10
community
january19
2017
Church Invites Community to Breakfast
people who could use it. I wanted
to make sure that the job of cook-
ing breakfast didn’t fall on the same
people each week. And I wanted to
make sure that the expense didn’t
all fall on the church. I felt like if
we accomplished two of those three
goals we would be successful.”
Brown says the church has
seen several new people take ad-
vantage of the gatherings. He also
said that he has been able to fi nd
new volunteers almost every week,
including some folks who are not
members of the Grace Family Fel-
lowship congregation.
The church is currently
funding the entire program, al-
though donations are accepted. The
meal, which is served from
Above: Mark Brown coordinates weekly breakfasts at
9:30 until 10:25 am usually in-
Grace Family Fellowship. Below: Mason Hummel
cludes eggs, a breakfast meat
volunteered to help prepare breakfast on January 15.
of either sausage or bacon,
pancakes, juice, and cof-
fee. Sometimes there are
pastries or muffi ns if the
church receives them in the
free bread delivery that they
usually make available to
anyone in the community.
“The
important
thing for me is that we’re
providing an opportunity
for someone who could re-
ally benefi t from, and could
really use, a hot meal,” said
Brown. “It has also provid-
ed the members of our con-
gregation a chance to get
together, because we’re all
so busy and we don’t spend
as much time together as a
“The whole purpose was to fi nd
congregation as we should.
a
niche
that
we wanted to fi ll in the com-
It gives us a chance to sit down and break
munity,”
says
church member Dan Mur-
bread together.”
“This is one way that we can phy. “We’ve seen it during the Summer
show the community that we care, that Meals Program that we host here during
we’re here, and that we want to help the summer. Unfortunately there are
them,” says Grace Family Fellowship people out there who are hurting and
Pastor Greg “Mac” McCallum. “When don’t have a lot. We’ve found that if you
we talked to the congregation people can feed people, the church can be a safe
really stepped up and owned the idea. place. We open the doors, they come
People with chickens bring in their eggs and eat.”
“I look at this as a type of minis-
and other people donate food and money
try,
but
not
a ministry that includes pros-
and time. I think it’s been successful, it’s
meeting a need in the community and elytizing,” says Brown. He says that
even if just one or two people show up
we’re happy to do it.”
Brown says the usual turn-out who are in need, then the effort is worth-
has been about 40-50 people, depending while. “It’s always interesting to see that
on weather. “It’s starting to grow and when you step out and do something, the
we’re seeing more and more people each other benefi ts that are produced around
it. It often gives validity to what you are
week.”
continued from front page
doing and shows that there might be
a need or purpose beyond what you
started out to accomplish.”
“It gives us a chance to visit
with some friends over a meal,” says
church member Rose Nelson. “It’s
warm and hearty and I get comfort
and friendship from being here.
Sometimes people have precon-
ceived ideas about what it takes to
walk through the door of a church.
The fact that we hold it in the gym-
nasium and it’s a relaxed atmosphere
helps. We all catch up with each and
what’s been going on in our lives.
I hope more people will come and
give it a try.”
Brown says he welcomes mem-
bers from other churches volunteer-
ing to cook, and is also open
to the idea that other churches
might step up and share the
burden by hosting the meal at
their church for a month at
a time. “If another church
called us up and said,
‘We’d like to do breakfast
this month,’ that would
be great,” says Brown. “I
think it would be great for
the community to see the
leadership of one church in
someone else’s house work-
ing together, or working
together on an outside ser-
vice project. The end result
is to meet a need and if that
leads to something else that
would be great.”
Rebecca Nelson enjoying her pancakes
and scrambled eggs.
For Brown, his willingness to
serve is really pretty simple. “If you
have a heart for people, and you see a
need, and you have the resources to do it,
why wouldn’t you help?” he says. “You
always feel good when you do some-
thing for no purpose other than because
it’s the right thing to do, there’s a per-
sonal reward in that.”
Grace Family Fellowship is located at
957 State Street. You can reach Mark
Brown at (503) 989-8604.
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