identikit dedication: Florida Baptist 2012 Hunger Awareness Offering

Florida Baptist 2012 Hunger Awareness Offering

Jun 29, 2012
By STAFF

They come from different walks in life.?

An elderly woman just released from the hospital, bearing a cancer diagnosis is devastated by the turn of events in her life. Searching the eyes of those around her, she looks for somebody to care, someone to hold her hand and pray with her, someone to provide a few extra groceries at the end of the month when her Social Security runs low.?

A young couple unable to find jobs in harsh economic times wonders how they will feed their small children. Although they are willing to work, few jobs are available. Longing for some type of financial security in their lives, they ask how long they will have to endure such instability.?

Hispanic families working the fields of Ocala?s horse farms perform back-breaking manual labor few others would. They are isolated by language and culture. As they work to support the region?s economy, their own physical nourishment is lacking.?

They hope for more than words.

They come to Ocala?s Fellowship Baptist Church where they find a group of God?s faithful servants willing to embrace them in their difficulties, pray with them in their trials and provide food to help them make it through the month. They give more than words.

On the third Saturday of each month, Fellowship?s servant saints provide bags of food to their community?s needy. The bags contain canned food basics, bakery goods, meats and frozen foods; also diapers and baby formula when needed.?

?Our goal is to provide three days of emergency food,? said Cindy Mesa, director of the church?s community outreach. Per month, the congregation feeds as many as 100 families?some with as many as seven members and others who are single.

?No one is ever turned away,? she explained.?

?I?ve seen people here who are going through horrible times. I?ve seen burly, gruff men with tears streaming down their face. So many people are isolated and don?t know people care.?

Fellowship Church is personifying God?s Word as found in I John 3:17-18 as it instructs believers to love others with more than words.?

?If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.? ?? I John 3:17-18

Church members have embraced the effort, scouring food banks, gleaning produce from local fields, picking up left over foods from grocery stores and bakeries and even subsidizing costs from their own wallets. They give of their time to organize and distribute food, meet special needs, and touch lives.

?It is very humbling for a person to come here and receive food,? said Fellowship Pastor John Outlaw. ?But our church members establish a rapport with those who do. They love on them, pray for them and share the Gospel in many ways and actions.??

Fellowship?s food assistance program is the only one in this southwest corner of Ocala, explained the pastor. The region has been hard hit by the economy which climbed to as high as 16 percent unemployment in recent months before dropping to 11 percent.?

And as a result of their ministry, the church has seen professions of faith in Jesus Christ and welcomed families into the congregation.?

Each month, Fellowship receives $300 from Hunger Relief funds given by Florida Baptists to the state?s Hunger Offering. Since the ministry was begun six years ago the church has partnered with the Florida Baptist Convention.

The Convention subsidy does not cover the entire cost of the church?s ministry, but supports a much needed part of the church?s efforts.

They find Florida Baptists care.

During the past year, 125 Florida Baptist churches and associations received financial assistance from the Florida Baptist Hunger Offering. These funds totaled $131,435 and fed 161,896 people in 2011. As a result, 1,828 people made professions of faith and 521 were baptized into the fellowship of a local congregation.

When Florida Baptists give ?more than words,? their gifts to the offering go to alleviate hunger and causes of hunger in Florida, the United States and around the world. ?

Few can dispute the tragedies caused by hunger in the world today. Media outlets show the injustices as an estimated 1.2 billion poor people in developing countries live on $1 a day or less. Florida Baptists, through the International Missions Board?s World Hunger Fund, are making a difference.?

The fund is not supported by either the Cooperative Program or the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Gifts enable missionaries to minister with ?more than words? by meeting human needs around the world through community development and disaster response.

In many ways, America is the land of plenty. But for 1 in 6 people in the United States, hunger is a reality. Many people may believe that the problems associated with hunger are confined to certain socio-economic segments, certain areas of the country, or certain neighborhoods, but the reality is much different.?

Right now, millions of Americans struggle with hunger. These are often hard-working adults, children and seniors who simply cannot make ends meet and are forced to go without food for several meals, or even days.?

Funds earmarked for the North American Mission Board help Southern Baptist churches within the United States demonstrate ?more than words? to the hungry in all 50 states.?

Southern Baptists? ?response

$239,641 was given by Florida Baptists to fight world hunger in 2011.

161,896 persons were fed through Florida Baptist hunger funds given to 125 Florida Baptist churches and associations to feed 162,000 hungry people.?

1,828 persons came to know Jesus Christ as Savior from Florida Baptists? hunger ministries; 521 were baptized.

304 World Hunger global hunger relief projects that affected entire communities were carried out in 2011 as a result of Southern Baptists giving $6 million to help feed millions around the world.?

5 million meals were fed to the hungry in North America through Southern Baptist hunger funds, resulting in 30,000 professions of faith.?

2011 FLORIDA BAPTIST?HUNGER MINISTRY

$239,641 given by Florida Baptists

$131,435 distributed to Florida churches

125 churches and associations received funds?

161,896 people fed

1,828 salvations resulted

521 baptisms performed

One hundred percent of all money received?is distributed through Southern Baptist channels.?

25% to Florida Baptist?Convention?for Florida hunger relief ministries through?local churches and associations

15% to ?North American?Mission Board?to alleviate hunger in the United States

60% to International?Mission Board?for worldwide hunger relief

identikit dedication

Sunday, July 1, 2012