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Church’s truck carries ministry to the people
By Michael Wacht
FT. LAUDERDALE -- Loaded with trays of hot food, volunteers from Christ Church United Methodist in Ft. Lauderdale drive the church's truck toward a tent city downtown. Another day, they deliver clothes, car seats and cribs to local social service agencies. On yet another trip, with the truck full of furniture, they help a formerly homeless family furnish their new apartment.
"As long as there are needs, our people are willing to meet them," said the Rev. Debbie McLeod, pastor of the church, which has an outreach program that's among the largest in Broward County. "These things we do in the outreach ministry are things we need to do."
McLeod said the church's ministry is "all run by the lay people" and relies on the church's truck, a Ford Econoline van with a 10-foot box truck on the back. "I am not aware of too many churches that have a truck," she said.
The church's Clothing Connection provides clothing to more than 2,000 people each month. The supply fills the truck when making deliveries to various agencies in the county, McLeod said.
"We get requests from day cares, public schools and many social service agencies," she said, adding that the clothing ministry works through established agencies to fill the needs of individuals. "We serve the social workers who are dealing with families that need so much and are trying to find the resources."
Another of the church's ministries, the Shepherd's Way, is the largest provider of aid to homeless families in Broward County, according to McLeod. "When a family graduates from the program and moves into an apartment, Shepherd's Way furnishes the whole apartment," she said. "We use the truck to carry the furniture."
The church also has a feeding program that delivers hot food to people who are homeless, and at Christmas time volunteers distribute toys to local agencies.
McLeod says the truck helps fulfill a large part of the church's purpose -- to introduce people to Jesus in a positive way and relieve suffering.
When the church's ministries started to grow "from a token attempt to feed the homeless to making a great impact," she says the needs of the ministry started to grow.
"We had an old passenger van. We took the seats out to deliver hot meals, boxes of furniture, clothes and baby materials," she said. The ministry soon outgrew the van, and through a memorial gift and other contributions, the money was raised to buy the truck.
"Considering the truck was completely full today, we probably should have bought the 12-foot instead of the 10-foot truck," McLeod said.
Although the ministries of the church have received recognition and awards from the community, McLeod said she is most impressed by the selfless attitude of the volunteers: "They really are serving 'the least of these.' The complaints I hear are 'I wish we had more cribs...more car seats. I wish we wouldn't have run out of macaroni and cheese.' "
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