Below is a narrative by one of our members about the Campbell County Social Services Food Box Collection. I thought you'd enjoy knowing the result as well as the excitement of the members who participated. – Dan Dibble, Pastor of Bethlehem UMC in Concord
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"Mission.... MORE Than Accomplished!!"
WOW! What an experience my daughter and I had this past week.
An announcement was made during church, that food boxes for families were desperately needed for our county.
Social Services requested for anyone to donate to the cause. On such short notice, our small congregation took up a "love offering" that morning.
Now, what do we do with the money we collected?
My daughter and I volunteered to do the grocery shopping! Our church hoped we could get enough food and other items that were provided on the list to make two boxes. We really wanted to try and fix two family Thanksgiving food boxes.
We got to the store and began carefully calculating the number of items and their prices. After all, we only had enough for two food boxes if done properly. We really wanted them to be nice. We made it to the check-out.. crossed our fingers.... cha-ching... we had only put a dent in our collected money!
We got to the store and began carefully calculating the number of items and their prices. After all, we only had enough for two food boxes if done properly. We really wanted them to be nice. We made it to the check-out.. crossed our fingers.... cha-ching... we had only put a dent in our collected money!
What?!
We went back through the store and got items for two more food boxes! Check-out time again.... fingers crossed... cha-ching... would you believe we still had money to spend?
We were taking these carts full of food to our car so we could go back through the store for more....and that's when we bumped into two of our dear friends who were also trying to fix food boxes. They knew what they needed more of, but didn't have the money. We had the money, but didn't know what to keep on getting! So we let them show us what they needed and we provided the money!
When it was all done...our small congregation had provided enough items for six Thanksgiving food boxes, plus some items that could be spread around to help others as well.
This experience my daughter and I shared made us feel so good...to know that our church helped so many with so little. Reminded me of the story in Luke where Jesus fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread and two fish! HE kept on providing for us too!
It was a "God-moment" for sure!
God bless
MJ - Bethlehem UMC-Concord, VA
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