SBTC coordinates food collection for Iraq

More than a million meals will be distributed to families in Iraq as a result of Southern Baptist churches in Texas partnering with the International Mission Board in collecting food. At least 2,689 boxes were collected at 10 different drop-off locations in Texas and trucked to Houston to be shipped to Iraq in May.

Leading the way for Texas was Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, donating nearly 900 boxes of food. Also in the north Texas area, about 830 boxes were brought to the Texas Baptist Men’s location in Dallas and about 150 came to the Euless drop off location. East Texas churches contributed 350 boxes of food, bringing them to the Tyler location.

Prestonwood took a creative approach by partnering with its nearby neighbor, Albertson’s Grocery Store, located across the street from the church on West Park in Plano, setting up a huge display in the produce department. Participants simply paid $50 for a box of food and the store’s employees then gathered, packed and loaded the 70 pound boxes onto the truck outside the store. Albertsons Store Director Teresa Murphy estimated two-thirds of boxes were purchased by members of Prestonwood Baptist Church.

“This was a very positive experience and we were happy to help out,” Murphy said, saying that church coordinators were in daily contact with the store and the customers seemed to be excited about being able to participate in helping those less fortunate.

Ross Robinson, minister of missions and evangelism, came up with the partnership idea and contacted the store. “We thought, ‘Let’s make it as convenient as possible for the people.’ It was very efficient. Church members would drive across the street, write a check and the store would do the rest.” The church also provided a charitable donation receipt for those contributing.

Prestonwood’s senior pastor, Jack Graham, led the way by identifying the opportunity to the congregation, Robinson said, and teaching pastor Dt1:PersonName>avid McKinley encouraged the Wednesday Night Connection service to contribute. An anonymous donor gave a $5,000 check and at least $2,500 came in as “seed money” early on, Robinson said. The church used that money to purchase the boxes for Albertson’s to fill.

“This has been a wonderful way to put feet to our prayers,” said Robinson, who also coordinates a similar effort for Operation Christmas Child through the Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse organization.

Other locations did not get such a strong response, as at least four drop-off locations received less than 100 boxes and two others did not receive any boxes. Gathering the food proved to be difficult as some of the food items, such as powered milk packets, lentils, and loose tea, are not carried in all stores. Also transporting the 70 pound boxes of food to the drop-off locations was a challenge to some.

Southern Baptist of Texas Convention Missions Service Associate Gibbie McMillan said that the short notice and quick turn-around time also contributed to the lack of proper publicity to get the word out before the tractor trailers left the locations. He said that it’s not too late to send in a financial contribution to the International Mission Board, as “there will be a huge financial cost of getting the food shipped to Iraq.”

However, other church locations rose to the challenge, with numerous small churches bringing in 20 and 30 boxes of food. Each box contained almost 70 pounds staple food items including beans, rice, lentils, flour, salt, sugar, loose tea, and powdered milk

The Iraqi food relief effort received national attention, stirring up debate in the media because it was Christian churches gathering food for a mostly Muslim country and because each box had a label quoting a Bible verse and stating the food box was “A gift with love from the Southern Baptist churches in America.” The verse quoted in Arabic was John 1:17 “For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”

Nationally, the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention stated it hoped it would receive as many as 95,000 boxes of food. The food boxes will take approximately three months to arrive, but so far the borders are not yet open for Southern Baptist representatives to enter the country. Once approval to enter is given, the International Mission Board is requesting volunteers to assist in personally distributing the food to Iraqi home directly.

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