This bears retelling. Often. In West Pender County, Southeast North Carolina, there’s a little church called Westview (United Methodist). On a good Sunday there’s around 40 people in the meticulously cared-for mid-century modern sanctuary. (Mike Brady could have designed it – Brady Bunch again?) In the pews you’ll find farmers, educators, small-business owners, truck drivers, law enforcement officers – salt of the earth people, every one. If you stumbled in on a Sunday morning, you’d be greeted like a long-lost friend – or 4th cousin on your Mama’s side, perhaps. That’s how they welcomed me when I showed up to be their pastor a few years back.
In those early days we read tall-tale-like truths from Scripture. Gideon leads an army of 300 (whittled down from 32,000) against 135,000 Midianites. Armed with nothing but trumpets, empty jars and torches, they are victorious. A little boy hands over his lunch of 5 loaves and 3 fish and 5,000+ are fed – with leftovers. Talk about your lunch-able. Something began to stir among the good people of Westview and we began to think beyond our little-church-limitations. We took on the identity of The Little Big Church.
About the same time, we were hearing reports of the epidemic of food insecurity in our area. Numerous children attending the elementary school a few miles away were fully dependent on the breakfast and lunch they received on weekdays. Once they left on Friday afternoon, they were not likely to eat again until Monday morning. Oh, that this horrible story would be a tall-tale… but no. It was even worse than we imagined. We heard of teachers buying snacks to hand out to their hungry students. Before long people started showing up at Westview on Sunday mornings with boxes of Nabs (Southern for Nabisco – Peanut Butter Crackers) and granola bars and Pop-tarts to supplement the teachers’ snack drawers. After a while the school said we needed to stop… they had too many snacks. Snack-able.
Then there was the idea that maybe a church of our size could gather up enough food to send a bag home with up to 15 children for the weekend. Others were doing it… surely we could stretch enough to help 15 little ones. We fasted and asked God to send us the means and the opportunity to do this big thing. Not lost was the irony and the sacredness of fasting on behalf of the hungry children in our community. Two days later, the school had identified 7 students – so we packed up 7 bags and sent them over. Then there were 10, then 15, then 22, then 26. So we packed bags – assembly line fashion – after church every Sunday morning. Wide-eyed but determined that as long as there was food on the shelf, we would keep handing it out. Pack-able.
Then, we learned that there were 40 children at the middle school who had been identified as food insecure… same situation as the elementary school – what they ate at school was all they ate for a week. Surely we could help find another church to take that on. But no. It wasn’t for us to pass that on. It was for us to take that on. Do-able.
Spider-web partnerships formed between Westview, Pender County Christian Services, The United Way, The Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina, Food Lion, Wal-Mart, The Duke Endowment. The food storage room became a food storage building. Holiday boxes (enough to last over a school holiday) were added to Friday bags. We met with the leaders at the high school directly across the street from the church and learned that their students had big-kid needs like warm clothes and hygiene products. So we furnished a closet as a pop-up-shop for them to discreetly take what they needed. Dignify-able.
Fast forward to yesterday. Six-weeks out from Hurricane Florence’s landfall and the subsequent floodwaters that inundated West Pender County. So many students have self-identified as homeless – the number is rising river-like. Schools have just re-opened. There’s no telling how bad it is. And the Little Big Church that stretched out faithful hands to 15 children now holds out hope to what may top 300. Yesterday, the Food Bank delivered enough pre-filled bags to last two weeks. And then the congregation will turn to their shelves and line up as usual every Sunday morning. Remark-able.
It’s been two years since I left that pulpit to move to Texas. We’re back in the area now and have already had a reunion. They welcomed us like long lost 4th cousins on Mama’s side. I will always treasure those years spent alongside the wonderful people of Westview. They are good people. They are God-people. Love-able.
Donate to Westview United Methodist Church by mailing checks to 5610 NC Hwy 53 West, Burgaw, NC 28425
or to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina: http://www.foodbankcenc.org/site/PageServer?pagename=getinvolved_disaster
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