In worship, and in our daily lives, we pray for people. We pray for physical and mental healings. We pray for safe travel. We pray for peace. We pray for those who are hungry.
As followers of Jesus, we are asked to do more than pray. In fact, I just heard the following quote from Pope Francis. “First you pray for the hungry then you feed them, that’s how prayer works.”
It seems pretty similar to James 2:16. “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?”
I also have heard the following, “Pray as if your works accomplish nothing and work as if your prayers do nothing.”
I share those quotes with you because each month, we want to follow up our prayers in worship with actions in our lives. For the Pop-Up Pantry, we are asking people to donate one specific item. In June we collected coffee. In July we collected laundry detergent. For August, we are asking people to donate bread.
The majority of the food we provide through the pantry are non-perishable items. Think of anything that comes in a can or dried in a box. There is nothing wrong with the food we give away. It stores for a long time and provides a full belly. But it isnt’ what is considered “fresh food.” To give that kind of food, we supplement the donations we received each week by purchasing milk, cheese, eggs and English muffins. We want to branch out in the way of the bread department and are asking all of you to donate bread this month. If you can, please donate a typical loaf of sandwich bread. It could be white, wheat, oat, whole grain, pumpernickel or rye. It could be one loaf, 2 loaves or 10. You could buy it at Walmart, Aldi, Hannaford or Market Basket. (I think you get the idea.)
You can drop them off when you come from worship on Sunday morning or anytime during regular office hours (Mon-Thurs. 8:30-4pm). If are not able to come during those times, there will be a cooler by the back office doors and by the front main doors for you to put your bread in and we will bring it inside each morning.
Thanks for the generosity you show through this ministry. Again, last week, as I was taking down the signs and tables, someone else stopped and dropped off several bags of food to donate. I asked why he chose to donate to our pantry and he said that he has driven by it every Wednesday for the past several months and just wanted to help out. He told me that what we do matters.
Thank you.
Pastor Tim