A Month Beyond Expectations
Wow! That is all that I can say right now. Just 5 short months ago, the church was not making much of an impact on the community or surrounding areas. There are a whole host of reasons for this situation, which I will not get into in this posting (maybe another time). Now, we are in the midst of making a huge impact in our community through our partnership with Angel Food Ministries.
Let me share that I did not start off so positive about the impact we were going to have for September. I remarked to Heidi, my wife, that I didn’t have high expectations for the month. Not sure why I felt that way. Maybe because we haven’t spent much time handing out menus into the community, or because there were so many other things going on in our lives. But, I just felt overwhelmed with the thought that it would be another month of small orders and very little outreach… was I ever wrong… and I’m praising God!
The phone doesn’t seem to stop ringing with people requesting information, wanting to place orders, and the walk-in traffic to the church on a daily basis is almost amazing. Last Saturday, I think we had more people come into the facility than we typically have for attendance on a Wednesday night service. Beyond the sheer numbers of calls and orders, are the people that we have an opportunity to reach out and meet their needs… not just physical ones, but the spiritual needs as well.
As I reflect on Jesus and the moments in which he fed the 5000 (actually, much more if you include the women and children who were not counted in that number), I’m reminded that He saw that the people had a huge physical need that had to be met. They were tired, hungry, weary, and needed something much more than just another hour of teaching. He reached out to them in a way that truly nourished their physical bodies, but went much further through the hand of compassionate outreach and the miracle that took place.
Today, we are praying that our hand of outreach will perform a miracle in the lives of the people that call, e-mail, and walk-in for assistance. The stories that have been shared with us have already been exciting! Now we’re looking forward to another month beyond expectations. For with God, all things are possible!
A couple of stats about September:
- 77 people purchased food this month (64 from the community and 13 from the church)
- 150+ people will be directly affected by the food purchased (friends, family, co-workers)
- 177 boxes of food will be distributed on Saturday, September 27th
- 10 boxes of food will be given away on Faith in Action Wednesday (about 20 families will receive food) as a way of showing them that God loves them!
The numbers are almost double of what we had last month and we are anticipating the number to nearly double again for October. Please pray for us that the ministry would continue to grow, but truly make an impact upon people’s lives not just physically, but spiritually as well. Also, be praying that we would have additional volunteers to assist us on distribution day, that Angel Food would setup a drop site here in Baltimore, and that additional volunteer assistance would come in to help with taking orders throughout the week.