A Program of Hope
As Executive Director of the LCM, I frequently have the opportunity to visit our sponsoring churches. I am invited to speak at the groups within the church, at Mission Sundays and sometimes at the worship services. I spend about two Sundays a month visiting churches and two Sundays I devote to prayer and meditation. I have found the diversity of worship practices to be very uplifting.
I currently do not have a home church. I consider our sponsoring churches to all be my home churches. They are my partners in this community. While the role of the LCM is survival–that is food, clothing and shelter assistance–it is the role of the churches to provide hope and community connection to our clients.
I see the LCM as more than a place to distribute food, although that will always be our primary mission. It is a hub for directing clients to programs that can feed their soul and offer hope and guidance on their journey to build a new life for themselves. Not every client will take advantage of these opportunities. But, we want the ones who would like to take advantage of those resources to be able to find the ones that are right for their family.
Our clients are facing their struggles alone with no family or community support. It’s a major factor in why they need our help. They also need the churches. Our clients need grief support, recovery programs, ESOL classes, programs for children, Bible study groups, mental health groups and the wealth of opportunities that exist within our community churches. We are in the process of putting together a church directory to describe the programming available within each of these churches.
In 2025, one of my objectives is to move the LCM to include more programming. So many of the children we serve do not have a place to play. They live in one room hotels or one room in a boarding house. They spend their days in front of a television. The lack of play opportunities puts them at risk for not being ready for school. We want to open a program room to allow children a place to play while their parents get their food and to have access to books.
We will also be partnering with established programs through the Public Library and school system. We are opening a computer room so clients can have a place to look for work or apply for additional support. We have applied to become a state partner for services such as Medicaid, food stamps and the other state programs that remain uncut.
The LCM is a fellowship in and of itself. Our staff is more than employees. They are missionaries within our community. Our job is more than food service. It is helping people navigate the worst moments of their lives. One family I helped today was thrilled with a bottle a ketchup. I joined the father and his two little ones in a happy dance over ketchup. The youngest was surprised that someone was actually happy about something in their life. Our clients aren’t just hungry for food, they are hungry for connection in the small moments of living.
As Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.” My hope is that by including programming into our mission, we can have a greater impact on our community at large and increase the harvest.
– Jackie
P.S. If you have a program at your church that you want us to know about, please email me at jackie@lilburncoop.org. We are putting together a directory of community programs within our sponsoring churches that can help our clients.
