By Jennifer Cotney

In the fall of 2015, my family was in a difficult season. Having endured the loss of our business, we were still sorting through the financial fallout. My children were perceptive to the changes, especially when the grocery budget slashed some of their favorite snacks from their lunchboxes.

When I noticed they were coming home from school unusually irritable and hungry more than a few days in a row, I assumed it was due to our circumstances. I asked them if they had enough to eat at lunch. As a mother of special needs children, there have been numerous times when their innocence and wisdom has left me speechless, but what they said that day changed our family forever.

Living in an urban area, it’s hard not to notice the homeless situation. It seems my children also noticed and had begun saving their lunches to give to the hungry people who would walk by the school during recess. Beginning the very next day, I started packing brown bag lunches for my children to “share”.

Their generosity did not end with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. As we approached the holiday season, their usually long wish lists each consisted of a handful of inexpensive dollar store items. Then, just a few days before Christmas, they came to me as a group, each child holding one wrapped gift from under the tree. Instead of asking to open a present early, my children asked if they could take some of their presents back to the store for a refund so they could use the money to buy food to serve to the homeless on Christmas Eve.

Blinking back tears, I listened as they told me they planned a menu of spaghetti (because you can make a lot of it with few ingredients, they reasoned), garlic bread, green beans, and pumpkin pie. They even thought to budget for the Styrofoam containers and bottled waters to drink. Impressed with their compassion and selflessness, I accepted the wrapped presents for return, hid them to put back after bedtime, and took them to shop for their ingredients.

In the days before Christmas Eve, they decorated the outside of 37 to-go boxes by hand and wrote encouraging messages inside the tops. On the big day, they worked together to make the meal, package the boxes, and loaded the car. They planned the route we’d take and personally delivered each meal, a bottle of water, and a prayer for their goodwill.

“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and gave You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it of the least of these, My brethren, you did it to Me.’” Matthew 25:37-40

About a month later, our Pastor of Faith Movers Church New Orleans told us that he’d shared their deed with other churches who wanted to begin an outreach program serving the homeless community. In the early spring of 2016, Matthew 25 Ministries was born. Originally supported by our church, New Genesis Bible Church, New Orleans, and Hosanna Fellowship Church, Gretna and run by my children, we started with a monthly meal distribution on the streets of New Orleans. As this idea grew in popularity, other churches began serving meals regularly so we changed focus. Now, we hand out “Blessing Bags” stocked with toiletries, socks, and snacks, as well as collect donated shoes and new packages of socks to distribute as needed. In the summer, the leadership of Faith Movers Church New Orleans sponsors our water ministry, with our members handing out bottles of cold water to anyone who is thirsty.

Click to tweet: Small Acts of Kindness. Children raise money to make lunches for the homeless which inspires a large outreach program for the entire community. #compassion #KindnessMatters

In Matthew 21:16, we read: “And Jesus said to them, ‘Yes. Have you never read, Out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?” One small act of compassion by children inspired an outreach movement that continues four years later.

Out of the mouths of babes, indeed.

Jennifer Cotney is a graduate of Reinhardt University in Waleska, Georgia and lives in New Orleans with her family. Though her passion is poetry, she also writes Christian fiction and is a contributing writer for various faith based blogs. With a heart for rescue, animal and human, she is often found volunteering at a local animal shelter or serving as the Outreach Coordinator for Faith Movers Church, New Orleans.