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Every Tuesday night at New Life Assembly of God cars line up two-by-two for weekly food pantry. Ten years ago, a dozen cars out front would have been unheard of. In the last few years that line has grown to be 100 cars or more. The need in our community is great. It’s not just New Life where the lines are long. Other churches in our community are offering similar services and the same holds true at Echo.

I was helping bag groceries at New Life last week and was thankful for the hearts of the Beesley family who pastor at New Life. It’s their mission and heart to continue to grow this ministry. I’m certain it’s the heart of other churches and Echo as well. As much as our community partners pour into the hunger need there seems to be a disconnect between the other pressing needs of what I visualize as a four-legged stool. Food is one leg, but how can filling the food need tie to housing…affordable housing? How can the food and housing legs tie to a healthy social or rehabilitation network? Then there’s the last leg of the stool. How can those three legs tie to grit or as the old Parker Viking slogan goes, ‘you gotta wanna’?