Board of Directors for Gleaning and make all his ideas a reality. What happened next was amazing. He got up from the office chair and started drawing on an imaginary board on the wall. He drew charts, outlined the branding concept, how to reach large businesses to expand our supplies, and just kept going. In my mind’s eye, I could see the imaginary board and understood what he was saying.

Rick is a brilliant businessman, a compassionate person and a committed Christian family man. He told me that his family was impressed with the concept of Gleaning and my honesty, but they made decisions like this together and he would talk with them.

On the way home, I had this feeling that my world and the world of Gleaning were getting ready to change. We were no longer going to be a small ministry that “winged it” from one decision to another. We were about to become something much

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bigger. I thought about calling Rick and telling him I was just kidding about the offer to be Chairman, but decided against it. I felt that God had a plan, but I did not know what that plan involved. As I drove the three hours home from the meeting, I used the time to rehash what Rick had talked about. I was still a little confused by all the business terminology and felt a little lost.

A few weeks later, Rick called for yet another meeting so that he could see Gleaning’s operation firsthand and meet the staff.

He was impressed after the visit, and was more determined than ever to help build this nonprofit. Before accepting the position of Chairman of the Board, he first wanted to discuss his vision for Gleaning. As he talked, he sported that excited grin, drew on an imaginary board and used business lingo that I did not understand, including business plans, three-year projections of income and expenses, and a three-year plan projecting the growth of Gleaning. After an hour of questions and suggestions, he agreed to be Chairman. We worked together for several months, during which time a financial plan was finalized, with the Peterson Family providing some crucial payment guarantees.

I had met with my Board of Directors and they accepted my suggestion that Rick become Chairman. Knowing his business background and contacts, the board members, who were local business people, offered to resign if Rick needed his own people on the board.

Rick met with the present board and assured them that he wanted them to continue their service. He would add some new members, but he needed the present members’ experience and expertise. They were impressed with Rick, his warmth and desire to help us become the best ministry in the world. The two worlds had joined hands to help Gleaning and it was an awesome experience.

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When the Board meeting was over, Rick went with me to my home to discuss what I needed to do to expand the ministry.

Once again he used those business phrases that I did not understand and assured me that I needed to start meeting with the larger nonprofits, government officials, and others that work internationally so we could join with them in caring for the poor.

Somewhere in the conversation, Rick saw that I had no idea what he was talking about. He looked at me with that grin and asked me if I knew what a three-year plan was and how to write one. I felt humbled when I had to admit that I had no idea what he was even talking about. I promised him I would research the subject and learn all I could. He offered me a dozen books over the next few months including Good to Great, The Fish Factory, and many others. I started reading and studied over twenty books

Gleaning has responded to almost every major disaster in the United States since Katrina in 2005. Using local churches, we are often the first to get water and food on site to help people.

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over the next twelve months, wrote my first three-year plan, and tried to start using the phrases the business people were using.

Rick added new people to the Board who were successful people in real estate, financing and environmental law. Board meetings were question-and-answer times where I was grilled on business principles and expectations. One man on the Board apologized if they were too hard on me; I assured him that I wanted them to help me be a better President and wanted Gleaning to be the best. Through it all, Rick and the other new members of the Board were consistent with one very important concept: there is no reason that a non-profit business cannot operate with the business professionalism and efficiency of a forprofit business, and that an entrepreneurial company culture was the key to growth and success. All we had to do was start thinking like a small “start-up” company in the commercial business world.

One member of the Board, Laing Hinson, would sit for the whole three hour meeting and just listen. At the end he would ask very difficult questions. I remember one meeting when Laing looked over his glasses at me and said, “There are enough nonprofits in the world. If we are just going to be another nonprofit let’s close the doors and walk away. Are you willing to pay the price to be the best and most effective nonprofit in the world?”

That is when it hit me. This whole series of changes was a plan of God to help Gleaning be exactly that, the best in the world. The question caused me to spend a lot of time in prayer asking the same question and others:

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• Was I willing to love the poor and love God enough to make any changes necessary to be the best?

• What did that mean?

• What did God want me to do?

I could not find peace. I was comfortable with the present operation of Gleaning, which involved driving forklifts, loading and unloading supplies, running the day-to-day operations, coming up with wild ideas and making them happen, and working side-by-side with the staff. I did not want to travel to foreign countries, meet with major donors all over the United States, or other new responsibilities the Board expected of me. If I was going to see Gleaning grow and develop, these were things I would have to do. The question of whether I loved God enough was clear.

The question of whether I loved the poor was clear. The hard part

In every major disaster, there are people who are never found and families hurt forever waiting for them to return.

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for me was making the transition, which I did not want to do.

It was at that time that Rick had one of his “big ideas”. He invited seven men who were extremely smart, highly successful and much younger than me to Beaver Creek, Colorado for four days of vacation and business meetings. They called it a French word: a “charrette.” Those four days consisted of business meetings in the morning, skiing in the afternoon, and more business meetings in the evening. It was the most creative atmosphere I have ever experienced, and many important concepts were introduced in these sessions. I loved it!!

On the last day of the charrette, one of the men asked a question that caught me off guard. He asked the same question I had been praying about: “Rev., are you willing to do anything necessary to make Gleaning the best, regardless of what it takes?”

He admitted that most founders of ministries were not willing to do so. This is called the “Founder Syndrome”. Founders of ministries would rather micromanage the ministries than expand their own responsibilities. That is why so many nonprofits will grow to the level of the Founder’s abilities, and then will stop.

I realized that if I were going to commit to the success of Gleaning, my world would have to change. I wanted it to stay the way it was. I loved being home every night, spending time with my family (especially my new grandchildren), driving tractors and cutting acres of grass with lawn mowers, and running Gleaning the way I knew how. I did not want the changes, but the inner voice of God kept asking whether I was willing to love him and the poor enough to make the transition? The only experience close to this was when I had the deep depression and ultimately left the pastoral ministry to start Gleaning. This time it was not depression, but a spiritual unrest that let me know that unless I 120

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was willing I would not be in God’s perfect will.

It took a year of prodding, questioning and training by the new Board. I was praying daily until it became so uncomfortable that I began to pray less. Finally, I had to make a decision and I felt as a Christian there was only one way to go – do what God wanted so we could touch more lives and win more people to Christ.

Little did I know that the struggle to change was not going to be a one-time decision on my part or a one-time event for the ministry. Since I said ‘yes’ to God, the changes have never stopped. Every year there are new responsibilities, new things to learn and more changes in my life.

Rick Peterson had started me down a trail that was difficult to understand in the beginning, and still difficult every time I have

The June 2012 wind storm (“derecho”) in Lynchburg, VA was the first local disaster Gleaning supplied. Over 500,000 bottles of water, food and other supplies were distributed at Thomas Road Baptist Church in three days.

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to renew the answer to God that I would follow Him wherever He wanted me to go. I still believe Rick knew where we were heading and the transition I would have to make. It was strange and unfamiliar territory, and it was very uncomfortable. Yet, if I had it to do again, I would not change a thing. I would not change the efficiency of the ministry, the addition of a Vice President that runs the day-to-day activities of the ministry, or the fact that Gleaning has been recognized four times as the most efficient ministry in America by Forbes magazine. I would not change the time I have spent with Rick and the Board in Northern Virginia or the tough question-and-answer meetings.

The results have been worth the effort. As I grow older, I can understand more and more the importance of being in God’s will. Someday soon I will stand before God and be judged for the life I have lived. No man has been given a greater opportunity than I have. I have been mentored by Rick Peterson, and encouraged and directed through conversations with Milt Peterson. I have been blessed by the Northern Virginia Board, a group of wonderful people who have loved me enough to not accept anything but my best. I am blessed with staff that loves Gleaning and God as much as I do. They understand that when they come to work they change lives and not just make a salary.

Most of all, I have been blessed with a God of grace that loves me unconditionally.

Also, I have learned that if you are going to add God’s name to your organization you either need to be the best regardless of the cost, or take His name out of the equation. God deserves the best from us and we should be willing to give all we have spiritually and mentally to serve Him.

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C hapter T welve THE BIBLE AND THE POOR It’s one thing for me to tell you about how God led me into this ministry. It’s another thing for you to draw your own conclusions about the poor. I challenge you to ask God to show you His heart for the poor. The following Bible verses relate to the poor and how God feels about them. As you read these verses, ask God to give you His heart for the poor.

God Cares for the Poor The Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, and imposed hard labor on us. Then we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror and with signs and wonders; and He has brought us to ... this land flowing with milk and honey. Deuteronomy 26:5–9 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read ... “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He appointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD ... Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:16–21 I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the poor. Psalm 140:12

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For You have been a defense for the helpless, a defense for the needy in his distress. Isaiah 25:4 The unfortunate commits himself to You; You have been the helper of the orphan ... O LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear to vindicate the orphan and the oppressed. Psalm 10:14 The afflicted and needy are seeking water, but there is none, and their tongue is parched with thirst. I, the LORD, will answer them Myself, as the God of Israel I will not forsake them. Isaiah 41:17 Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Luke 6:20–21 Did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? James 2:5 God Blesses Those Who Care for the Poor He who is generous will be blessed, for he gives some of his food to the poor. Proverbs 22:9 “Did not your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness?

Then it was well with him. He pled the cause of the afflicted and needy; then it was well. Is that not what it means to know Me?” declares the LORD. Jeremiah 22:16 You shall give generously to [your poor brother], and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings.

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He who is gracious to a poor man lends to the LORD, and He will repay him for his good deed. Proverbs 19:17 For, if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your own ruin, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

Jeremiah 7:5–7 And if you give yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness, and your gloom will become like midday. And the LORD will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.

Isaiah 58:10 When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and repayment come to you. But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. Luke 14:12–14 Sell your possessions and give alms; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Luke 12:44 The young man said to Him, “All these commands I have kept; what am I still lacking?” Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in

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heaven; and come, follow Me.” Matthew 19:20ff God Curses Those Who Refuse to Care for the Poor Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food, and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them when I saw it. Ezekiel 16:49ff Woe to those who enact evil statutes, and to those who continually record unjust decisions, so as to deprive the needy of justice, and rob the poor of My people of their rights... Now what will you do in the day of punishment, and in the devastation which will come from afar? Isaiah 10:1–3 He has brought down rulers from their thrones, and has exalted those who were hungry. He has filled the hungry with good things; and sent away the rich empty-handed. Luke 1:52ff “The people of the land have practiced oppression and committed robbery, and they have wronged the poor and needy and have oppressed the sojourner without justice ... Thus I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; their way I have brought upon their heads,” declares the Lord GOD. Ezekiel 22:29,31 “[The wicked] do not plead the cause, the cause of the orphan, that they may prosper; and they do not defend the rights of the poor. Shall I not punish these people?” declares the LORD. “On such a nation as this, shall I not avenge myself?” Jeremiah 5:28ff Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become motheaten. ... Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and with you have withheld, cries out against you; and the outcry of the harvesters 126

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has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. James 5:1–6 But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.

Luke 6:24 Now there was a certain rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, gaily living in splendor every day. And a certain poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs would come and lick his sores.

Now it came about that the poor man died and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom.

And he cried out and said, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue; for I am in agony in this flame.”

But Abraham said, “Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony...” Luke 16:19–25 What is our responsibility?

The righteous is concerned for the rights of the poor; the wicked does not understand such concern. Proverbs 29:7

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But whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?

1 John 3:17 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, in order to receive back the same. Luke 6:33ff Let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7 When therefore you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. Matthew 6:2–4 No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Money. Matthew 6:24 For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang. 1 Timothy 6:10 Recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John ... gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we might go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. They only asked us to remember the poor — the very thing I also was eager to do.

Galatians 2:9ff

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You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.

Leviticus 19:15 All those who had believed were together, and had all things in common; and they began to sell their property and possessions, and share them with all, as anyone might have need. Acts 2:44 And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. And with great power the apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles’ feet; and they would be distributed to each, as any had need. Acts 4:32–35 Let him who steals steal no longer; but rather let him labor, performing with his own hands what is good, in order that he may have something to share with him who has need. Ephesians 4:28 God Identifies with the Poor For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9 He who is gracious to a poor man lends to the LORD, and He will repay him for his good deed. Proverbs 19:17 He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker, but he who is gracious to the needy honors Him. Proverbs 14:31

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When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on His left.

Then the King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.” Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite you in, or naked, and clothe You? And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?” And the King will answer and say to them, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.” Then He will also say to those on His left, “Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.” Then they themselves will also answer, saying, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?” 130

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Then He will answer them, saying, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Matthew 25:31–46 Now What?

From these verses, it’s clear that God identifies with the poor and cares for them. He expects His people to care for the poor, too. As it says in the Scripture, He will bless those who help the poor and curse those who don’t.

In response to God’s Word, what will you do to increase your active love for the poor?

• Pray for the hungry every time you ask God to bless your meal?

• Find a poor widow and offer to help her clean her house, fix up the outside of her home or cut her lawn during the summer?

• Go to your local public school and ask if there are some families you can adopt for Christmas, birthdays and back-toschool shopping?

• Begin serving once a week at a homeless shelter?

• Serve in a food kitchen regularly?

• Find a homeless camp and take the residents something they really need like new socks, blankets or warm hats?

• Volunteer at Gleaning to pack, sort and prepare supplies?

I pray that God opens your eyes to the needs of the poor around you in a fresh, new way. And as God gives you His heart for

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the poor, there shouldn’t be a question as to whether or not you will get involved. There are so many ways you can show a genuine, active love for the poor.

The only question is — what will you do?

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CONCLUSION GOD CAN... USE YOU More than we ever hoped For the past several years, I’ve been living an adventure with God called Gleaning For The World. God has used this special nonprofit organization to serve the poor all over the world.

Today, we have shipped goods to fifty-five countries on five continents. We have become a $50,000,000 mission agency, and last year alone we saw 35,000 people give their lives to Christ.

Because of the work God is doing through Gleaning, more than six million people have had a chance at a better life — all because someone cared enough to help them when they were in need. I thank God I get to come to Gleaning every day, knowing we are

Gleaning recently celebrated fifteen years of providing help to those less fortunate. Here, Rev. Davidson enjoys the evening celebration with his granddaughter, Bailey.

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changing lives for eternity.

Gleaning was not something that I developed. It’s a ministry that came from God, and it seems to be a living organism that changes daily. It’s amazing to see God at work and know that the same God who creates miracles for this ministry and His children in poverty is the same God who blesses me every day.

The ministry has gone through many struggles over the past fourteen years. It has always been tough to meet financial goals, but when I look back, God has always provided. I still worry about fundraising, getting product in and out, and making certain the administration and records management sides work effectively.

I don’t know if I will ever overcome this tendency to worry, but I have learned that God is sufficient.

There are so many people living in poverty in the United States and around the world that I wish I could reach. When disasters occur, I know that under all of the debris are humans that are either suffering or dead. I know there are so many who lose hope when they see their homes destroyed. The best we can do is provide the supplies they need and work with churches who can share a message from God that they are not forgotten.

People who have heard about Gleaning often remark to me that I must sleep well, knowing all the good deeds we are doing.

The truth is, it’s harder to sleep because I think of the people we’ve helped, and I wish more could be done. God has an army of devoted missionaries in the field, caring for the ones who suffer. Another army of missions organizations send out supplies.

Gleaning is only one piece of the puzzle. It’s our job to be the best at what we do and support the rest of our brothers and sisters who help and minister to the poor.

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my life changed. The job became personal. Those who suffered as a result of disasters became real people, with faces that showed heartache. In the beginning of the ministry, my thoughts were, “How many people are in need? How many supplies have to be shipped to care for them?” Once I visited the people in various countries and sat in their homes, shared meals and held their children, my point of view changed. Now, when I ship ocean-going containers, it feels like I’m going along and taking the supplies there personally.

Since then, I’ve also learned several important lessons: • When you obey God, He supplies the right products at just the right time so His children can get the support they need.

• God can do big things if we are simply willing to do what God wants.

• God’s timing is never wrong. It might not fit our schedule, but God is never late.

• God doesn’t necessarily choose the smartest people. All he wants is someone who is willing. He can handle the rest.

• God moves in mysterious ways and can change my life and the ministry. When I said “Yes” to God at my baptism in 1968, God’s Holy Spirit became the Lord of my life and therefore the master of my future.

• God can use our foolishness, bypass our agenda and place us where He wants us to be without us even knowing what He’s doing. I often find myself in the middle of a miracle and wonder how I got there.

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• Yielding to God’s will is always a struggle.

• First, God has a plan and we don’t know what it is. God is smart. He doesn’t tell us what the plan is so we can’t mess it up.

• Second, God wants to set up the circumstances so miracles can happen. Creating a miracle is so simple for God and sometimes so difficult for us to go along with.

God just wants us to participate as one piece of a huge puzzle.

• God has plans and only asks for me to be obedient.

• My primary job at Gleaning is to show up and do God’s work.

As we worked to help the community of Kumauni, Sri Lanka, we built 34 fishing boats so the community of 54,000 could get back to work. This handshake took place when we promised we would not forget but return to help.

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Are you willing?

I have told the story of Gleaning for the World for several reasons.

First, so God can get the glory for what He has done. The stories you have read are about things humans can’t make happen — they point to a miracle every time.

Second, so you will be encouraged to trust God more than before. Our God is a big God. If you trust Him for big things, you will see big things happen.

Third, to inspire you to say “Yes” to God and be willing to do what you sense He is calling you to do. Remember, all He wants is someone who is willing. Once you say “Yes” to God that’s all He needs to hear.

If God can use me, He certainly can use you… if you are willing.

Thank you for reading this book and learning about Gleaning For The World.

Donations are welcome and appreciated.

We are a 501(c)(3) company.

You may send your tax-deductible donation to: Gleaning For The World P.O. Box 645 Concord, VA 24538 Credit card donations may be taken by phone.

Please call (434) 993-3600.

You also can donate via our website: www.gftw.org

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