At Your Service

When Jim and Cindy Reichle first met in 1990 after being introduced to each other by a work friend, Jim began attending Saddleback Church with Cindy when it was still housed at nearby Trabuco Hills High School. It would be the start of a 26 journey to serve the church in more ways than anyone could imagine.

On Easter weekend of 1990, the first Easter after Saddleback had bought the property for their campus in Lake Forest, volunteers were needed for the traffic team to direct all the cars in the the parking lots. Seeing the desperate need for volunteers, Jim signed up to help, and he quickly fell in love with the ministry.

“It was just an itch, and I could tell that God was calling me to do it,” Jim said.

Two years later, Cindy joined Jim in serving with the traffic ministry. Jim became a shift leader for the traffic ministry, a position that he still holds today. The two have guided hundreds of thousands of cars in and out of Saddleback Church combined over the years as they remain dedicated traffic ministry volunteers, but in 2011 the couple was looking to serve the community beyond the gates of a Saddleback campus.

During one weekend service, Jim saw that the new Saddleback Food Pantry was looking for volunteers. The couple began volunteering in the food pantry warehouse, the beginning of a massive season of change and growth in the food pantry.

Initially, Jim and Cindy had the role of sorting and packing food in the pantry warehouse. At the time the pantry had no regional locations and only one food truck, with a distribution center located adjacent to the warehouse where needy residents could come to get food. As Jim and Cindy continued to work in the warehouse, they began to see incredible progress made at the pantry.

“It started off small, but before more and more people began donating food and the barrels just kept coming and coming and coming. We could serve more and more people who were in such dire need of assistance. Today donations come in from places like Trader Joes, Starbucks, Panera Bread, Costco — you name it,” Jim said.

As time passed, the pantry grew so much that it began to shift focus from the main distribution centers to remote distribution centers at regional campuses and beyond.

“Every week we have food come in that is specifically donated and we help process it then sort it out for a specific regional distribution center,” Jim said. “Every Tuesday Cindy and I sort it out.”

One of those regional distributions takes place for US Marines and their families at nearby Camp Pendleton. Originally Saddleback had sent resources to the Marine base to help personnel and their families with counseling and basic ministry outreach, but over time their became an increasingly obvious need for a remote food pantry on the base as well. The first week of the month, the team drives the mobile food pantry down to the camp.

“The soldiers get extra pay when they are deployed, but when they come back they’re not getting that money anymore and are often in debt. Others may marry a spouse that already has children after their service and are suddenly thrown into supporting an entire family. This is a way of helping them out until they can get back on their feet,” Jim said.

With the pantry expanding beyond Lake Forest to locations such as Camp Pendleton, the amount of food trucks that the pantry had grew from just one to five. Thus, more volunteers were needed to drive the trucks around the area. Jim and Cindy didn’t hesitate to respond.

“We learned about the trucks going down to the base once a month so we decided to take the truck-driving training class. The two of us began driving the Camp Pendleton truck, and we’ve been doing it ever since,” Jim said.

Jim said when he and Cindy first began serving with the pantry at the base, it was eye opening to see just how many young families there were struggling to make enough money to buy food.

“Usually I help unload the food from the trucks and set up the mobile pantry, but a few times I’ve rolled out the food with the marines and it’s really interesting to see what’s going on in their lives. It can be tough being sent overseas, and some of the stories are touching. It’s been really rewarding to just see the marines and their families that need help,” Jim said.

The couple looks forward to every visit as they get to know the Marines and their families and provide them hope in difficult times.

“We always offer to pray with the Marines and their families as we walk them out with their food. Even if they don’t want us to pray for them, we still let them know that we want to so they know there are people out there who care for them,” Jim said.

With all that Jim and Cindy have experienced in their five years serving at the pantry, they know that it was no accident they decided to lend a helping hand after hearing the initial announcement during that one weekend service.

“God sent me down there; otherwise I wouldn’t be there. I’m adamant about that,” Jim said.

Jim also knows that it was no accident that he met Cindy and began attending Saddleback to begin with.

“26 years ago I had no idea that I would ever be so involved with serving at Saddleback. Ever since I met Cindy and I began going to Saddleback, my life has been turned around. I have a new purpose and I feel like there is no limit for helping people. With enough people out there serving, we’re making a dent,” Jim said.

God was able to use Jim and Cindy to be a light to so many people in desperate need of basic resources. They are living proof that small steps can be the beginning of a bigger journey to serve God in powerful and practical ways.

Click HERE to learn more about the Saddleback Food Pantry.