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The couple at the campground scraping dinner together was Misti and Wayne Appleby, and the food truck feeding people experiencing homelessness is their Fruity Lemon Grille. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Misti said, \u201cWhen we became homeless, we were sitting on top of the world. I was a nurse in a doctor\u2019s office, living my dream. My husband had an excellent job, and we were incredibly active in our church. Literally, in a matter of two months, we lost everything. We had nothing \u2014 no money, no cars, no house, no food. There was a time when we were camping in our tent and wondered which we would pay for that night, the space to stay with our tent or the ice to keep our food cooled because we didn\u2019t have the money to do both.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It didn\u2019t seem it could get any better, but it did. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t have the money to drive to Murfreesboro to see the fireworks, but that night, after it got darker deep in the woods of the Cedars of Lebanon State Park, we were talking around the fire when all of a sudden, the fireworks started,\u201d Misti said. \u201cWe all sat back in awe, and I broke down in tears and bawled. I said, \u2018I hear you, Lord; I hear.\u2019. And it was two weeks later that we got out of the homeless situation. It was so incredibly humbling.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Their July Fourth campground experience marked the beginning of the end of their homelessness but not their commitment to the homeless. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Later, a challenge to recreate the fruit tea her son and daughter-in-law had been buying in Murfreesboro led to her own special recipe, which she sold to the public along with fresh-squeezed lemonades. A last-minute request to add food to fill a spot left open by another vendor led to a menu of specialty grilled cheese sandwiches, and The Fruity Lemon Grille expanded to food truck vending. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The food truck sales at various events and locations provided resources to extend a helping hand to the area\u2019s homeless. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe would park at Castle Ministries and feed them whatever they wanted. It didn\u2019t matter how much or what; I just wanted them to have food. We also did cooling stations, blanket rolls, and everything we could because that was where our hearts were. My mom started Helping Hands, and it became what we wanted to do deep in our spirits,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cooling stations in the summer and warmth for the winter with sleeping bags filled with hats, gloves, scarves, socks, and a bag of food. Also included is a thermos that can be refilled with coffee or hot chocolate anytime the food truck is nearby. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The more they helped others, the greater the desire to do more grew. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In a conversation with her mother just before she passed away, Misti\u2019s mom asked, \u201cWouldn\u2019t it be something if that truck just served the homeless population?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Misti agreed but reminded her God would have to open the door because it wasn\u2019t something they could afford on their own at this time. Her mom assured her, \u201cOh, He will. He always does if it\u2019s what\u2019s meant to be.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Misti and her husband talked, prayed, and felt led to take their food truck to homeless shelters in and around Shelbyville. They offer meals and have hopes of adding a bathing station when God makes it possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Their own experience forever changed how they relate to the homeless population. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe could handle what was being thrown at us, but it was through it that my husband and I learned what it truly meant to become one,\u201d Misti said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t that we turned our noses up at other people; it\u2019s just that we thought they could do better than they were doing. All they had to do was try. Right? But when we went through this, God had to teach us this humility and how to understand what other people are going through, and that it\u2019s not always as simple as it seems.\u201d GN <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SUMMER\u2019S HEAT presses down on the long line forming at the food truck. Nearby, others wait their turn at cooling stations of plastic wading pools and misting fans. It\u2019s not a summer music festival, and they aren\u2019t fans escaping the heat and excitement; they\u2019re our city\u2019s homeless. It\u2019s the Fourth of July, and the park […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":18443,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/shelbyville\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/07\/fruity-grille-1-1024x683.jpg\")
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