Just a few of the apples we picked!
Okay, I know the title was a very bad pun, but I think it works as a little metaphor, too. Hear me out:
Two weeks ago, I got a call from a woman who had her house on the market. She said she had trees laden with luscious apples, but she wasn’t around to pick them, and she didn’t want them to go to waste. Her hope was that a youth group could pick them and use them to bake apple crisps for a mission trip fundraiser.
I loved this idea. And I thought, “Why not go a step further? No need to keep a bounteous harvest to ourselves! If we pick enough apples, we can use some for a bake sale and donate some to a place that serves meals to hungry people!”
Crunchy and delicious (and scary?)
Despite the terrifying picture of our rambunctious youth on ladders wielding clippers and pickers, we forged ahead (I am still thanking God that no one fell off a ladder…but then, I tend to be a rather worried youth leader who imagines all sorts of melodramatic incidents occurring to the youth she loves). The really funny thing (please, imagine this scenario in your mind) is that, by the time we got to the house, it was completely dark, and, of course, there was no one home because the house is waiting to be sold.
Holding the bucket for Cam
We stumbled into the dark backyard with all our accoutrement, blithely assuring the neighbors, “It’s okay! We’re supposed to be here to get the apples!” With the assistance of headlamps (and looking a bit like coal miners), we set up some spotlights and squinted up at the branches to see hundreds of apples waiting for us.
Our tree-climbing wonder
Abby scaled the trees like a monkey (if there were an Olympic tree-climbing sport, I’d nominate her promptly), Aaron balanced precariously on top of a ladder, Cam dropped apples into the bucket I was holding on my head, Katie and Emily found the abandoned hammock, Oliver and Amy proved lethal (to the apples, not to us) with the extended clippers, and Nathan realized that Amanda would scream whenever he threw rotten apples at her. So much fun and hilarity ensued, and before long, we found ourselves the proud harvesters of multiple bins and bags of apples.
The Mission run by Catholic Charities
The next day, I took several bags of apples to The Mission, run by Catholic Charities. The Mission is an emergency shelter, housing up to 40 people, that used to serve supper and breakfast but has now expanded to include lunch as well. Plymouth has long had a relationship with The Mission and sends members to serve lunch there one Sunday a month. In fact, the high schoolers will be going during the Sunday School hour on 10/17 to serve the meal.
I don’t know if The Mission’s cooks baked our apples into pies and crisps or left apples out for people to take, but I was happy to know that the fruits of our labor (literally) were going to people who would enjoy them.
The Mission's dining area
As for our youth group, we will spend a sticky and delicious 2 hours this evening slicing, packaging, and freezing loads of apples (and hey, if some get eaten along the way, who will ever know?). Plymouth, be prepared for a reappearance of these apples at the Alternative Giving Fair bake sale…
Our apple-picking strikes me as a prayer (action can be prayer!) that reflects the words of the "Johnny Appleseed Blessing."
And all of this brings me back to my original thought about the applecart. Sometimes I despair because I can’t change the world… But this week, I thought that maybe doing good for others just involves seeing beyond ourselves. I mean, nothing that happened these last two weeks is world-changing or dramatic. First, it was a community member looking beyond her own interests to think about sharing what she had with a church instead of letting her apples go to waste. Then it was a youth leader thinking beyond the benefit to her youth group to share what we had with The Mission. In a few months, during the Alternative Giving Fair, it will be people from Plymouth who buy baked goods, housewares, coffees, and clothing as gifts, thinking about where the gift comes from in addition to who its going to.
That’s the kind of thinking that does upset the applecart because it focuses beyond the narrow vision we usually have and asks how we can expand our circles. When we start expanding our circles to include more than just ourselves, our families, and our friends, we start to make our everyday choices ones that positively impact the world.
Join us on November 21st from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. to buy fair trade gifts, food, and housewares. Expand your circle and upset the applecart!
Last year's Alternative Giving Fair announcement. Note: this year's will be on Nov. 21st!
