Off-site Clients

We get past and future guests - or "off-site clients" - that need our aid, here at 490 Outreach.  And this isn't the kind of ministry where you can be very specific, and only help and care for some specific time.  If they are to be helped, or have been helped, then like an enhanced Chinese Obligation, you are bound to be there for them.

Off-site guests come in more than one form.  Some I know from they having been guests here, others I know for hoping they'll one day be guests here.

For instance, there are those that I write to and visit in prison.  Some from my church, one from an old church, some I just know.  Some who know me, call me, not because I'm all that cool, but because I'll answer.

When an active addict lands in jail, well, it's like Moving Day for regular folks.  You find out who your friends are.  And while a person moving finds out they have fewer friends than they thought, the person who lands in jail usually learns that, oops, end of the line, they burnt out all their family and friends already, and now there's...well, no one.

Then they remember my card in their wallet or purse, and call.

I'm always very sorry for them.  I am aware, without being down on myself, that I would be a very unlikely "first choice" for such a call.  Like calls I get from hospital ERs, I know that I get called only when everyone else has refused to answer, or answered, but won't help.  Which is fine, I'd prefer they try friends and family first, for the just in case.

I even have humorously remarked before, when a person I'm "counseling" seems to think that maybe they were not so bad off after all, or didn't really need to make any changes, "If you see me in the room, and I'm talking to you, you need to know that horrible mistakes have been made.  If you in any way have to listen to me, know that you've messed up.  No normal person needs to rely in any way upon my assistance, when I'm just an addict who cleaned up sooner than you have."

My wife doesn't always like me dropping what I'm doing and running off to the jail or one of the local ERs.  But she understands.  Once upon a time, when I'd actually already cleaned up and got better, I was picked up on an old warrant from another state.  I was took to jail, and would have had to wait two months to be extradited, or I could post bail.  Bail is a great thing - for those who are "normal" and have credit and savings and such.

Terrible for poor people for whom the lack of an $80 auto part means they're walking, and unable to afford even that, sure can't afford the "only" $300 of a $3,000 bail.

But I called a man I knew, who had been a leader in a church I used to attend.  The man's wealth and position were as far above mine as a Feudal Lord's position was above a peasant's.  But he dropped what he was doing and drove from Springfield to Taylorville, late at night, and posted my bail.  I get teary eyed again just typing of what he did.  So yeah, when someone calls me, I drop what I'm doing.

You'd not think there would be much I could do.  But you'd be surprised.  What most need is no more than some advice, or even just a sounding board for they to figure out what can and can't work, and the knowledge that they are not utterly alone.  In this world of seven billion people, only addicts, former addicts, and some rare hermit on a mountain top, know what it's like to be truly alone.  As you are probably wondering, it's unbearable.

And no, you driving 1,000 miles to a job that one time, all by yourself, was not "being alone", nor the time you kayaked down that river in Colorado to "find yourself".  You knew you could call people, and that they'd answer.  But when I stood, years back, out of gas in the middle of an empty road in Nebraska, looking stupidly at my cell phone and realizing there was no one on Earth I could call who would give a crap, yeah, that was "being alone".

And if you get a call from a jail or an ER, if you don't know that person all that well, then please, GO!  For he or she must surely know that they don't know you that well, but are calling with the desperation of a person drowning, as there is no one else to call.  Why do you think Jesus told us to visit these people in the first place?

So I'm there for them, and that helps them.  And I actually do have some good advice, for the highly specific situations of drug and alcohol related medical and legal idiocies.  Years of training and field experience paid off!  Smh.

I also can do stuff that would seem small to most readers of this, but are great favors to them.  I can call everyone else that might care a bit, and advocate for the person who could not get through to them.  I've talked to moms and boyfriends and cousins and sisters and kids and gave the, "Well, he/she has made a lot of mistakes, but this is an opportunity for they to get back on track - a boost now, not of money, but of just you being there, could make a difference."

I can get mail and make sure they get it.  Store stuff for them in my shed - most have little more than a backpack or old suitcase - and make sure it's safe for them for when they get out.  This means showing up at a random drug house, and letting them know I'm here to pick up John or Jane's stuff.  And you must glide past them at the door uninvited, while saying that, or they'll try to shut the door and keep the stuff.

I can usually keep it friendly enough that I then have the opportunity to scatter out more of my cards, for obviously as future guests go, these places are a "target rich environment"!  I've even got calls from such before.  And it's handy, as in our food ministry, I remember these homes - really, drug houses - and can go there and see if any need food.  That answer is always "yes".

Many of the above are "potential future guests".  Some only got my card from another and have never met me.  Others are past guests.  Kicked out for relapsing.  Often times they left very angrily, with threats and curses.  They'll apologize profusely, and I will wave it off.  I am no stranger to speaking out of turn from uncontrolled emotions.  I am aware of what booze and drugs can do to our judgment and manners.

Even years later, such effects can manifest themselves.  Alcohol and drugs damage brains for the long term, so there are naturally long term effects.  So I give the mercy that I'd hope for.

Are there some suckering me in all of this?  Of course.  I get calls from active addicts who tell me they are ready for rehab, can I come get them and take them?  Early on, I'd go out, all eager, and they'd have me "just stop off at Jim's house" for a minute, to get their toiletries, and then, surprise!  They had really just wanted a ride to Jim's house, and I'm sitting out there with a dumb look on my face.

Often times, they'd have me do several stops, all in theory on the way to rehab, but it turns out that having no car, and no money for a cab, they really just needed free rides and packed all those errands into a one or two hour mega-ride, and chose me as the sucker to do it.  I call this being a "Craxi Cab Driver", and having more experience now, I still will do it - but the price is they must listen to me give them "the Talk"!

I get suckered in other ways.  A person in jail is all about recovery while in, and I visit twice a week, I go give some plasma so I can put a $20 on their books, I do the errands on the outside that aid them.  Then, final court day, I'm there with them, the judge releases them, they're free!  Hooray!  "We" did it! I give a thumbs up, they give me back a thumbs up!  Bailiff smiles, everyone's happy!  Now real recovery can begin, all the right things we talked about can be done!

I sit outside the courtroom, car idling at the curb, waiting for their final check out from the Sangamon County jail, and yep, there the off-site client is!  But wait, what's this?  They need to go talk to such and so in the car behind me for a second?  Oh, yes, there is a guy in that car behind me, I wonder who he is?  Wait - isn't that a drug dealer I saw at this one drug house that one time last month?  What's he doing here?  Wait, getting in?  Why, I'm right here!  Where are they going?

Oh.

That always makes me feel like Lucy Pevensie who said to Faun Tumnus in "Narnia", "I...I thought you were my friend."

But the thing is, in this "job" or ministry or whatever it is, you can't stop touching the stove just for having been burnt one or fifty three times.  Your job is basically to touch that stove, in the hopes that one day it will not be hot, but be a magic stove, and your touch will mean that it pops out a Thanksgiving turkey and all the trimmings, and everyone lives happily ever after!

And at about a 10% success rate, it does seem like magic when it finally happens, but what it really means is that the person was finally serious, finally prayed to God, and was answered.  As He always answers, when the person is serious.  And He knows their real hearts where I cannot, so that means it's all the more important for me to keep trying with everyone, no matter how hopeless, so that they're at least fed and sheltered till they can wake up and accept His mercy!

And it has paid off before.  Those ten percent.  Others here and there.  Like the boy who would throw a starfish back into the sea to save it from the rising sun, unfazed by the tens of thousands of more that would not be able to be saved.  An old man asked him, "What difference does what you're doing make?  You'll never save them all, you'll never even save a noticeable number!"

The boy picked up another starfish, out of the myriad of them, tossed it into the ocean and said, "It made a difference to him."

Amen.

Ziggy

Both my grandfathers were in World War II, the American one as a soldier who helped liberate the camps, and the British one as a Fire Chief putting out fires so that the additional waves of the Luftwaffe could not home in on English towns.

So it's kind of funny that I was principally introduced to Adventism by a former German soldier who fought against them!  And funny that my dedication of my life to our non-profit charity, 490 Outreach, owes much to that same soldier!

Yet, that is the situation.  Almost 25 years before my baptism, I had just left LA and found myself in Thousand Oaks.  I could see at once it was a ritzy town, and one where it would be unlikely for me, a 20 something wandering hobo at the time, to find work and a place with any ease.

Walking down the street with my backpack on, a pick up truck pulled over, and a man said, "You have no place to go, do you?"

True enough, I did not at that moment.  He said, almost happily, "I knew it!  You can come and help me!"

Planting seeds

Help him.  He needed help like Bill Gates needs an extra $5, but that was Ziggy.  Siegfried Carle, a Seventh-day Adventist, an Electrician, and while it pained him to think of it, a former soldier for the Third Reich.

He had me "help" him as an electrician's assistant, which principally involved carrying his bag, passing him the wrong tools and keeping him company.  He took me home that evening for dinner, and then let me sleep in an old RV they had on one of their properties.

The following day, he felt bad about that, though I had thought it very kind of him.  But he did feel bad, and from then on, I had a bedroom in their house, a rather luxurious place, but homey.  I ate with he and his wife, and one of his sons.  I went out with Ziggy each day.  I could borrow a vehicle if I needed to go to the store.

And each Sabbath, we went to the Seventh-day Adventist church there.

I do not remember many of the members of the congregation there, though they were all polite and kind.  I do remember one specific exception, though.  A man who seemed a bit upset at the world quizzed me as to who I was and where I was staying.  When I said I was staying with the Carle's, he nodded dismissively and said, "Oh, one of Ziggy's projects."

That didn't bother me.  It made me realize that Ziggy was an even greater guy than I already thought he was, because it meant he did this regularly, it wasn't just a fluke.  I knew what it said about a guy who took in those who needed help, over and over, just in the hopes one would convert.

To my shame though, I did not convert.  Back then, in my early 20s, I knew everything.  I could enjoy their company and admire their zeal, but not be converted.

I learned their stories, though.  And such stories!  This was a couple who had lived life large, and been in the thick of the most turbulent era of 20th century history, and came out the other side successful and well off, and most of all, good and decent and kind beyond measure.

Yes, to his distress, Ziggy had fought in the Army of Germany during World War II.  Every male of a given age had to, or be shot.  As to being a Nazi, I don't know if he formally was, I know that many were made to join, or were inducted almost by default.  I know he never was in his heart.  I know he was always too kind for that kind of nonsense.

His wife had been a child in Poland, and thus witnessed the German invasion and take over of it.  She had, at her children's request, told her whole story on tape cassettes.  Remember tape cassettes?  She wanted them transcribed, and since I am a far better typist than electrician, I transcribed those for her.

What a treat!  When I talked with her son yesterday, he could not quite place me, as after all, his father had helped a great many young people in his life.  But when I said, "I want you to know, your mother's stories made a huge impression on me.  She let me transcribe them, and I've never forgotten any of them, she was a remarkable woman."  He said, "Oh, that was you!  Yes, I know you now!"

Meta - Ziggy's wife - was a little girl when the Nazis took over.  She was an Adventist, though, and when the teacher following the new laws told all the kids to stand up, raise their arm in the Nazi salute and say "Heil, Hitler!", she would not.  Even though that caused a good deal of trouble.  To this day, I think of her any time I read of someone getting in trouble or getting criticized for not respecting the flag.

True, our flag is nothing like the Nazi one, but I hold that anyone has the right to refuse allegiance to a symbol, man or nation if they feel like it.  Just like she did.  And each person's reasons must be their own, like her's were.

When she and the rest of Poland was set "free", by the very Soviet Army that had participated in stealing half of a Poland, she was in a camp controlled by the East German Soviets.  She had to escape, first to West Germany, then to Canada.  Meanwhile, Ziggy, no longer in the Army with the war lost, was similarly faced with the daunting task of getting out of war torn Germany, and he, too, made his way to Canada.

The Northern Territories, if my memory serves.  Which would in itself be an adventure to last a life time for any, but some how they then met - in Canada or here, I'm not remembering - and wound up together in the United States.

I could not tell you with a certainty what I did in my travels three months before or after meeting them. But I remember Meta's wonderful vegan dishes and her stories, even a random tiny one like when she was a little girl and had to work in the fields, she would take a bit of coal from the stove, put it in a tin can, put a half potato over it, and then twirl the can on a string so that the potato would cook while she walked.

Or how she slept on top of a stove in a camp in East Germany to stay warm in the winter.

And I remember Ziggy's fight with City Hall, over some zoning issue, which most would account as minor, but he saw as the opening wedge to the utter destruction of liberty!  But I guess no one loves freedom as much as those who had none of it.  I remember his aid at a food line, where a dinner would be provided for the homeless.

I was with them for at least a month, but no more than three months.  Their whole family was nothing but gracious and kind to me.  One of his adult sons was married and had another luxurious house, and I was there with the whole family for some cook out - I forget if it was a holiday or not, but I was impressed that they'd take I, a stranger in, and treat me as if I was a relative.

I learned a lot about Adventism.  Or, how to put this?  I had previously known an Adventist, so I already knew about Saturday being the Sabbath and the dead knowing nothing.  So what I learned from them was more the lifestyle, the culture, the daily living of it.  And what magnificent examples they were of that!

Vegan meals, charity as a way of life, love always, a striving to live a Christ-like life, humility in thinking they had a long ways to go - though from what I could see, they had nailed it!  Work ethic. Family values.  Attentiveness and generosity to the church - Ziggy did the electrical work for them, and any church job came first.

When I left, they did this fantastical routine of adding up the amount of "work" I had done for them and arriving at a preposterously large figure for what I knew to be jack crap make work!  The only value that I could possibly have contributed was the transcribing of those stories, and frankly, I had took that as it's own reward, just getting to hear the stories was payment enough!

Then they deducted "rent" and "food" and such.  It was a whole song and dance, it struck me at the time they'd done it before with others, and I suspected I knew what these good hearted people were shooting for.  I played my part by nodding in grave agreement at whatever they said as far as debits and credits went, and in the end - "surprise" - they found they owed me.

I protested this immediately, but I knew them well enough to know that this was going to be futile. And having previously agreed to their math, I had no real recourse.  The money was an aid and a kindness, and it got me to my next stop in Bellingham, Washington.

When I got baptized this past May, well, even before, when I knew I was going to be baptized, I tried to reach them.  I found no number for them, but did for some of the kids.  I say "kids", those young men back then are all middle aged like me now, after a quarter of a century!

Yesterday, I did get in contact with one finally.  Numbers I had found were out of date or changed, but I had been trying for the past six months, and yesterday it paid off.  At first the poor guy - Conrad - thought I was a telemarketer, but I then tentatively started, and referred to his father in the past tense, and when he said, "was?" I said, "I'm sorry, I don't know if he is still alive?"

I learned that while he had been in the hospital lately, he is alive and staying at his daughter's!  And Meta is still alive, her having been younger than he.  I did not ask the son just how old Ziggy is, but doing the math with my wife later, I said, "Well, if he was 18 in 1945, then he'd be 90 now!"  So wow!

Funny, I'd thought he was ancient back then, but now I see that he was only 65, which at my age of 48 now seems a lot younger than it used to!

As I've mentioned elsewhere, in relating my testimony, I had three encounters with Adventists in my young days as a traveller.  The first had been with Terry a truck driver who gave me a ride, and the third was some Adventists in Bellingham.  But honestly, the greatest length of time I spent with Adventists, and the ones who made the largest impression on me, was the Carle family.

They planted seeds.  And goodness, it must have seemed hopeless to them at times.  I don't know how many they aided, but it's a sure bet that the number who then went on to get baptized was less than those they helped!  But part of what I learned from them is that it's not about that.  And that was a valuable lesson, one that's aided me in my job now - and indeed, helped me get this job in the first place.

People ask me about my patience in dealing with alcoholics and addicts, many who don't truly wish to be helped, many who are not going to do the right things, many who will receive what you have to offer, and then move on without any real improvement.  I know from the Carle family that real charity then is to accept that.

You don't give or help because the person receiving it is perfect and deserving of it.  Who ever would be?  You give and help because Christ told us to, and it's not on us what the recipient will make of it. You're planting a seed - it's up to them whether it is then nourished to grow or not.  You're offering a life preserver - it's up to them to grab onto it.

For me, while it was 25 years later, the seeds they planted with such perpetual hope grew.  And in truth, it started growing even ten years ago, for without the life lessons I had learned from that family I'd have been ill equipped to start the charitable non-profit my wife and I run now.

When we thus help someone, in a very real sense, that person we help owes thanks to Ziggy.  Had Ziggy not stopped to pick me up, had he and his family not took me in, I cannot conceive that I'd be in the business I'm in today, or in the church I'm in today, or living the life I'm living today.

I try to aid others, as Ziggy tried to aid me.

And that's how a former soldier of the Third Reich led me to Christ, led me to Adventism, and aided in starting 490 Outreach!

New Food Ministry

(The following is a talk gave at Springfield First Seventh-day Adventist Church)

I am pleased to stand here today to share with you an exciting new Food Ministry that has been in the works since last spring!

First, for those who may not be aware, my name is Dean West, I was baptized into the church last May, due to seeds being planted by kindly Adventists over 25 years ago, and watered and cared for well by the good members of this church this past year!

My wife - who was also recently baptized in the church - and I run a non-profit called "490 Outreach", named after the scriptures that speak of forgiving others - or giving them extra chances - not seven, but seven times seventy times!

That non-profit very broadly aids alcoholics and addicts in recovering, providing generalized aid and advice.  Specifically it operates two homes, wholly owned and paid for, as "sober living homes".  It had provided everything but supplemental food aid.

So.  We had been desiring a Food Ministry for a long time, and when I came here, I noticed that Mike and Monica were doing a Food Ministry for the church in that they were collecting, making and distributing food to the homeless.  Including some of the same homeless that I was trying to reach.

Now, a formalized Food Ministry is not a cheap thing, nor easy.  It involves collecting food, sorting it, packaging it in bags and distributing it to various food insecure members of the community. It's not lunches gave out at that point, it's extra groceries, typically about 10 pounds worth, to aid the person and their family in getting through the month.

The bag lunch ministry, which is still ongoing and will if anything be expanded, is for street level giving to those who stay at shelters or under bridges.  A formalized Food Ministry is more for those who are in apartments, trailers and houses, yet still need food aid.

You see, the LINK card - what some call "food stamps" - only purchases about two and a half weeks worth of food for the average person and their family.  The rest of the slack needs private churches and charities to make up the difference. Now the number of noticeable Food Ministries in Sangamon county is hardly more than a dozen, with perhaps only half a dozen of those being "heavy hitters".  That's because even what I'd think of as a "mid-level" Food Ministry is expensive.

It takes roughly $500 per month for a mid-level Food Ministry, and that assumes all volunteer labor, all the facilities for it up and running, and all the contacts and networks and procedures generally known. This would let a church - or charity - provide roughly 2,000 pounds - a ton! - of food per month to approximately 200 people.  Or 50 ten pound bags of supplemental groceries per week.

Not bad, really.  A great value, and it would help a lot of people.  It'd even be worth it.  But $500 is $500 and thus out of hundreds and hundreds of churches in Sangamon County, only about half a dozen churches even try.  I know, that is surprising, isn't it?  But true.  There are hundreds and hundreds of churches in Sangamon County.  Yet scarcely half a dozen have any kind of "real" Food Ministry.

But I know that a Food Ministry is "where it's at" so to speak.  It is a specific thing that Jesus did specifically command.  And if some few churches that have not the truth can have such a program, why can't we who have the truth have a Food Ministry, too?

I thought of that, and I thought of how our own 490 Outreach wanted to have a Food Ministry. I knew the charity my wife and I have and our new church could do better together than either of us could do separately.

I thus, months back, proposed to the church board that we be allowed to start a Food Ministry for the church, that would be done in the name of the church, but with heavy financing and volunteer labor and general aid provided by our charity.  That we'd start with a one year trial agreement.  That the church would provide the facilities - that new pantry some of you have noticed - and $200 per month, and we through 490 Outreach would provide another $200 per month plus pick up the delivery costs of $100 per month and provide volunteer labor.

This was approved.  Since then, I and Art have gone through orientation at the Central Illinois Foodbank, I've visited various food pantries doing research, asking questions and meeting with various people who know how to do this, and the Men's Ministry has built a pantry for our church. Let me tell you, by the way, that the Men's Ministry was outstanding!  Good men, with professions and families that would have excused them not participating, nonetheless came in on their day off and rolling up their sleeves, tore out the wall and re-built a simple closet into the spacious pantry we have now!

I also had brought two guests from our sober living homes to aid, and those of the Men's ministry were a remarkable evangelistic example to both of them.  There is preaching the gospel, but working side by side with a man, like Jesus did with fishermen, does a lot more to plant seeds.  And I know seeds were planted that day.

The pantry substantially done, I contacted others in the Food Ministries that I knew, like the Director of Kumler United Methodist Church's Food Ministry, and had them out to look things over, and to share with them what all we were planning.  Those who I spoke to liked it, and we got a great letter of recommendation from them.

I then finished the two dozen page application - ok, I exaggerate, it was only 20 pages, with then 3 letters of reference attached!  But I finished that and went to another orientation, and turned in all that, and then heard back from Central Illinois Foodbank's director, who came out to inspect our pantry!

And we passed!  With flying colors!  In fact, she was very pleased that we are filling a very important niche, wherein we are distributing food on Sundays - something no other church does! - and that we are delivering to various people who otherwise would not be able to come out and get food.  Such as sober living homes, group homes, halfway homes, and various shut ins - the elderly and/or disabled - around town.

This then is how our church now has a $500 a month Food Ministry for $200 per month!

Our new Food Ministry is going to be rather substantial.  While originally we were going to confine ourselves to dry goods and canned goods, learning about how much produce Central Illinois Foodbank has available at little or no cost caused us to reassess that, so 490 Outreach donated a refrigerator to our church so that the new pantry can accommodate produce.

What is going to happen is this.  Twice a week, Central Illinois Foodbank will email me with a list of all the available food.  Within the confines of a $100 a week budget, I will select 500 pounds of food. Or more.  This reflects the fact that the maximum cost of food at the Central Illinois Foodbank is 19 cents per pound, so each dollar can purchase at least 5 pounds of food.  Some of the food is free, though, so you can see that while we'll only spend $100 per week, we may get far more than 500 pounds of food per week.

The general public will be aware that we are open as a food distribution point between 2pm and 4pm every Sunday.  As mentioned, we are already noticed as one of the few churches that operates on the weekend, and the ONLY one that does so on Sunday!  We expect then not only more notice that way, but when a person aided inevitably asks, "How come you're working on the Sabbath?" we can say, "Well...since you ask...!"

The church's website and facebook page have been updated so that there is now a "Food Ministry" telephone number for those who desire food aid to call.  490 Outreach has also updated their website and facebook page.  People will be able to come in between 2pm and 4pm each Sunday to pick up food.  Or, in many cases, they can have food delivered.

And - saving the best for last - not a bag will go out without some tract, pamphlet or such about our church!  200 seeds will thus be planted each month, and not to 200 people, but to 200 families, 200 homes, 200 groups!

Exciting times!

Now, I know what you're thinking!  This all sounds very exciting, but what can I do?

Well, as much or as little as you like!

Like Mike and Monica's bag lunch ministry, this Food Ministry will be open to any and all who want to participate!  We can use aid in coming to pick up food, in helping unload the food at the church pantry, in sorting and bagging up food for distribution, in passing it out at church on Sunday, and even in some deliveries to various homes around town!

Call me now, or call me later, help some days or other days, the help is always appreciated!

And while it goes without saying, your help in the bag lunch ministry is still needed and appreciated, too.  The more who go out on that, the better, and we have had people actually come to Sabbath service before who were reached by Mike and Monica's bag lunch ministry.  I have been able to find new guests in need of the shelter of 490 Outreach due to that same bag lunch ministry!

Besides time and effort, what other ways are there to help?

Financially, of course.  But we'll have to clear up some specifics on that.  First, donations should be to the church, there seemed to be some confusion on that, but no, this is a church ministry.  490 Outreach is aiding the church's Food Ministry, and has an agreement with them to do so, but that is all. So donations go to the church.  They should be earmarked, though, so the church knows where it is meant to go.

Secondly, while it would show your heart is in the right place, going out and buying a bunch of canned goods - or any other kind of food - to donate to our food pantry will not be as helpful as you just donating the cash.

See, a can of tuna fish costs, let us say, .79 cents.  With tax, you can see that works out to almost a buck for five ounces of food.  But the same dollar, donated to the church's Food Ministry, means we could take that, and go to the Central Illinois Foodbank and buy at least five POUNDS of food.

That's an enormous difference.

In closing, all are not only invited, but encouraged to participate!  In fact, I'm not even encouraging, I'm flat out pleading for all to come and have a hand in this!

As Mike and Monica have said before, the more who participate in giving out those bag lunches, the better, and the same goes for toiletries and the same goes for this new Food Ministry.  Yes, we are giving out material items, but the more of us that are seen participating in this, the more it is seen as a church effort.  An active church effort.

And guess who has active church efforts?

Active churches!

Guess who has growing and dynamic efforts?

Growing and dynamic churches!

So don't be shy!  This new Food Ministry is everyone's business, and everyone's responsibility!