My visit to a food bank

On January 19^th, I visited the food pantry run by CrossPoint United Methodist church, which assists around 13 local families, around 70 people, both inside and outside of their church. The food pantry is fully sponsored by the donations of the congregation, through a combination of donated nonperishable food items and a modest budget to buy discounted food in bulk as part of the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank Member Agency. The food pantry works on self declaration of need, as it serves to supplemental support for anyone who claims to have a need. Which is in turn is picked out by the person in need through the assistance of one of the volunteers according to a guidelines sheet based upon family size.

I talked with Lora and Wendy, the two women from CrossPoint that oversee the food pantry outreach, both of whom were motivated through the Prophetic Scripture books but without directly realizing it. Wendy was motivated by what she called Jesus’ first sermon in Luke 4:14-21 which was centered around justice for the poor, believing that if is important to Jesus than its important to me. Lora was motivated by a Hymn in the Methodist Hymnal adapted from Micah 6:6-8, with command to do justice and love mercy standing out to her the most. Both Lora and Wendy were so caught up in seeking to help others that they struggled with answering my question of how God was blessing them through their work with the food pantry. Wendy told me about how her work with the food pantry was helping her to learn how we are all equal before God, which stands out to her as she connects with others and extends the love of Jesus to them. Lora felt most blessed by being able to take the time to listen to the stories of the people the food pantry reaches out to. An experience which she finds humbling as she learns both who they are and what gratitude is.

Overall I was very impressed with the CrossPoint food pantry, especially how it was considered just another ministry of a single parish church and not part of the wider denomination. I think the sense of local church ownership of the food pantry is a major strength of its ministry because it allows the congregation to actively minister to the real needs of the local poor in their neighborhoods. Another advantage of this hands on congregation approach, is that people tend to be more generous and motivated with their giving when they see exactly where it is going, and know that others are depending upon them. This direct social interaction with the needy causes the church to build outreach relationships with local churches in a way that presents them with a much fuller picture of the Gospel than a street preacher could ever give them. As was clearly the case when during my visit, one of the regular customers, ask one of the workers what time the church meet on Sundays. As to disadvantages, its really hard to criticize CrossPoint as I feel that a lot more churches need to be doing exactly what they are doing. But if I must be critical, I feel that their ministry might be a little more effective if they also had men visibly involved instead of just women, in order to give a more complete picture of the church.

Biblical Food For Thought

It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, in all your dwelling places, that you eat neither fat nor blood.” (Leviticus 3:17 ESV)

There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.” If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. And he said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not his heart but his stomach, and is expelled?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
(Mark 7:15-23 ESV)

The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him: “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” But Peter said, “By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.” And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.” This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.
(Acts 10:9-16 ESV)

As Christians the Old Testament Dietary Laws often come off to us as seeming overly restrictive and unnecessary, so we normally brush them over without much regard. Sure as Christians its true that we are not obligated to keep the Old Testament Law. Yet at the same time simply because we are not obligated to keep the letter of the Law, does not mean that we are not able to learn from it. As the whole of Torah comes from God, our creator who ultimately knows what is best for us. Just like we all know that following the Biblical sexual guidelines will protect us from sexual transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies. So when it comes to food, can we also assume that God knows what is best for us as well? I find it interesting that Law bans both the eating of animal blood and fat. Sure we know today that its impossible to eat meat without eating some fat, but I think its a safe assumption to take it as meaning one is avoid all visible fat when eating meat. I’m sure most churches today would freak out if it was discovered that one of their members was eating animal blood on a regular basis, and be horrified by this vampire like behavior. Yet at the same time view it as perfectly acceptable to eat visible animal fat on a regular basis with its meals. We can only speculate as to why God forbade the Hebrews from eating blood, but its a safe guess that it was a mix of the spiritual significance of holy blood sacrifice and possible health issues from eating animal blood. Although we now know that in order to maintain good health it is in one’s best interest to limit the amount of fat and especially animal fat that one eats. While I doubt its possible to strongly argue that its a sin for Christians to eat visible animal fat today, that does not mean that its in our best interest to do so. Just like the Bible speaks out against greed in both the Old and New Testaments which has traditionally been expressed as gluttony by the church in regards to greed with food. I find it interesting that today that term gluttony is for the most part no longer used by the Church today. Not that I think that we need to become more legalistic, just that God cares about gluttony because it is in our best interest to maintain or reach a healthy body weight.

You deep fried what?

Struggling with my weight, I’m normally very reluctant to speak out against the causes of obesity as I personally find myself guilt of doing them a lot more than I know I should be. Still after reading an article on the newest creation of deep fried Coke I’m wondering where one draws the line between hypocrisy and genuine shock over how far some have gone. Yes, I’m serious some people down at the Texas state fare have managed to find a way to deep fry soda. This either tasty or gross treat depending upon what one thinks of it, starts with coke flavored dough balls which are deep fried. After being deep fried they are covered in sugar & cinnamon and put in a cup which is then filled with straight Coke syrup which is normally used in fountain soda machines and topped with whipped cream and a cherry, as if soda wasn’t bad enough for you already. But still I’ll admit that if I had an opportunity to try a small amount of deep fired Coke without having to buy an entire cup I would to see what its like, just like I would with small amounts of the other deep fried treats like, candy bars, iced cream and Twinkies. Still where does one draw the line as while deep frying is a convenient way to cook things it is not the most healthy way to do so. As honestly I’m sure when one starts looking at the nutritional facts of equally sized portions, I’m sure there is not much of a difference between french fries and funnel cake yet the first is viewed as being a lot more acceptable for regular consumption than the other. But still you got to wonder why people make a big fuss over the extreme deserts and fair foods that are not consumed very often compared to the what most people eat everyday which is where the true battle against obesity needs to take place if it is going to have a change of being won.