Thursday, December 23, 2010

Whatever You Do For the Least of These...

It started with someone getting a little crazy.  There was a sale, and they thought, "We should get some of this for the food pantry."  They got a lot.  Too much to even put away. And some hams and potatoes and bread. So the question arose: How do we get all this food out before it goes bad?

You see, our food pantry has operated as an "emergency" pantry, serving mostly drop-in clients, and we've had a quarterly limit - you can only come once every three months.  But if we waited that long, this food would have gone bad.  So our church secretary made some calls, and a cell group stepped up and offered to staff the pantry for a special night.

Several families said they didn't know where they would get food for their Christmas dinner, that they were praying that God would provide food for them, and then they got a call from the church, inviting them to come. And they did.  The cell group reported that 60 people came that evening and were given food.  Lots of it.  And several others came the next day as well.

It was amazing to watch God provide the miracle that these people had prayed for - through the actions of some who thought "an emergency food pantry isn't enough" and who thought "I could pick up some of this for the food pantry" and a cell group who decided to change their meeting to give the food out and a secretary who gets to know the food pantry clients (and prays with each of them) and who generously called each one and invited them to come and take food, without charge.

Sometimes I tend to get cynical about people.  But then there are people like these who embody Christlikeness.

2 comments:

Melanie said...

this brought tears to my eyes. i love hearing about how people truly become the hands and feet of christ. thank you for sharing, and merry christmas!

Big Mama said...

Praise God from Whom ALL blessings flow. This is what a church should be doing!!!