Exit Church partnered with Grant County Rescue Mission (GCRM) to provide meals to people in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On March 23, Exit Church began packing and distributing meals three days a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the church parking lot from 4-5 p.m.
The food is provided by the rescue mission and packaged into individual meals by volunteers at the church. Next, volunteers distribute meals to people in their cars, while still maintaining social distancing.
Exit Church believes that everyone is called to be a servant leader and they are regularly looking for ways people in their congregation can get involved in kingdom work.
LeeAnna Smith, the director of development at GCRM and an attendee of Exit Church, reached out to the Co-Pastor Tyler Shirley about the idea of the partnership.
“One of our goals as an organization is to feed hungry people,” Smith said. “Exit Church is filling an important gap as many in the Gas City area can’t get to our facility to eat regularly.”
Exit Church and GCRM have been working together for four years.
Grant County is one of the most impoverished counties in Indiana. The population struggles with unemployment and access to health care.
“The most eye-opening thing to me was how many people there are in need in our community,” Smith said. “Most people who come to us for a meal aren’t homeless, they just don’t know where their next meal is going to come from. I knew that need existed, but didn’t understand the scale.”
Exit Church is located at one of the busiest intersections in Grant County with a 80-unit apartment complex housing lower income families directly behind it.
As a church they recognize their responsibility to the church body during this season.
“We as a church family have been praying for ways to connect with tenants at this apartment complex in the past, and this has been the most successful initiative that we have had so far,” Shirley said.
Shirley said that they are seeing families come on a regular basis to get meals and it gives the volunteers a chance to learn their names and pray with them.
It is more than just meals, for Exit Church it has become a way of ministering to the community.
The volunteers offer to pray for each person who receives a meal.
“I have been surprised at how much more open people are to talking about their faith than normal,” Shirley said.
He said he has heard many stories of fear and hopelessness and has had the opportunity to pray and explain how God uses pain in our lives to draw us close to him. One woman told Shirley that her husband was just laid off from his job and another woman asked him if he thinks the Coronavirus is God’s judgement on humanity.
Others have asked about Bible studies they could get involved in during this time.
“While we would never wish for this situation with the Coronavirus, it certainly presents a unique opportunity to spread the Gospel,” Shirley said.
It was decided that May 6 would be the final day of meal distribution after Indiana governor Eric Holcomb announced on May 1 the state would begin reopening in stages.
Shirley said they will continue to monitor the need and will consider reopening later if necessary.
“People who aren’t physically in Grant County right now can make the biggest impact by donating to the Grant County Rescue Mission,” Smith said. “We are only able to do what we do because of the financial support we receive. That financial support is more important than ever as the need in our community will continue to rise as the economic impact of COVID-19 becomes more evident.”
