Will color for food

Meet the Hefling family: Maliaka, Izzy, 4, Noah, 9, Silas, 6, Roman, 2, Joe, and Maranatha, 16 mos.

Inspired by Christ's miraculous feeding of the 5,000 from one sack lunch, the Heflings have undertaken a fabulously ambitious project - turning old, broken crayons into the funds necessary to serve 5,000 meals at the Union Gospel Mission. Thanks to food donations from a generous community (over $2 million in food was donated last year), UGM can serve a meal for just $1.84.

$1.84 x 5,000 = $9,200

$9,200 from rejected crayons - you've got to admit, that's ambitious. But then, that's the point. "We can’t wait for people to see what God can do when a few are faithful to serve Him with a few loaves of bread and a couple fish," Joe said.

The Motivation

The Heflings' heart for the homeless is not a new thing. They've gone downtown to hand out food and clothes on numerous occasions.

Izzy said seeing people without homes and food makes her sad.

Silas explained: "We want to make money, so that when they eat and when they live, we can tell them about Jesus."

Joe quoted Luke 3:11: "'The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.’ Our family would like to take our desire to follow Jesus’ command to care for the poor to another level."

The Plan

It's simple: Collect old, broken crayons. Melt them down and mold them into new crayons. Distribute them and collect donations to feed the hungry.

Noah said they got the idea from one of his children's magazines. Another family had done something similar to help get children out of slavery.

How to Help

1) Clean out all those messy, broken crayons, and instead of trashing them, bring them to UGM (1224 E Trent Ave. in Spokane ; 196 W Haycraft Ave. in Coeur d'Alene ) or either of the UGM Thrift Stores (301 W Boone Ave & 11921 E Sprague Ave. in Spokane Valley).

2) Contact Colors of Hope Spokane about getting some new multi-colored crayons and/or making a donation: colorsofhopespokane@gmail.com.

Joe's cousin and her family have joined the Heflings on this project and created a Facebook page to keep fans up-to-date on their progress. We'll do the same, so check back from time to time and watch God work.

And Heflings, may God multiply the work of your hands in amazing ways!