Recently the church I used to belong to started an Emergency Clothes Closet. This ministry offers free clothes to people in need in our community. They don’t have to have any connection with the church.
I’m excited about this because when I was part of the church it didn’t have any ministries meeting material needs in the community.
To be honest, this didn’t really hit me until after I left. I was thinking about what I did strongly believe in. Helping people in need was definitely on the list. Then I noticed that the people I knew from my former church who helped in that way weren’t doing it through a ministry of that church. Because there weren’t any.
I’m so pleased this has changed. One of the local newspapers has already written about The Closet. I hope The Closet will put Calvary Memorial Church on the map locally as a ‘caring church’.
Helen,
Great story. Your former church has found an area of service to the community. So much of what Jesus said, and did was about pushing outward, into the community. The Closet is a great example of this.
Thanks for your comment, Debbie!
Helen
Thanks for the memories.
Volunteered full time for over three years at a combination
Clothes Closet – Food Pantry – Thrift Store – Prayer Room.
The folks in the neighborhood knew food was available
along with “Social Services” who sent folks in need.
Gave away lot’s of clothes people dropped off. Even new stuff.
The local Walmart would give us torn packages of socks, shirts and stuff.
From the outside it looked like an old thrift store.
Nothing religious about it. Clothes hanging on the outside.
Along with lot’s of kids toys, baby carriages, stuffed animals,
lamps, chairs, and what ever was dropped off after a yard sale.
We received some really nice items, crystal, old furniture, cribs.
The thrift store paid the bills. We had no prices on the items.
We just asked folks to make a reasonable donation.
This way we could allow the folks who didn’t have much
to pick up some really nice stuff for a few dollars.
What a look on their faces when we asked, well what can you afford?
Oh, only 3 or 4 dollars. Sold, 3 dollars it is.
And they walk out of the store with a sixty or seventy dollar crystal bowl.
Sure was great fun giving away God’s stuff.
And we had this “Prayer Room” looking like a living room.
A fluffy couch and easy chair, kitchen table, benches, microwave,
a nice place for folks, not wanted in most places, to hang out and talk.
We would get unbelievers coming by for a cup of coffee and talk.
Lot’s of lonely folks.
When someone would come for food or the thrift shop
we would ask, By the way do you need prayer for anything?
We would get a funny look. We’d put our hands together.
You know, “Prayer,” do you need prayer for anything?
Have any aches and pains? Any back pain, neck pain?
Are you on medication for anything? Seeing a doctor?
Do you have a broken heart, been rejected, abandoned, abused?
It was wonderful. We had a chance to pray with and minister to
lot’s and lot’s of folks. Got to see many people walk away with hope,
healed and delivered, from pains, sickness, and broken hearts.
Jesus loves me…
Thanks A. Amos – sounds like a neat ministry.
This makes me think of a very cool book I’ve been reading. It’s about a woman who started a food pantry at a church in San Francisco. She was an atheist, feminist, lesbian who wandered into this Episcopal church one day because she admired the architecture and was curious. She participated in the Eucharist even though she had no idea what it was about. Immediately she knew something had happened. As she put it, “I realized that I was eating Jesus!” This began a fascinating journey into the life of the church, from the perspective of one who had been raised by staunch atheists. The story of the beginning and development of the food pantry in a parish with very poor and very wealthy populations, is wonderfully refreshing. The name of the book is “Eat this Bread” by Sara Miles.