Sheri Shockey’s wide feet fit in nothing but her blue men’s slippers.
She walked out the front door of the Brinkley Heights food pantry in Memphis, Tenn., carrying a brown paper sack full of food. A man greeted her as he passed, “You ought to come and join us for church one day.”
“Oh, I can’t do that — I don’t go anywhere without my house shoes.” She looked down.
“Well, then, you can come in your house shoes.”
That was the beginning of what Sheri refers to as “a new chapter of life,” which began three years ago.
Less than a decade ago, Sheri was living the American dream — a nice house in the suburbs, membership at a local church, a family and a successful job as a nurse. She even took the occasional cruise vacation.
At the height of her success, 10 families at Brinkley Heights Baptist Church were holding a prayer meeting on the other side of town. The small congregation was struggling to keep the lights on in their building. But they’d heard God’s call to reach out to their neighbors with the gospel, and the idea of a food pantry began to ignite their excitement.
Their pastor met the idea with some skepticism. The church’s closest neighbors were several crack houses, where gang violence and drug-related shootings were not uncommon. And they didn’t have any money.
But one man stood up and said, “Well, God’s got everything. God’s got all the money. He’s given us the plans and if He plans it, He’s going to supply whatever we need. All He wants us to do is be willing.”
Each family began bringing a few cans from their own pantry to a closet in the church and inviting their neighbors to come on Monday nights to receive some groceries — and the Good News.
Good news was in short supply on Sheri’s side of town. Sheri’s husband Ron had owned his own roofing company, and business had been going so well that Sheri quit her full-time position to work with a nursing agency. The job offered better pay but no benefits. When Ron’s business partner disappeared with all the profits, his business failed. Soon after, Sheri was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and they were without health insurance.
In the following months, their house was foreclosed and their son was sent to live with other relatives.
Across town, Ron found a job working as a maintenance man in exchange for a small room at a cheap motel while Sheri underwent treatment for cancer. At one point, she was reduced to living on discarded donuts and water from the motel’s free continental breakfast. Sheri quit treatment and doctors gave her only 18 months to live.
Stories similar to the Shockeys are being played out across North America. On Sept. 16, the U.S. Census Bureau announced a 14.3 percent poverty rate for 2009 — a number expected to grow with rising unemployment. The number of people living below the poverty rate is at its highest since 1959, according to various news sources. Southern Baptist ministries like the one at Brinkley Heights Baptist Church help meet the need.
Weary and hopeless, Sheri showed up at the Brinkley Heights church in her house shoes.
“It was like coming home,” Sheri said. “I discovered a whole new family in Brinkley.”
Over the years, the Brinkley Heights food pantry and clothes closet have evolved into a full-scale nonprofit organization. They meet the needs of more than 1,500 people each year with assistance from the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund and church members willing to give of what little they have.
In 2009, the hunger fund provided 4.6 million meals in North America through churches and Southern Baptist hunger relief ministries. In addition to providing meals, more than 36,000 professions of faith were reported.
This year $1.2 million is needed for requests already expressed for 2011, and only $500,000 is on hand for the rest of 2010. World Hunger Sunday is Oct. 10, the time of year when churches often take up a special offering — 100 percent of which goes to providing food for the underserved. (BP)
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