Delivering Food - ImpactLives

On Thursday last week we delivered ImpactLives food to many people. It's just incredible to witness this. If you think about how many people contributed their time, talent, energy and resources. When you think about all the pieces that had to fit together just perfectly to make this happen, it really is a miracle - only possible by the hand of God!


Some of you may not know what I mean when I say we delivered ImpactLives food. ImpactLives is an organization founded by Ramon Pastrano. Ramon was born in the Dominican Republic and lived here for most of his childhood. The story of how Ramon made it to Minnesota and came to be the founder and president of ImpactLives is a very interesting one - one that you need to hear from Ramon himself if you ever get the chance!


The purpose of ImapctLives is to transform communities one life at a time. There are many different ways they bring transformation to people's lives, but one way is through the meal-packing program. ImpactLives goes to schools, churches, prisons, businesses and other groups around the US and brings with them an opportunity for people to make a difference.


ImpactLives brings a semi-truck full filled with all the necessary ingredients to pack meals that can be distributed to hungry children and adults around the world. Communities work together to raise money, pack the meals and then ship the food overseas. ImpactLives also provides a training program, teaching people about poverty, about what they can do to help, and about leadership and being change agents in their communities. ImpactLives then provides opportunities for groups to travel with them to deliver the food to the people who desperately need it.


Through this meal-packing program and training transformation really does happen - in the lives of those who receive the food and in the lives who send it.

The pictures below are of people here in the Dominican Republic receiving food that was packed, purchased and shipped by people - probably children - in the US.

To learn more about ImpactLives go to http://www.impactlives.org/



Our first stop was Kilo 16. As we drove, it started to rain. We were a little concerned that people may not come out to receive food in the rain.









































The truck was filled with boxes of food.

As you can see, people came to receive the food even though it was raining, and Dominicans DO NOT like to be out in the rain!!

We left several boxes with the pastor in the church as well to be distributed later to families who were not home this morning.

Lots of smiles and grateful people - young, old, men, women and children.

Rain??? What rain?!!

We stopped at several other places along the road as well. This is another small church and a school. We left boxes at each of these places for the pastors and leaders to distribute.

We stopped at homes of individual people that Pastor Carlos knows.

We stopped at Kilo 9. People there, too, lined up to receive this blessing of food.

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The view along this road is beautiful!

A shot of one of the streets in Hato Mayor and faithful servants of the Lord, Wascar and Pastor Pablo.

For lunch we went to Pico Pollo. Fried chicken, fritos and CocaCola....mmmmm....


Now this is a happy Pastor Carlos!! :)

Next stop, Jalonga, another Haitian village. The road was pretty muddy after lunch, and we had some trouble getting there with the bus and truck. It was pretty easy to get stuck in the mud.

This is a picture of the sugarcane. Many find work in the sugarcane fields.

Another beautiful view.

The lines at Jalonga were especially long. This is a community that many of the teams have not yet visited. A pastor has been assigned. There is not a church building here yet. There is a lot that can be done to help this community.

All in a days work!

Thanks so much to all who contributed to this meal-packing project, making it possible to give this food to people who need it. Glory to God - He is SO good!