When asked to write an article about the Michigan food drive, I was at a loss because I only drove the truck for a few years. The Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Food Drive started as a mini-van full of food from Pastor Greg Gibbons and his circuit in Michigan. By word of mouth, it quickly turned into the 24-foot van that I drove. We made stops at Saginaw, Detroit, and Benton Harbor, where thankful members and congregations from all over Michigan had food and money waiting.

Perhaps the best way to tell you about this project is to share with you what I reported back to our Michigan congregations in November of 2004:

Dear Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Food Drive Participants,
I wish you could have come with me to deliver the food to our Seminary!
I wish you could have heard the restaurant manager at our evening meal marvel (after he asked about the purpose of our big van), “You care so much about people so far away!”
I wish you could have seen our shock as that manager gave us a hefty discount on our meal.
I wish you could have seen the excited WLS food pantry director show me the 12-by-12-foot room ready to receive our food donation.
I wish you could have heard my snicker, knowing that the room would not hold your generous gifts.
I wish you could have heard the delighted gasps of the seminarians when I lifted the back door of the van to show them literally tons of food and supplies.
I wish you could have seen the food pantry director’s mouth hit the ground when I presented him with about $5,000 in checks to accompany your other gifts of love.
I wish you could have heard his smiling explanation of how this $5,000 would be used for grocery store certificates to be given at Christmas time to the approximately 50 married seminarians.
I wish you could have enjoyed the thankful conversation of those ministry students as we unloaded your gifts of love at 6:00 a.m.
I wish you could have seen the bubbly wife (yes, at 6:00 a.m.), who said, “Pastor, remember me? I was eight months pregnant when I helped unload last year.”
I wish you could have seen the cute, blond baby girl she held as she helped unload this year.
I wish you could have seen the neatly and clearly marked shelves and bins of the food pantry, almost empty.
I wish you could have seen the ecstatic wives putting all your donations in their proper place, smiling like kids in a candy store.
I wish you could have seen all the roaming toddlers undoing their moms’ work.
I wish you could have heard the pantry director yell to all the workers, “Take as much food home as you want! There’s no rationing today!”
I wish you could have seen the thankful families take only a bag or two, because they wanted to share with those who weren’t there.
I wish you could have watched the husbands, now dressed in their suits and ties, wave a final time as they headed out to study to be pastors some day . . . maybe even your pastors.
I wish you could have helped me count the times the wives they left behind to load the pantry shelves said, “Thank God for Michigan! Tell them all THANK YOU!”
I wish you could have felt the light truck on the way home—and our light and happy hearts.

P.S.: I know you didn’t have to be there to rejoice with me. After all, you have the same
Judgment Day words of your Savior to look forward to as I do: “Whatever you did . . .
you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).

William Brassow is pastor at Zion, Osceola, Wisconsin.