As a teenager I once delivered holiday baskets to the needy with the pastor. Having parents who provided food, love and a roof over my head, I was amazed at the poverty I saw.One house stuck in my mind. The paint had peeled off the house years ago, the porch was rickety and when the lady opened the door there was minimal furniture and no carpet on the bare floor. The pastor and I were outside in the chill air and weren’t asked in – probably because she was embarrassed by her home. It didn’t matter anyway because it didn’t look any warmer on the inside than it was outside.
She broke into a big smile when she saw Rev. Heywood’s box of Thanksgiving fixings. It wasn’t going to feed them for long, but for one day she and her family would feast together. We repeated the scene several times that day.
Churches have lots of differences but some things are common to all of them. Helping those in need is one. In Los Angeles a Christian group called “Here’s Life Inner City” delivered boxes of food for Thanksgiving to the impoverished. Families could avoid going to food pantries or soup kitchens for the holiday meal and enjoy the day together at home. Unfortunately, the bad economy hit Here’s Life and it was forced to cut back.
Enter Pacific Crossroads, a Presbyterian Church. According to Aaron Belz writing in The Wall Street Journal, the congregation “took on the coordination of mobilizing well-resourced churches to fill boxes and deliver them with the help of inner-city churches.”
“Last year, Pacific Crossroads rallied 10 other churches in the L.A. area to assemble and distribute 1,000 boxes – 650 contributed by its own congregation. This year it will work with 15 churches to generate 1,500.” The “Boxes of Love” contain enough food to feed a family of six. It’s a lot of food and a big project.
The process takes about a month “in which church staff print fliers and make public announcements, hand out shopping lists and empty boxes. Congregants, for their part, take boxes home, fill them, ply neighbors, friends and co-workers for help, and bring finished boxes back to church. There, crews of congregants load the boxes into trucks and vans for distribution. Finally, dozens of church members take the boxes to the doors of families in need.”
Jesus calls on Christians to help the needy – and we do. My mom helps cook huge quantities of American Chop Suey for two soup kitchens at her Methodist church, and my Baptist church operates a food pantry. The Morristown, NJ Community Soup Kitchen was started as a local Episcopal program but it's grown involve over 30 churches. It's open every day of the year.
We Christians have our differences but we agree on the fundamentals. Charity is one of these and it’s practiced without fanfare by thousands of churches all the time. At Thanksgiving we should all thank God for motivating Christians to selflessly help their fellow man.
No comments:
Post a Comment