When our clients come in for food assistance they have to sign-in. The sign-in sheet is on a clipboard resting on a podium located in our waiting area. There’s nothing fancy about this podium. In fact it’s a little rickety. I occasionally have to tap in a few nails as they tend to work loose. And every once in a while I’ll have to sort of wedge it against the wall to take some of the wobble out of it. It looks like it was made from scrape pieces of wood, tacked together in a makeshift way. It is painted flat black, not a shiny, glossy black. Dull, flat black. We’ve used this podium for most of the almost 15 years we’ve been here.
We have a really nice, light oak stained podium we keep in the back. A few years ago a good hearted individual donated it to us. Perhaps they thought our old shaky black podium had seen its better days. No doubt it has. But, our old podium has character, personality, even charm.
Cecil Bryant gave us that old shaky black podium not very long after we first opened in June 2005. Cecil said he had used it when he preached. He was a long time pastor and chaplain for the Lafayette Fire Department. By the time we first met, Cecil had retired from pastoring and would soon retire as chaplain. He was among the very first to come alongside us in those early days with encouragement, inspiration, and reassurance. He served as our Board Chairman for two years. Once a week for many years he would faithfully come by the mission to lead us in a devotion and prayer. These were messages he had taken the time to prepare himself not something from a “daily devotional”. Not that there’s anything wrong with a “daily devotional”, I’m just saying he took the time to personalize each devotion by the guiding of the Holy Spirit. Cecil was 94 when he passed away Friday, December 27, 2019. One day we may have to retire our Cecil Bryant classic podium, but not anytime soon. I can’t imagine how many Scriptures were read, messages preached, and altar calls given from behind that podium over the many years Cecil used it. But, I’d like to imagine that Cecil would be pleased to know that his old podium is still being used to serve the Lord.
“And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:19
We had a lot going on during 2019. We lost Kendra’s mother, although we know this is heaven’s gain. Kendra had a cancer scare, praise God it wasn’t cancer and she’s well on her way to a full recovery. And I continue to have problems with my hip. It was easy for us to get distracted. We were forced to lean heavily on the Lord. As always, HE was faithful.
It wasn’t until we got all the numbers from last year on paper that we could truly appreciate just how faithful God was to provide. A midst all the things we were dealing with in our personal lives the ministry of the Care Mission not only continued, it excelled. 2019 turned out to be a high water mark for us in several ways.
During 2019 God used the Care Mission Food Pantry and its volunteers to provide food assistance to 24,983 individuals within 8,090 households, both new record highs for us. Of those individuals served 92% were either children, senior citizens, or disabled adults. A record high percentage. And aren’t those the ones we should be targeting?
We were able to distribute 370 tons of food, enough to prepare approx. 616,770 meals, both record highs. That means on average each household we served received enough food to prepare approx. 25 meals per individual in that household, also a record high.
The estimated retail value of the food distributed is approx. $2.2 million, again a record high.
So why does the need seem to grow even as our economy is booming?
Because the majority of those we serve (92%) are in a situation that does not easily change regardless of the economy. Senior citizens and/or disabled adults often cannot work and so cannot take advantage of the current job market leaving them often dependent on government checks. And unfortunately, most of the children we see are being raised by senior citizens and/or disabled adults.
And every week we have new clients come to us. Most often they learn of us through word of mouth, but we’ve seen a big increase in the number of individuals finding us via the internet. Also, we’ve noticed an uptick in the number of referrals from other food pantries. As odd as that sounds it happens regularly, especially large families. Regardless, God has been faithful.
God also used the Care Mission to distribute about three hundred free Bibles. Our local Gideon’s Chapter has been instrumental in that effort. We hope to do even more in 2020.
God has continued to impress upon us the importance of praying with and for our clients when they are at the mission, through our Prayer Notes, and with home site visits. The feed-back we’ve received, regarding the Prayer Notes and home site visits, has been overwhelming. It is repeatedly expressed to us that these things are more meaningful than the food distributed.
This June will mark the Care Mission’s 15th Year of ministry and Here I Am, Inc. 20th year. We will celebrate all God has done for and through the Care Mission and Here I Am ministries with the 15th Annual Day of Praise. The date, time, and location to be announced soon.
Please keep in your prayers all our volunteer servants, our Board of Directors, those who support this ministry, Deon and Kendra, and most importantly those we serve.
Food for thought…
Several years ago I ran into a local Chinese restaurant to pick up an order. As I waited in line I began to witness the merging cultures. A young Chinese man was trying to take an order from three Mexican men. It appeared the Chinese man spoke Chinese well, but clearly spoke no Spanish and very little English. Likewise, it appeared two of the Mexican men spoke Spanish, but no Chinese or English. The third Mexican man appeared to speak Spanish, no Chinese, and very, very limited English. Only in America, right?
As I watched the confusion unfold my hunger got the best of me so I offered my services. Now I speak no Chinese, no Spanish, but I speak fluent Southern English and since that was the one common language of this mini-United Nations meeting, I thought I might as well do what I could, after all my food’s getting colder by the second. To my delight in a relatively short time the five of us got the order in, I picked up my order, and I was on my way. Whether the three Mexican gents actually got what they wanted is hard to say. We can only hope.
Over years I’ve observed that we as Christians can make the mistake of speaking what might as well be a foreign language when we witness to the unchurched. Because we understand “churchese” and all the “churchisms” of religious speak we assume everyone else does as well. Even worse we can sometimes purposely use Christian terminology or phrases we know they won’t understand so we can then explain it to them, thus showing how smart we are. Really we often just reinforce the notion held by many who don’t know Christ; that being that they won’t fit in so why bother. As Christians our witness should be clear and simple, using as few words as possible. In fact our opening statements should almost always be made with our actions, no words needed, pointing everything to Christ.
Thanks and Be Blessed,
Deon and Kendra