The founder and President of Harvest of Hope International, Ed Rodriguez, has not always been on this journey within the realm of helping others. I will make it sound like somewhat of a fairy tale story in my own words just to simplify and make things easy to understand. I want to share with you from my perspective, from my understanding, from my thought process of how things were, are, is, and will be. I am Hollie Anderson the Vice President of Harvest of Hope International and I have been with this organization for 4 years now. I wish I could take credit for why and how this all began but I cannot. I know that many facts may become missing within all of this and hopefully I can add to this story as my blogging continues. Memories recalled, facts brought out, truths unveiled, emotions surfacing as we do this together. Please join me through the story of this journey that has truly changed my life and many others. It has brought me to a realization about life and about helping others who are lost and have fallen into the cracks of the governmental systems in place.
I guess I will start with where I understand the beginning began. Ed was working for a bank back when the housing market here in Florida was booming. He was married and had four sons. He was working long hours, trying to hold a family together that was somewhat one sided. He was trying to make a good life for his family and it was wonderful while money was rolling in, living in a fancy house, driving fancy nice cars, and everyone was getting everything they wanted. Well everyone except maybe the boys that was needing their dad more than all the material things being handed to them. Sometimes you have to have it all and lose it to bring people together, to make changes needed to be the wonderful human being God created you to be.
When the housing market started crashing the cash flow started trickling to a halt. People were losing their jobs, losing their homes, losing all they had worked for, including Ed. He ended up being one of the statistics, losing his job, his home, his cars, having to pawn his watches and other possessions just to try to keep his family at least fed. On the brink of becoming homeless he did as many others did he sought out public assistance something that made him realize the system was broken. The system in which many tax dollars had been paid into was not truly there for people like him and his family. With all the criteria, all the hoops, all the LONG phone calls, all the pleading and explaining had led to many closed doors. They needed help getting back on their feet, they were not seeking an eternal handout. So many times as humans in this imperfect corrupt world we fall down and no one, no program, no assistance was there and that is when he truly realized God was the one true eternal, indefinite source of hope. His hand always seemed outstretched to pick him up. It was at the lowest point in his life that God opened his heart and set him on his mission. God showed him that this was not a tragedy or a defeat it was a new beginning, a beginning that seemed almost impossible but doors opened, clouds parted, and a vision was set forth in the heart of a man who had no where to turn but to his Father.
In need he humbled himself to seek help from a mission relief organization that not only provided him a way to feed his family but also gave him many skill sets that he would later use to start building the Ark so to speak. With very little money, very little hope (it only takes a little), A LOT of faith, and a determination the size of the moon he set out to help others like himself. God led him step by step through a process of many triumphs but many stumbling blocks along the way. Him and his children started helping with a feeding program in Sand Point Park in Titusville Florida. It started with mainly homeless individuals coming for a meal and a Word. Then progressed to many elderly who were on fixed incomes coming for a meal besides the usual peanut butter sandwich that they could afford,and single parents bringing their children to have lunch, sometimes their only meal. They then started making bags with hygiene items, socks, underwear, and other items that they seen were a need of the ones coming out to the Park.
The need grew and it grew and it grew and it grew, it grew so large that he realized something had to change, something had to be done. The real estate market collapsed, the Space Shuttle Program ended, and this sent the Space Coast of Brevard County into a spiral downward that was fast and consuming without prejudice to community status or once large bank accounts. So many people who were settled into their jobs for many years and had many degrees and years of college were now competing with teenagers for jobs at McDonald's and Walmart. They were now barely making enough to make ends meet, sometimes giving up meals just to have a roof over their head. This was a sad but true epidemic but one that sparked a fire within Ed Rodriguez. He listened to that voice within his heart, within his soul, the whisper that God had a plan for him. God had a mission and a purpose and a new life. Although he would not be that man that lived in some big fancy house, driving fancy cars, wearing fancy suits, he would now wear that shield of armor God had special made just for him. With a drive that only God could fuel he forged onward.
The battle had begun, he was now before the city council presenting an idea, a vision that no one was familiar with, that everyone was in doubt of. He was standing on a firm foundation built on rock not on sand, but it didn't stop the Enemy from trying to knock him down. Each time he was knocked down God reached His mighty hand toward him and picked him back up setting him back on course without fail. Finally the building, the permits, the permission had been granted but that surely didn't mean the struggle was over. Many months went by that bills had to be unpaid, begged through, forgiven, and scraped together just to keep going, sometime without electricity, sometime without gas money, sometime without a light at the end of the tunnel. There were days no one came around, no one knew who he was or what he was doing. One by one people started noticing, one by one people told other people, then two by two they would come. I think this is where I started coming around. He had traveled a long hard road ALONE, then God gave him a helper. When I began this journey with Ed I know that something within my heart changed, my eyes were opened to a need that from the outside looking in you could not see. Talking with people, hearing their stories, crying with them and for them, seeing the look in their eyes when they realized there is HOPE, there is HELP, there is a God who provides, ignited my flame which is now a fire that burns out of control.
God had slowly brought us together, slowly He moved us into position to start a new adventure together. One that would Glorify Him and one that would show us a love like we have never known. A love from God and a love that intertwined myself, Ed, and God as ONE. Now that you pretty much know our background I would like to move five years into the future which is now. We started out serving 5 families a day sometimes less and sometimes more. Then the five families turned into ten then ten to twenty, now at last count which was right after Thanksgiving was 5,400 families. We are not talking individual people but actual family units. We try to help the families that come to our facility with non perishable food items, hygiene products, household goods, clothing, and other needs as they arise.
I think I have left out a lot of details as far as the struggles we have endured but those can be told in due time. Some are funny, some heartbreaking, some that will make you cry, but hopefully all of them will make you pray for us. We currently work at this seven days a week. On Mondays we pick up on average around 5 tons of bread per week in which is given away for free every day that we are open which is 5 days a week. With all this being said. Please follow us and join us on our journey. There is power in numbers. There is power in prayer. I would like to share all the stories I can recall with you and for you. Maybe this will extend that grace, mercy, and hope that some people are searching for. Maybe it will ignite a fire that has never been or maybe has dwindled through the years. I look so forward to sharing our life, our mission, our struggles, and our conquers. Please do not hesitate to ask questions, comment, and let us know what you are thinking.