Exhaling the Gospel

Every Sunday we sit in our climate controlled, 

comfortable church buildings and inhale the 

marvelous gospel of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Except this Sunday and one other a year.

We forego our comfort to serve our city.

We gathered on the large parking lot east of

the Metro Center (Central Campus) and

at the South Oaks and Grand Prairie Campuses

of Fielder Church

and packed boxes of food for people who are hungry.

Seven thousand of them!


Now I hate to be wimpy, but it was pretty cold.
How cold was it?
One of our Pastor Jason's daughters told him that
she could no longer feel her legs--
and this was before we had even begun to pack boxes!

Now I wish this were not so, but I had managed to 

come up with an impressive list of excuses why I

should not go this morning. I'm too old, too slow,

too tired, not really needed, etc. etc. etc.

Thank you, Holy Spirit, for getting me there.

We all had on these shirts, but they were hidden
by coats this year!

The whole thing was organized to the nth degree!
(Does anyone but me say that any more?)

There were a jillion of us there, divided into 4 groups.
There were box assemblers and passer outers, box
fillers (me), food passer outers, and box closers.
Our boxes were perfectly sized to hold:
2 cans of green beans, 1 can corn, 1 can peaches, 
2 cans ravioli, 2 cans tuna, peanut butter, 
large package spaghetti, 2 large packs pinto beans,
and large corn flake bag.

My friend Debra Permenter's job was to add the
large bag of corn flakes to the top of each box.
Now I would never ever called Debra a flake,
but Jerry Morris did. HaHaHaHa
Oh, sorry, Debra. Didn't mean to laugh.

The finished boxes were perfectly stacked on pallets,
and wrapped.

 then transferred to one of these trailers.

Here are all of our small group members I could
round up at one time:

There were more of us scattered around.


My cute choir friend Christy Prellwitz
 was a box assembler:

And here is my best shot of the whole group.

(hard to capture from ground level.)


This was the scripture of the morning:

"Suppose a brother or sister does not have any clothes
or daily food and one of you tells them,
'Go in peace! Stay warm and eat heartily.'
If you do not provide for their bodily needs, 
what good does it do? In the same way, faith by
itself, if it does not prove itself with actions, is dead.
James 2:15-17


We do not believe we have to earn our salvation with
good works.
We do believe in exhaling the gospel we hold dear and
being the earthly hands and feet of Jesus.
I consider it a privilege to be able to put action
to my faith in Jesus Christ.
"Thank you, Heavenly Father, for allowing me to be
part of this blessed morning."