THE GREAT COMMISSION
Pastor Eric Johns
Buffalo Dream Center, New York
For the past five weeks, the Buffalo Dream Center has been busy reaching out to our community. We are seeing a great harvest, and we could not be more excited about what God is doing!
The ministry has been operating a mobile food pantry for many years. This unique food pantry is the only one of its kind in Buffalo, New York. Instead of people walking or driving to a church to get groceries, the Buffalo Dream Center’s truck takes the food into neighborhoods for distribution. We have been doing this for more than twenty years. When the pandemic began, we were immediately designated an essential service.
For the past five weeks, we have had more than one hundred volunteers help with food distribution sites and delivery of groceries directly to the homes of families in quarantine. It started out small. The first week, we were able to feed 325 families. After that, it grew every week. In five weeks, we have given food to more than 2,600 families!
Our distribution sites are located throughout the city. But my favorite one is right out in front of our church. As the word gets out, the crowd each week is growing and growing. I am preaching an evangelistic message every Sunday as people wait in line for food. Many are giving their lives to Jesus! These are people we would never reach with an online service. Our Easter service was not canceled. We had more unsaved visitors than ever! Nearly one hundred families were in line for food and heard the good news about Jesus.
Many organizations that serve the homeless have closed in our city. Every Sunday, we have a worship team and a preacher bring the gospel to one hundred of our friends from the streets! They gather in a downtown park. We feed them, too, but many are now saying they are not coming for the food. They are coming for the music. The presence of God is touching their lives. We actually planted a church during the pandemic!
Pastors, let me encourage you. The command of Jesus in the Great Commission cannot be put on hold. Thank God for the churches that are reaching out to their communities right now. Let’s get out and reach people for Jesus! The harvest is ripe, and God will only touch our cities through His Church.
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