The Call to Feed the Hungry
Make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches… now that is something I can do! I recently saw a post on Facebook from Grace Outreach saying they were in need of volunteers to make bagged lunches for Johnson City’s Melting Pot Ministry, which provides food to the hungry and vulnerable in our community. It was starting the second week of social isolation – meaning I am at home with my 13, 11, and 5-year-old children!
I love to cook, so as often as I can, I help make homemade chocolate chip cookies for “Cookies for Kairos,” GFC’s initiative in partnership with Kairos Inside Prison Ministry. I love praying over the cookies while I make them. I pray that as the inmates receive and eat those cookies, they will somehow be reminded of something or someone from their past that brings love, comfort, and joy. I pray that God’s love will be showered over them and that they would feel and accept His love for them. I involve my kids in this process too as a way to show how we can be the hands and feet of Christ to others.
So when the opportunity presented itself, I thought we as a family could serve our community by making PB&Js and homemade chocolate chip cookies. My kids were eager to help and we were able to talk about our call to feed the hungry and care for those that are in need. It was an actual practical way of doing this, not just talking about what we should do. It was a joy for us all to drive up to Munsey Memorial UMC and drop off these bags for waiting volunteers. We prayed as we made the lunches and cookies, as we drove to deliver them, and when we left.
I don’t know how these lunches were received by those in need, if they really were able to feel God’s love with a bite of those delicious cookies, but I know that I was obedient to the tug at my heart to serve. The act of doing service with my kids was rewarding and brought me in closer relationship with my Jesus.
Bethany Teilhet
