Part of our mission as a church is to care for people in tangible ways. This past Saturday we were able to do just that. We thank God that we could be part of helping so many people. We gave out just about 200 bags of groceries to people who really needed them here in Germantown, MD. The whole day just came together. As part of our church-wide 40 Days of Community, our small groups put together a Community Kindness Outreach near the Germantown Regal Theater, our meeting place for Sunday service.

Through prayer and some connections that God gave us, we were able to get food that would have been thrown out from some local stores. One of those key connections is the local Christian ministry called Celestial Manna (CM) - celestialmanna.org. We’re excited about our connection with CM and look forward to building a relationship with them to love and care for people. We were blown away at how God led us to CM who then connected us with the stores. But, there was no guarantee as to how much food we would get. We were told that it could be a couple loaves of bread or 2 - 3 van loads of food. We ended up with the latter - incredible! We picked up 2 - 3 vans of fresh fruit, vegetables, bread, pastries and more. Our team even drove to DC to pick up food at one store.

The day began at 8 am with a number of volunteers putting the grocery bags together in the back parking lot of Panera Bread here in Germantown. We wanted to give two bags of groceries to each family or person. It was great to be part of something where everyone pitched in and the whole assembly line of putting the bags together went so smoothly. We ended with prayer and headed out.

I had made a connection with the management and staff at a local apartment complex earlier. So they were ready for us at about 10:30 am. We set up in their parking lot and then started delivering bags to the people and families in need (i.e., shut-ins, etc.). Then, people started coming over and we were able to give them food and also share Christ’s love with them too. People were so thankful and grateful. We made some great connections right there in the parking lot. It was really something!

It was amazing for us to experience God working through us and making a way for this to happen! One father came over for some groceries who was out of work with a number of small kids. He was so thankful for our kindness.

It took about 1 ½ to 2 hours to pass out all of the bags. Nothing was wasted. We left the remaining extra bread in the management office for people to take after we left.

Some of the people came to church on Sunday too! We’re just a couple of blocks away. One person mentioned that she enjoyed the service and all of the love at our church, so she’s going to invite more people from the apartment community to join us next Sunday.

I went back over to connect with the management and staff this week - and thank them for giving us the opportunity to serve their community. They were grateful and mentioned that everyone enjoyed the food! We’ll do it again in December and we sense that this is just the beginning of building a relationship with this community and others in our area.

I want to say thanks to everyone who made this possible!

Click on some pictures from the day below:

Getting 200 Bags of Food Ready	Lots of Bread and Vegetables
Packing the SUVs With Grocery Bags	Some Volunteers
Prayer Before Heading Out	Getting Things Ready On Site
Some Volunteers Helping Out