It’s a good thing it rained because the hamburgers, hot dogs and homemade cookies and brownies were gone in just more than an hour, which means that despite the bad weather, the block party held by Shiloh Baptist Church, Saraland, for Mobile’s homeless was a success.
“We were supposed to have it from 11 a.m.–2 p.m.,” Amber Wright said. “But around 12:30, it started pouring. But we were out of food anyway.”
Wright, 24, a lifelong member of the Mobile Baptist Association church, coordinated the event, which was held April 19 in downtown Mobile’s Cooper Riverside Park.
“We had a band and led worship,” she said. “It turned out really great. Everyone was really appreciative.”
The block party was hosted by the church’s homeless ministry, which is composed of college students mostly from the University of Mobile and the University of South Alabama.
Wright started the ministry after returning to the Mobile area following her graduation from the University of Alabama. She plans to attend Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., in the fall.
“It’s great being pastor in a church where you see young people like Amber have a passion for a cause like this and to make a difference in her community,” said Pastor Robert Lutz. “She is a very gifted leader (and) she’s following her passion. It’s a joy to be around someone like that.”
He said the same thing about John Stuckey, Wright’s uncle and Shiloh’s music minister, and college ministry leader. “He’s our normal full-time music minister but he’s done a phenomenal job leading our college ministry.”
But as for the block party, Stuckey gives all the credit to his “little” niece.
“She’s very talented, very creative,” he said, noting Wright came up with the idea of cooking a hot meal for the homeless.
“It was great experience for the college students to mingle with the (homeless) guys and the girls, and it opened eyes for some people,” Stuckey added.
Wright estimated that 200 of the city’s homeless showed up and approximately 30 students volunteered.
“We’ve done some stuff before,” she said of the ministry to the homeless. “We’ve gone downtown and handed out backpacks with toiletry items and handed out lunches. But we’ve never done anything this big.”
Wright said not only was all of the food gone by 12:30 but the clothes and bags of toiletry items were also gone.
“We gave away a ton of stuff,” she said. “We did present the gospel to them briefly, but it wasn’t a big to-do because it started raining, and we had to cut things short.”
Stuckey hopes that won’t be a problem for similar events in the future.
“Without the rain, they know they’ll get a good hot meal and we’ll present the gospel to them,” he said. “They’ll come. The word is out.”
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