Shirley Hills continues tradition of giving

During the late fall and early winter, the holiday season, it’s hard to be in a community and not hear about the good work different groups are putting in. Whether it be toy drives food drives, or something else different, it’s common to hear about what people are doing, not for themselves, but for others. However, there are those that continue this practice throughout the year, reminding others that helping one another is not exclusively for the holiday seasons. The congregation and ministry at Shirley Hills Baptist Church is one of these groups.

According to Youth Pastor Jeff Glenn, who spearheads the food bank project, the church has been doing a “Grocery Bag Pick Up” for 15, potentially even 20 years, and they do it multiple times a year, typically on the fifth Sunday of any given month. They’ve been doing this work for so long, that the initial inspiration and date that the project started is, at least in Glenn’s case, lost to time.

“As a student ministry, we’ve been doing the grocery project for, I mean, I can’t even tell you how many years, but we’ve done it at least 15 years,” Glenn said. “We ask our congregation to bring non-perishable goods, food items, put them in a bag or bags, and when they come to the church for worship, they place the bags behind their car. Then our students, during either our Sunday school time or worship, will come around with an adult and a truck, and they pick up the bags and put them in the back of the truck.”

From there, these non-perishables are collected in a trailer, and then that trailer is taken to the Christian Social Ministry, a local food bank located just off of Watson Boulevard, at 101 South 2nd Street, in Warner Robins.

“We have a tremendous participation in that event,” Glenn further explained. “We promote it well, and our congregants respond well to that, and the youth have a chance to serve at the same time.”

However, to Glenn’s credit, it’s not as easy at that statement alludes. There’s planning and promoting involved. “I make sure it’s good with the whole church body; so, as our pastoral teams meets, we talk about it and make sure the dates good, make sure there’s nothing else going on and make sure we promote it well,” Glenn expounded. ” I make sure we have enough adult youth workers as well as students who can pick up items. The adult youth workers provide the transportation like the trucks, and we also use our church trailer.”

This process goes on, rain or shine, whenever the church can do it, and whenever the Christian Social Ministry expresses a need for restocking in their food bank.

“We recognize there’s a need for those who are hungry or homeless, or those who may be needing some extra food for the month. We recognize there’s a need here in Houston County,” Glenn went on to say. “This is a great opportunity for our church to give; it’s very easy, and it gives our students an opportunity to serve around the church and collect the food and get it to the food bank.”

In closing, Glenn stated, “We love Christ, and we want to serve Him, and this is an opportunity for us to teach our students how to serve.”

Shirley Hills Baptist Church wants the public to know that project is not exclusive to the members of its congregation. If anyone wants to provide non-perishable food items to the food bank, simply bring the items to the church, and they’ll be stored away until the church donates again.

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