By Message Staff
COLFAX, La. (LBM) – Kennedy Walls recently visited the food pantry at Summerfield Baptist Church in Colfax to pick up a few items, but left with much more — a renewed passion for the Lord.
“Coming to the food pantry was the only way I was going to hear about my need to get right with Christ,” Walls told the Baptist Message. “After everything is open, I’m going to start coming to church and grow more with others in my faith.”
Since Summerfield Baptist opened its food pantry to the community in mid-March, they have had five Gospel conversations, with two participants making decisions to restore fellowship with the Lord.
The ministry has given away non-perishable food, toilet paper, Bibles and Gospel tracts.
Pastor Jeremy Brister said that before the novel coronavirus pandemic, the congregation recognized the need to help those living in poverty. As a result of conversations about setting up a feeding ministry someone donated a custom-made food pantry, about the size of an armoire, which has been refilled multiple times each week.
The congregation, which had been averaging 30 participants in its Sunday morning worship services in mid-March, has used the food pantry as a way to reach out to the community. Now about 20 members attend Sunday drive-in worship services and between 400 and 500 viewers watch the service online each week.
While meeting physical needs is a vital function, the end goal is to see a spiritual harvest in Colfax and beyond, Brister said.
“We yearn for people to be saved,” he said. “During the crisis, we’ve had drive-in church, and have been posting videos via Facebook. We make it known that if people do not have a Bible to reach out to us and we will give them one— there’s no better gift than the Word of God.”
