Churches across Calgary had to shut their doors after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of these churches was the All Nations Church of Jesus led by Pastor Dave Muniswamy. With staff being laid off, several families struggled to make ends meet. A friend of Pastor Dave told him about the food distribution program out of Centre Street Church. Before long, the small church was receiving 10 hampers each week to give to members of their community in need of food.
“These hampers were a good help to us,” said Pastor Dave. “Receiving food helped to increase the faith of a lot of our families.” Pastor Dave noted that a neighbour who received the hamper was almost completely out of food. “The hamper came at just the right time,” said Pastor Dave. “It has been a really big blessing to so many people here.”
This is just one example of how God is strengthening us as a church to help people in need, even during a time of social distancing.
“The population of people seeking food support from Centre Street Church (CSC) and partnership with the Calgary Food Bank has changed and grown in the face of COVID-19,” says Pastor Steve noting that it is no longer just traditionally marginalized populations in need of food, but families and individuals who have experienced hardships due to layoffs.
“The need for food is only set to grow. In June, the first month of our hot lunches program, we distributed 2130 meals.”
Pastor Steve adds that the hot meals program set to launch on July 22 will increase the number of meals distributed by 1500. “But community indicators suggest a need for 4000 meals at least.”
YOUR CALL TO ACTION: WRITE A NOTE OF ENCOURAGEMENT
As a church, our heart is to not only serve and feed communities in need, but to impact people in a deeper way. That’s why we are calling on everyone to contribute notes of encouragement to people receiving their meals.
“We want to demonstrate the love of Christ while we increase our capacity to serve more people in need,” says Pastor Steve. He is referring not only to the launch of the hot meals program, but the construction for the Centre for the City which has just begun as part of the BUILD more room for God campaign to expand Central Campus.
To learn more about how you can touch a life by simply writing a note of encouragement, visit www.cschurch.ca/notes/
Social distance has not prevented our church from being on mission to impact our community for Christ. Throughout COVID-19, we have been able to increase the amount of food distributed to people in need. In fact, since March we have distributed over 1289 hampers and 95.5K pounds of food! Plus, thanks to emergency food security grants, we have been able to launch additional food distribution programs such as our lunchbox program, launched at the end of May. Since then we have distributed over 3288 lunches. On July 22 we will launch our hot meals program so we can help even more people in need!
And all of this is happening while we BUILD more room for God. Construction at our Central Campus has begun. To learn more about how we are making room to serve more Calgarians going through hardship, visit www.buildmoreroom.ca/why-build/campaign/central-campus/compassionate-ministry.
To learn how you can help by submitting a note of encouragement, visit: www.cschurch.ca/notes/