I have always struggled with receiving. Frankly, I’m more comfortable in a traditional “giving” position.

But as the director of the archdiocese’s Agape Service Project, which serves farmworker families in Whatcom County, I have been challenged to receive countless times as God has provided for us through the generosity of the Body of Christ — from an Eagle Scout who collected hundreds of books for our food bank, to a parish that collected 170 units of laundry detergent, to an incredible $50,000 donation we received in the midst of the pandemic that allowed us to maintain our direct services to the farmworker community after our main source of revenue was cut.

One of the most powerful examples of God’s provision came last summer, from one of the farmworker families we served.

At our weekly summer food bank, we provide culturally appropriate items in a Spanish-speaking setting. As we were running the drive-through food bank, one of our regular families drove up and popped their trunk. Our staff assumed they were ready for us to load the trunk with boxes of food. Instead, the family pulled out two large pots of arroz con pollo. They had prepared a meal to share with all our staff and volunteers from the food we had distributed to them the previous week.

Arroz con pollo made for Agape Food Bank staff and volunteers by a family using food distributed to them the previous week. (Courtesy Agape)

For this family to return the chicken, rice, tomatoes, garlic and oil they had received in the form of a home-cooked meal was such an incredible show of love and generosity. I still struggle to fully articulate the impact it had on me.

In that moment, love moved us powerfully from the space of “giving” to the space of “receiving.” I encountered Christ in that family, in their act of Christ-like agape love: giving without counting the cost, without fear of not having enough for themselves.

It reminded me that even when we are in a traditional “giving” position, we must always have open hands, ready to receive the abundant blessings and graces our Creator wants to share with us.

That meal was also a profound experience of what Pope Francis calls a “culture of encounter.” As we enjoyed that delicious chicken and rice together, we were not just anonymous food bank staff and patrons. We were family, brothers and sisters in Christ, sharing a beautiful moment of communion.

It was an example of what Pope Francis talks about in The Joy of the Gospel: “We achieve fulfilment when we break down walls and our heart is filled with faces and names!” As director of Agape, I am inspired and challenged by these words every day.

Agape staff member Anthony Meza Santos chats with a client at the Agape Food Bank during the summer of 2021. (Courtesy Agape)

This culture of encounter is at the heart of our mission at Agape. As individuals engage with each other through our program, I pray their hearts are expanded and filled — because as they meet new people, they are encountering Christ.

The three groups of people who encounter each other through our service project are quite different: the farmworker community of Whatcom County, youth and adults from parishes across the archdiocese, and college-aged young adults who work in our servant leadership staff positions.

Through games of dodgeball and soccer, the distribution of food and clothing, working together on justice-focused farms, prayer and small group reflection, space is formed in our program for strangers to encounter each other and share moments of joy, to dismantle preconceived ideas and structures of exclusion, and to enter into kinship — the conviction that we are one human family.

Together, we work to combat the tragic situation that Mother Teresa identified: “Today, if we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other — that man, that woman, that child is my brother or my sister.”

One thing about trying to live this culture of encounter is that it pulls you out of your comfort zone. It stretches you and makes you grow, and that can be hard.

I am still challenged to look at areas of my life where I need to be open to receiving, or where I am afraid to give because I worry I won’t have enough for my own needs. How can I give beyond my comfort zones? Not just financially, but also giving of my time when I feel like it’s in short supply, doing an activity I don’t really enjoy because it gives a friend joy, saying “no” to something comfortable to enable a fuller “yes” elsewhere, spending an extra five minutes in prayer to root myself in the source of all giving.

And then, in all things, trusting that God will replenish and supply all I need.

Kelsey Harrington, a member of Church of the Assumption Parish in Bellingham, is director of the Agape Service Project. Contact her: [email protected].

Agape Service Project: Summer 2021

  • Provided food to an average of 228 families each week.
  • Engaged 206 participants at 10 parishes in “faith in action” through modified programming opportunities.
  • Distributed 19,320 diapers over seven weeks.

Learn more about Agape.

Northwest Catholic — June/July 2022