By: Sarah Hanks
“Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works
and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16
As a ministry of small groups, service to Northstar and our community is one of our core principles. The GAP Service Team has been hard at work organizing intentional ways for our GAP members to serve our community. This year’s focus is on food security and hunger. Click the image below to watch a short video on hunger.
Did you know?
- Total estimated number of people at risk of hunger in our region is 362,747.
- An estimated 58,020 children in southwest Virginia are believed to be food insecure– meaning they do not have dependable access to enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle.
- 3,090 children in Montgomery County are estimated to be food insecure.
- Seniors are disproportionately represented among clients visiting pantries. 56%, over half, of elderly clients are recurrent clients, meaning they have used a pantry every month within the past year.
- GAP has 110 email subscribers, and 83 Facebook group members. At a rate of 2-3 hours per month, we have the potential to serve 200+ hours per month addressing food security in the NRV.
We truly have an opportunity to make a huge impact! We are partnering with the food pantries at The Giving Tree, Interfaith, and Spiritual Roots. We’re also partnering with Micah’s Backpack, Meals on Wheels in Radford, and World Vision. In conjunction with our ministry partners, we hope to allow God to work through us to create positive, lasting change in our community, and in the lives of those we serve.
Launching this new service initiative has been many months in the making. We hope that through this the community will see God at work. We hope that He uses each of us to demonstrate love, compassion, and faithfulness. We hope that through this we are humbled, even vulnerable, to allow our hearts and minds to be impressed with the many senses and experiences that we may encounter. I pray for the strength to be vulnerable enough to listen, feel, and love deeply for God’s glory. Vulnerable enough to be fully present as I serve, so that His light shines through me.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10