How has it only been two months since she first came to serve with Grace Klein Community? It seems like she’s been around forever, scrubbing down fridges, mopping the floor and sorting the strawberries. The GKC Trade Market requires a LOT of helping hands to make it possible and to keep it running efficiently. Sheralee Tompkins is a vital spoke of that wheel.
We have rescued food donated to Grace Klein Community every single day thanks to a variety of partnerships. Volunteers pick up the food, thanks to our box truck, purchased with a grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham. Then, more volunteers help unload the food, sort the food and preserve the food. Finally, additional volunteers come pick up the food and distribute to families in need all around Birmingham.
Sheralee is one of our volunteer hosts. A host does a little of everything. She welcomes other volunteers into the office and helps them find what they need, often presenting ideas of how to use this or that, and encouraging the volunteers to take even more to give away than they may have planned. She also notices what must be done to keep the food area in order and operating as smoothly as possible. She is the one accessing what foods need to be in the fridge, what can be frozen and the food that needs to move out right now. Another crucial aspect is how Sheralee genuinely befriends and gets to know the other volunteers. She asks questions, she giggles with the other ladies and she doesn’t mind making suggestions. God is growing attributes in Sheralee that she never even noticed she had – the ability to engage any person and to make them feel valuable and loved. She’s giving out hugs, listening and speaking words of encouragement. The interactions with so many new and different people is stretching her and the ways she shares love.
Even when she’s not at the office, Sheralee is considering the needs of others in Grace Klein Community, maybe even some she’s never met. She sits on her back porch in the morning and prays for the families who will come. She prays for the volunteers and for the quality of food and for the ministry that happens through the food that scatters around our city. She makes homemade salsa and tomato sauce and she brings the canned jars to share with others. Her ways are “pay it forward” and others cut up zucchini or chop celery as they learn from her example and “pay it forward” too. She sends encouraging messages to other community members and she prays for the needs that people share.
Sheralee loves people and loves Jesus more. She is bold to share what God is teaching her and to jump in to serve Him through the GKC Trade Market. Often people will refer to Sheralee and if they cannot remember the name, the other person will say, “You know, the tall lady!” Of which everyone replies, “oh, that’s Sheralee!”
In stature she’s a tall lady. But, tall also means confidence and that represents her too. She’s confident in Jesus and her hope is secure. Life is not easy for any of us and it has not been easy for her, but she is confident in Who has the last word.
As we think about the word tall and Sheralee, think of the phrase “a tall order.” Some may think that’s demanding or difficult. However, the definition of “a tall order” is to accomplish something difficult to do. Synonyms of tall order include: “arduous, awesome, challenging, colossal, dismaying, effortful, great, hard, impressive, intimidating, labored, laborious, mammoth, staggering, strenuous, toilsome, tough, tremendous, and uphill.” Life can wake us up and overwhelm us as if “a tall order.” The GKC trade market can even overwhelm us as “a tall order.” How will we face another obstacle or jump another hurdle?
Sheralee demonstrates that we need not fear the opportunity to accomplish something difficult. Our desire can be to stay at home, obsess over our own problems and live in a funk… never taking on “the tall order.” We can choose to rather live tackling the “tall orders” realizing Jesus is with us and the uphills are our chance to show what is impossible in our flesh is possible with Him.
In Matthew 19 and Luke 18 the disciples are asking Jesus how to have eternal life. In Matthew 19:21 Jesus says, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” They debate how impossible it seems, a representation of such “a tall order.” Jesus responds in verse 26, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
As we grow and become better through our friendship with “the tall lady,” let her life remind us of the tall orders we have as we follow Jesus daily. Let us trust God to help us complete the journey that is completely impossible without God.
Jesus said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” – Luke 18:27
How has it only been two months since she first came to serve with Grace Klein Community? It seems like she’s been around forever, scrubbing down fridges, mopping the floor and sorting the strawberries. The GKC Trade Market requires a LOT of helping hands to make it possible and to keep it running efficiently. Sheralee Tompkins is a vital spoke of that wheel.
We have rescued food donated to Grace Klein Community every single day thanks to a variety of partnerships. Volunteers pick up the food, thanks to our box truck, purchased with a grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham. Then, more volunteers help unload the food, sort the food and preserve the food. Finally, additional volunteers come pick up the food and distribute to families in need all around Birmingham.
Sheralee is one of our volunteer hosts. A host does a little of everything. She welcomes other volunteers into the office and helps them find what they need, often presenting ideas of how to use this or that, and encouraging the volunteers to take even more to give away than they may have planned. She also notices what must be done to keep the food area in order and operating as smoothly as possible. She is the one accessing what foods need to be in the fridge, what can be frozen and the food that needs to move out right now. Another crucial aspect is how Sheralee genuinely befriends and gets to know the other volunteers. She asks questions, she giggles with the other ladies and she doesn’t mind making suggestions. God is growing attributes in Sheralee that she never even noticed she had – the ability to engage any person and to make them feel valuable and loved. She’s giving out hugs, listening and speaking words of encouragement. The interactions with so many new and different people is stretching her and the ways she shares love.
Even when she’s not at the office, Sheralee is considering the needs of others in Grace Klein Community, maybe even some she’s never met. She sits on her back porch in the morning and prays for the families who will come. She prays for the volunteers and for the quality of food and for the ministry that happens through the food that scatters around our city. She makes homemade salsa and tomato sauce and she brings the canned jars to share with others. Her ways are “pay it forward” and others cut up zucchini or chop celery as they learn from her example and “pay it forward” too. She sends encouraging messages to other community members and she prays for the needs that people share.
Sheralee loves people and loves Jesus more. She is bold to share what God is teaching her and to jump in to serve Him through the GKC Trade Market. Often people will refer to Sheralee and if they cannot remember the name, the other person will say, “You know, the tall lady!” Of which everyone replies, “oh, that’s Sheralee!”
In stature she’s a tall lady. But, tall also means confidence and that represents her too. She’s confident in Jesus and her hope is secure. Life is not easy for any of us and it has not been easy for her, but she is confident in Who has the last word.
As we think about the word tall and Sheralee, think of the phrase “a tall order.” Some may think that’s demanding or difficult. However, the definition of “a tall order” is to accomplish something difficult to do. Synonyms of tall order include: “arduous, awesome, challenging, colossal, dismaying, effortful, great, hard, impressive, intimidating, labored, laborious, mammoth, staggering, strenuous, toilsome, tough, tremendous, and uphill.” Life can wake us up and overwhelm us as if “a tall order.” The GKC trade market can even overwhelm us as “a tall order.” How will we face another obstacle or jump another hurdle?
Sheralee demonstrates that we need not fear the opportunity to accomplish something difficult. Our desire can be to stay at home, obsess over our own problems and live in a funk… never taking on “the tall order.” We can choose to rather live tackling the “tall orders” realizing Jesus is with us and the uphills are our chance to show what is impossible in our flesh is possible with Him.
In Matthew 19 and Luke 18 the disciples are asking Jesus how to have eternal life. In Matthew 19:21 Jesus says, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” They debate how impossible it seems, a representation of such “a tall order.” Jesus responds in verse 26, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
As we grow and become better through our friendship with “the tall lady,” let her life remind us of the tall orders we have as we follow Jesus daily. Let us trust God to help us complete the journey that is completely impossible without God.
Jesus said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” – Luke 18:27
Sheralee is one of our volunteer hosts. A host does a little of everything. She welcomes other volunteers into the office and helps them find what they need, often presenting ideas of how to use this or that, and encouraging the volunteers to take even more to give away than they may have planned. She also notices what must be done to keep the food area in order and operating as smoothly as possible. She is the one accessing what foods need to be in the fridge, what can be frozen and the food that needs to move out right now. Another crucial aspect is how Sheralee genuinely befriends and gets to know the other volunteers. She asks questions, she giggles with the other ladies and she doesn’t mind making suggestions. God is growing attributes in Sheralee that she never even noticed she had – the ability to engage any person and to make them feel valuable and loved. She’s giving out hugs, listening and speaking words of encouragement. The interactions with so many new and different people is stretching her and the ways she shares love.
Even when she’s not at the office, Sheralee is considering the needs of others in Grace Klein Community, maybe even some she’s never met. She sits on her back porch in the morning and prays for the families who will come. She prays for the volunteers and for the quality of food and for the ministry that happens through the food that scatters around our city. She makes homemade salsa and tomato sauce and she brings the canned jars to share with others. Her ways are “pay it forward” and others cut up zucchini or chop celery as they learn from her example and “pay it forward” too. She sends encouraging messages to other community members and she prays for the needs that people share.