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The Evangel United Methodist Church had an awesome time this past weekend during "Rethink Church" weekend! More than 50 volunteers gathered to collect food items for our local food pantry:

My name is Kay Smith and I am co-chair of the serving team at Evangel United Methodist Church. We just spent all weekend going door to door to collect for our local JCMA food pantry. On Wednesday, April 21st, the women at the Jackson County Detention Center stuffed over 1,500 bags with flyers from our church. The flyers gave statistics of how many people go through the food pantry and the needs. A quote from several inmates, "Thank you for giving us this opportunity to help others! It makes us feel like we are helping." On Saturday, April 24th, a team of 50 church members and community members went door to door throughout Jackson County to deliver bags. On Sunday, April 25th, the team once again formed to pick up filled bags of food. Everyone met at the local food pantry for the delivery. We closed with a blessing over the food. Ken Waterman, Director of the food pantry, shared a story of a young lady who just came through the pantry on Friday. While crying, she shared her story of hardship with Ken and said she didn't know there were actually people who cared anymore. On Friday alone he said that 53 individuals came through the line. He said, "It is people like you who make it possible for these individuals and families to see there is hope."

It was a weekend of change for our church and community!

This is a response that I just got from one of our volunteers!
Hi Kay,
Terry was such a great lady to work with over in the C-Ville area. I had a
really good time walking through the northern part of the town, having only
walked that area about 12 years ago. There were such good hearted and receptive
people in C-Ville. The generosity of the people who have so little themselves
was astounding. One young man, in his 20's probably could have used a hand up
himself, yet he filled a bag with groceries. It was from the heart. All of it,
from the heart.

An elderly lady who was missing one arm below the shoulder, and caring for her
son who suffered a stroke a few years ago, filled a bag. A kind older gentleman
who doesn't cook, donated some items in his bag. A couple who weren't from the
area, but stopped by C-Ville Market Place on Saturday, generously gave a few
dollars toward the Pantry. Marvelous. And the Circleville Christian Church
just took up a collection in January.

Again, thank you to Terry.

Ginnie

Kay M. Smith

Barbed wire and fence around Cook County jail. It's the largest single-site county jail in the US, with nearly 10,000 inmates. Judges and the Department of Justice regularly find conditions in the jail to be unacceptable, but little seems to change.