The presence of God

We are located in a poor neighborhood in northwest Atlanta.  We began the food pantry about 8 years ago and for many years is was small scale and run by myself (pastor) and my office worker.  People came at anytime and I would give them a bag of food from the pantry, or if my office worker was there, she would give them a bag of food.  We got to know a part of the neighborhood and individuals we would not have gotten to know otherwise.  They would tell us what was going on in their lives and often what was going on in the neighborhood.  There were plenty of times when individual ministries would take place.

Michael A. - Michael began coming to us during this time to get a bag of food about every week or two.  He seemed more literate than many (a number of those who come only have a high school education and a few never finished high school).  Michael always wanted to do work around the church just as a way of saying 'hank you' to the church.  He would pull weeds on the play ground, cut grass, etc.  After coming for several months he told me that he was homeless and was living in an old abandoned car.  I immediately said I knew of a Methodist church in downtown Atlanta that had a men's shelter (Trinity UMC) and that I would call them.  I did, and they just happened to have an opening.  I said to Michael that I would be glad to drive him down there.  He almost agreed, but declined because he had two gas stations that he would do work for (odd jobs) and they would give him a little cash.  A couple of weeks later he came by and wanted to talk to me.  He was out in the church playground pulling weeds.  So we sat down on the bench and he began saying that he's just not satisfied with his life basically - he felt empty inside.  He appreciates what the church does for him and isn't after anything materially, this was something else.  I preceived this was a spiritual quest and so I began to explain to him the basic Gospel message that God wants a personal relationship with us through Jesus.   When I explained all this to him it resonated with what he was feeling and he said he wanted to accept Christ.  So we prayed and he accepted Christ.  He said that was exactly what he needed.  (I've been manipulated before by people before on this - Michael was sincere.)  I invited him to church, but he never came.  Instead he began attending a Bible study close to where he lived.  Some time after that he came by and wanted to talk again.  This time he said that the reason he's homeless is because of cocain.  He once was a physical therapist, but the cocain addiction got bigger and bigger and eventually he ended up losing everything.  I told him about some of the stuff I had learned about homelessness, specifically what I had heard from organizations that help with the homeless - many of them say that about 80% of homelessness is due to runaway alchololism and/or drug addiction.  Michael said something very interesting.  He said that addiction may not be what puts you on the street, but once you get on the street, THE OVERWHELMING PEER PRESSURE PUSHES YOU IN THAT DIRECTION.  It had never occured to me of the role of peer pressure on the streets.  I told him about some programs available (the one at Trinity UMC, and the Carpenter's House, but he was non-commital at that point.  We had prayer.  Some weeks later, he came into the office and said he's made a decision that he needs to beat the addiction and wanted to go into the Carpenter's House (Atlanta Union Mission).  Could he make a telephone call?  So we handed the phone to him and it just so happened that they accepted him.  He went into the Carpenter's House.  This is a year long, in house, de-tox program.  We did not hear from Michael for over a year.  Then, one day he showed up for a visit.  He was living in Alpharetta (20-30 miles away), had an apartment and a job.  About once or twice a year, we see him - he's in a minimum wage job and sometimes the bills get ahead of him so he comes for food - but it's just once or twice a year. 

JoAnn C.  Our congregation is mostly white but we have some African-American members and a hispanic family are members.  The congregation is mostly retired and we have a traditional worship service that our people find inspirational.  I say all this because a difference in worship style plays a role in this story.  JoAnn was African-American and was raised in southern, African American churches where the worship style involves members of the  congregation making vocal encouragements throughout the pastor's sermon (white pastors can become addicted to this - it's fun; however, white congregations have to get used to this).  JoAnn first showed up during a weekday at the office.  She had called the church because she needed help with a utility bill and we had some money available to help her.  Our custom was to make a check out to the utility company and the individual would come by and pick it up.  (We would only give a set amount and so the needy individuals would gather funds from other helpers and take it all to the untility company - hence the reason why she came by the church office.)  While JoAnn was there, Gayle, my Administrative Assistant, invited JoAnn to come to church.  There was a pause and then JoAnn said, "Well I guess it's about time for me to get back into church."   We did not realize how significant that response was till later.  JoAnn began coming to church.  As I preached, suddenly, she would loudly proclaim, "AMEN, PREACH IT BROTHER!"  Or from time to time throughout the sermon she would follow one of my points with "GLORY!" or "GLORY HALLELUYAH!"  She was not solf spoken - she was LOUD.  After some of the sermons, some of the members in the hand shakng line would say, 'I'm not used to that."  Other members would say, "I like her spirit."  JoAnn would pick up on some of what people were thinking and she would say, "Pastor, if I'm too loud, just let me know and I'll tone it down."  She did tone down the volume but would still give the comments - I liked the comments and more and more others did.  Weeks and months passed, and JoAnn grew to love the church, and people grew to love her.  And then she became sick and began missing a lot of Sundays.  She had a lot of tests run, would spend time in the hospital.  I would visit her and pray with her.  Other members would ask about her and he had her on the church prayer list.  Then the bad news came - she had terminal cancer.  Sometimes other church members would go with me to see her in the hospital.  But eventually she couldn't make it any longer and she died.  We were planning the memorial service to be held at the church for her.  I went over to her daughter's apartment to plan out the service.  It was at that time that I learned part of JoAnn's story that I was unaware of.  When she was a young lady, she married a preacher.  But as it turned out, he was phisically abusive in the home.  He would beat her.  This went on as long as they were married.  He was an angel in the pulpit, an angel in the church, but at home, he was denomic.  After a few years of this she divorced him.  JoAnn was always a Christian with strong religious beliefs, but after this divorce she NEVER went back to church. Couldn't go back to a church. Years passed.  She was remarried to a good man and had many years with him - but the second husband did NOT abuse her.  She raised her children to adulthood.  And during that whole time - never wanted to go back to church.  Until that day when she sat in our church's office and Gayle invited her to come to church and she said, "Well I guess it's about time for me to get back into church."  In the hospital, just before she died, she told me that she really loves the Collins congregation.  And she said, "After I'm gone, when some of you all are over at the church and you feel a gentle breeze, that will be my spirit coming by for a visit.

In 2008 when the present recession grew, more and more people were coming by for food.  It was going up from 7-8 bags a week to 10-17 bags.  The parsonage is located right beside the church and my family was well used to knocks on the door and usually it was someone who was hungry, so I would take them over to the pantry to get a bag of food.  There were times when I wasn't around, and my wife would just get a bag from our own food at the parsonage.  Sometimes there would be people showing up who were very hungry, and she would go into the kitchen and fix them sandwiches and something to drink.  I saw that we really needed a church member to oversee the pantry since it was growing.  In 2009 one of my new members said she thinks she would like to do that.  It turns out that she had a great heart for mission and was a super organizer.  I told her we really needed to apply to the Atlanta Food Bank where we could get food economically.  She applied and the church was accepted.  Others in the church became regular volunteers.  At the very beginning of her role in this, she said she wanted the needy to only come on one day a week - Wednesday mornings from 9:30 AM to noon.  So we got the word out and in a couple of weeks they were coming on Wednesday mornings.  And the numbers began to grow.  Weekly numbers grew to 30 and 40 per Wednesday.  Then after a few months it was 70 to 80 coming each week.  It was right about that time that an idea occured to me and several others.  Let's organize a worship service on Wednesday mornings at 9:00 AM just before the food pantry opens.  The people do not have to come to get food, but we would offer the worship service to any one who wishes to come.  They began to come.  More and more volunteers just began to show up.  One lady, Ms Jackson, said she heard about the church's ministry and wanted to help.  She said she was a trained and certified literacy teacher and wanted to volunteer her services.  So we announced it, and now we have regular classes each Wednesday that a handful of people take advantage of.  Our new food pantry director's mother became interested in organizing a clothes closet for the first Wednesday of each month.  At this point in time we were doing everything in the sanctuary.  Worship took place there, and then tables with food were set up in front of the pulpit for people to come by and get when the food pantry opened.  On first Wednesdays, clothes would be placed on the backs of the pews and on the seats.  Then with Jane's organization, we placed clothes racks in any empty space.   Eventually, the clothes closet was moved to the fellowship hall for space.  The numbers of people using the pantry kept increasing - but the donations kept increasing with it.  In fact we were getting a fair amount of donations outside of the congregation.  The Baptist church down the street have some of their members who have become regular volunteers at the food pantry.  And occasionally, they will take up a love offering from their church to donate to the pantry.  We outgrew the sanctuary.  So a section of the fellowship hall was converted to food pantry storage, and the rest of the fellowship hall became the place where we set up the food line.  Worship still took place in the sanctuary. We set up an old camcorder in the sanctuary with video connected to an old VCR (this automatically converts the camcorder signal to TV cable. Then we ran TV cable to the nursery and to the fellowship hall where we have TVs.  That way the volunteers in the fellowship hall can see the worship service and know when the people are about to come. We ran sound from the church PA system to the VCR so that we could have good audio.  The clothes closet was moved to one of the large rooms in the Sunday School.  The worship service grew and we formed a choir of folks who came all the time.  Most of the people coming are African-American and so is the choir.  They sing traditional worship songs in the black church in which a strong soloist sings lead and the choir answers in sung response.  It is wonderfully moving music which I and many of my members had never heard before.  The Wednesday choir is one of the high points of worship and they normally sing about 3 specials each Wednesday.

At present (2012 year) we serve about 300+/-  bags of food each Wednesday and the Wednesday morning worship services average 150 to 200+ persons.

I will add some more later.