Mission Columbus has always relied on the churches of the Columbus Baptist Association for resources and goods to give away to families in need. Your gifts allowed us to minister to 4,116 families this year; that’s 13,876 individuals. And the year is not quite over.
That need multiplied exponentially when the government shut-down occurred on October 1 and lasted a record forty-three days. SNAP benefits were halted on November 1, and requests for appointments at Mission Columbus tripled. To meet such demand, we pivoted in our practice to provide more appointments each day and prayed that God would provide the resources.
He did.
Since October 1, above the regular donations we receive, we saw multiple churches host food drives, and they brought in goods by the truckload. Churches, local businesses, and individuals gave an additional $40,000 above their regular gifts to meet the need.
We feared that those who annually give significantly to our Toy Shop but who gave significantly to this food-crisis would not be able to give to both. What we are seeing, however, is these giving twice as much as normal. David Lix, Resource Missionary for Mission Columbus, said, “I’ve never seen this many gifts come in at any one time in all my years of being here.” To God be the glory. And thanksgiving goes to our churches and their members.
If you would like to participate through donating gently used clothing, household furniture, non-perishable food items, or financial offerings, we are glad to receive those any day during our regular office hours. Our philosophy is, If God gives it to us, we’ll give it to who needs it. We don’t sell anything donated, thus both the giver and the receiver are blessed.