12/19/2013
The Serving Meals Ministry in Fort Mill was started over 8 years ago by Mary and Jimmy Baker as a way to demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ for some of the neighborhoods in Fort Mill that can certainly use the assistance. The basic approach has remained the same “knock on doors and offer a hot plate of food”, but as the relationships have developed many lives have been affected.
This past November we asked ourselves this question:
What can happen if we bring several churches together instead of having just one church handle the Thanksgiving service?
…the plans were put into motion.
A small team met to coordinate the various aspects of the service.
It was decided not only to give hot meals but to provide grocery bags full of food.
The announcement was made in front of two churches and teams started forming.
We needed:
Cooks – members of both churches stepped up as well as a few residents from the neighborhood to be served.
Food Donation – Drop off sites were identified and the food started rolling in.
Servers – Entire families jumped in to serve.
Food Packers – A team met the night before and the morning of the service to pack the hot food into containers as well as fill up the grocery bags.
Meal Captain and Delivery Vans – Due to the amount of food to be delivered, a small convoy of SUV’s and minivans were assembled.
When all of the preparation was complete, a small army of servers from various churches and neighborhoods met in the assembly hall of Philadelphia Church of Fort Mill to pause, thank God for our many blessings and to thank Him for the opportunity to serve. We blessed the food and headed out. We stood as one body, not defined by affiliations and went out to serve.
It is impossible to put into words what we experienced during our trip out to Paradise. We walked around the neighborhood together, served food, visited with some new and old friends, prayed, laughed and grew our relationships a little deeper with those that we served and all those that served with us.
What started out as a way to continue the efforts of a couple of churches ended up teaching us something very important:
It is not our denominations, neighborhoods, social status on whether we are the servers or the ones being served that should define us.
On an overcast November day in 2013, we were defined by the only thing that truly matters: the love of Jesus Christ in our hearts.
