Hunger Sunday is February 20.
Pastor Amos Crews said one day he was just walking through his house when he heard God speak to him, plain as day.
“He said, ‘I want you to feed 1,000 people a hot plate,’” said Crews, who serves as pastor of Christ First Community Church, part of the Birmingham Metro Baptist Association. “We’re a church of 20, and I knew we wouldn’t be able to do that on our own. I said, ‘You’re going to have to be our Provider.’”
And in faith, Crews stepped forward.
First, he called State Missionary Kristy Kennedy and asked if it would be OK for him to use three months’ worth of his church’s allocation of hunger fund money to buy enough chicken leg quarters to cook 1,000 hot meals. She said yes.
“We bought 1,500 pounds of frozen leg quarters, and I said, ‘OK, Lord, what else are we going to do? How are we going to cook it?’ Our building was pretty much falling in,” he said.
God’s blessings
It wasn’t too long before three other small local congregations came together and volunteered to prepare the food to be cooked. And one of Crews’ deacons, who had a tow-behind double smoker barbecue, volunteered to bring it to the church.
That just left side dishes, and Crews didn’t have the money to buy any.
“We were at the church cleaning chicken and putting it in bags, and a man rode up on a bike with his three children,” he said. “It was also one of the days when we were distributing food boxes, so I thought he had come to get food. But he said, ‘No, God put on my heart that you’re about to do something big, and I just wanted to bless you.’”
The man handed him a check, and Crews thanked him, folded the check and put it in his pocket and asked the man if he could pray for him and his family.
After the man left, he looked at the check and saw it was for $500.
“We used that money to buy the canned baked beans and make the coleslaw,” Crews said.
And on the day they made the plates, Crews and his deacon cooked meat for nearly 24 hours straight, and volunteers made and handed out plates in the parking lot and under the bridges in the city. They fed 1,200 people that day.
Crews said without God’s provision through the Alabama Hunger Offering funds, that never would’ve happened.
Gifts collected year round
He’s not alone in that sentiment. All across the state, others also rely on those gifts to meet needs in their communities. Forty-four ministry centers across Alabama receive money from the Alabama Hunger Offering, which is collected year round but will be highlighted Feb. 20 this year, Kennedy said.
“Ministries that receive funds through the offering help feed people in their communities who are food insecure,” Kennedy said. “Ultimately our goal is to meet the physical need people have while meeting their spiritual need for the Bread of life.”
Even though Christ First Community Church used three months’ worth of their hunger fund money on the meat, it didn’t keep them from being able to distribute food boxes each Wednesday as they had been doing. God continued to provide and stretch their money, Crews said.
Over the years, he has seen God do many miracles to help his church feed people, and he said he won’t forget any of them, including the one God did with funds from the Alabama Hunger Offering that helped him be obedient to God’s direction to feed 1,000 people who needed a hot meal.
For more information about the Alabama Hunger Offering or to download print and video resources, visit alsbom.org/hunger or contact Lori Lockett, llockett@alsbom.org or 334-613-2304.
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