Our church is taking up a challenge

I love our church and I enjoy listening to our wonderful sermons every Sunday. But now that the Pumpkin Patch is over it has been decided we need to reach further out into our community, as the Bible states, "Love thy neighbor". So, my fellow church members are on a mission to find our perfect outreach into our beloved community. I know there are churches out there that have many different outreaches into the community and some too many that they can handle. Not saying ours is perfect but we help chair our community food bank and our members are very generous in giving whenever it comes to something or someone in need. But I think our focus is now on reaching out and helping more with everyday needs. We were asked to give suggestions and ideas of ways to reach out and help. I offered up our church signing up with the Angel Food Ministries, we do not have one in our community, this is a week's worth food provided to a family of four for $30. And I bet if we could get every member/family in our church to buy one meal a month we could easily buy 100 boxes and donate them to needy families. There are a few programs in a couple of the surrounding towns but not everyone may be able to drive there or even afford to buy these meals. I know they are very successful and helpful to families that just cannot afford to buy everything they need at the grocery store. This was one option another is the Backpack Program where money is raised or food is donated to the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma. This program is designed so that children have something to eat during the weekend when they are not in school. I think it is a great idea and apparently for $150 per student, this will feed a child on weekends for an entire school year. It breaks my heart to think that a child will miss a meal if these backpacks are not sent home with them. And our church members our coming up with many ideas and I know we will definitely pick the right program, heck maybe even two. With the economy the way it is, I hate to think one program will get picked over another. But if we act on one and pray about the other, I know we will receive the answer we are looking for. You never know what the fruits of your labor will be until you try.