Inasmuch Adds New Ministry

First Question:  What is essential, inexpensive, nutritious, fun to make, comes in a cardboard box and feeds 216 hungry people?  Answer:  One box of 36 bags of Kids Against Hunger meals packed by volunteers and sent to a third world country.

Second Question:  What is the latest compassion ministry offered by the national office of Operation Inasmuch?  Answer:  Packing low-cost, nutritious meals through the Kids Against Hunger program, thousands at a time.

Fun Food Packing

Kids Against Hunger food packing events are perfect for almost all ages and bring people together working, across generational lines.

Operation Inasmuch, Inc. became an official satellite of Kids Against Hunger (KAH) in March.  As such the Inasmuch ministry is now able to offer congregations, church groups and businesses the opportunity to pack a large number of dehydrated meals that are sent to Haiti and other third world countries.  “We applied to become a KAH satellite because we see this ministry, feeding hungry people, as aligning perfectly with our mission of mobilizing believers to minister to people at their point of need,” says David Crocker, Executive Director of the Inasmuch ministry.  “Also, we see it as an opportunity to offer a new way to serve for those churches already using the Inasmuch model.  Finally, we see the food packing project as a simple and effective way of bringing congregations together as part of a larger Inasmuch United event.”  Kids Against Hunger (www.kidsagainsthunger.com) is an international food-aid organization founded in 1999 “to reduce the number of hungry children in the USA and to feed starving children throughout the world.”  The Inasmuch ministry is one of about 100 satellites across the nation affiliated with KAH based on New Hope, Minnesota, outside Minneapolis.  Last year alone, KAH satellites packed forty million meals for hungry people around the world!

Food packing events are fun and build a community spirit for the group working together.

The Inasmuch ministry has already conducted two KAH packing events:  Central Baptist Church of Bearden, Knoxville, TN on March 17—53,118 meals packed—and Faith Promise Church, Knoxville, TN on April 13—50,000 meals packed.  More than 300 volunteers were involved at Central Baptist and about 170 at Faith Promise.

Crocker says, “The food packing endeavor will never become the primary aspect of the Inasmuch ministry, merely an ‘add-on’ for those churches that either want to introduce a new ‘wrinkle’ into their ongoing Inasmuch events or want to use the packing as a sort of stack pole project for an Inasmuch United event.”

“Because of the logistics of staging a KAH packing event, far and away most of them will be within a short radius of Knoxville,” adds Crocker.  “Occasionally, when the event is large enough to merit the efforts required to move the packing equipment a long distance, we will undertake packing projects at some distance from our home office in Knoxville.”

Churches interested in staging a food packing event should contact the Inasmuch ministry at 865-951-2511 or david@operationinasmuch.org.

God Winks at Fort Myers

Inasmuch United Fort Myers…HUGE Success!!

Have you seen God wink?  Silly question, you say.  No one sees God, much less His wink!  Some compassionate souls at Fort Myers, Florida, would beg to differ.  They were part of the first Inasmuch United Fort Myers on February 2 and some of them saw God wink.

God winks when our plans go wrong and where they put us is just the place God wants us to be.  We make a wrong turn on a journey only to discover an opportunity we would have missed if we had stayed “on course” and God winks. We fail to get the job of our dreams only to learn later that the company was on shaky ground and soon folded and God winks.

Ready to work...

Ready for a painting project … wonder where he saw God wink during his Inasmuch United Fort Myers experience.

Nine congregations of various denominations and races united in Fort Myers to mobilize right at 1000 people to minister to thousands of their neighbors in need in 75 compassion ministry projects and God was winking the entire day.  One wink was when a volunteer named John went to a Laundromat to “feed the machines,” e.g. pay for up to 3 loads of laundry for customers on the day of the Inasmuch United.  But John went to the wrong Laundromat, but instead of correcting his error, he stayed and served the people there.  One woman was suspicious of his offer to pay for her laundry, so John explained that he was helping out with his community’s Inasmuch because God had been good to him and he wanted to share some of the blessing.  The woman not only accepted his help but also shared that she had recently lost her husband.  As a way of dealing with her grief she had started a blog for other grieving people.  She had just received a response from a woman in another Florida city who had just lost her son to suicide.   Well, . . . John and his wife lost their son to suicide 30 years ago.  So, John and his wife are now communicating with that mother in the other city.  And God winked.

Another volunteer was disappointed to discover on the day of the Inasmuch United Fort Myers that the project she had signed up to do had fallen through at the last minute.  She asked to be reassigned and didn’t really care to which project.  She was sent to a house that was to be pressure washed and painted—with stucco exterior.  Until she arrived no one realized that the project leader had purchased the wrong kind of paint.  Since this volunteer and her husband own a paint store, she went to her store and got the correct paint and donated it to the project.  And God winked.  Next year, she and her husband will donate all the paint to be used on all the painting projects!  So, God may be winking for a long time in Fort Myers.

David Crocker, who went to Fort Myers to train church leaders there to plan and conduct their Inasmuch United event, says:  “These stories illustrate a truth we often hear from folk who participate in an Inasmuch event, namely whenever we do what God tells us to do, He always has more in mind.  When we are obedient to his calling to serve people in need in Jesus’ name, He takes our sometimes simple acts of obedience and does far more with them than we could ever expect.”

Being the Hands and Feet of Jesus by helping to feed the hungry … another Inasmuch United Fort Myers project.

 

When has God winked during your Inasmuch experience?  “God has winked at Inasmuch so many times in recent years that we’ve lost count!” says Crocker.

Inasmuch Assembles 11,000 Meals for the Hungry

In October the Inasmuch ministry assembled more than 11,000 meals to feed hungry people in Haiti with the help of people who gathered in Fayetteville, NC, and Knoxville, TN, to consider their support for the ministry for 2013.  That’s right; these annual fundraising events became major service events!


Executive Director, David Crocker (left), and Robert Marks, Sr. (right) Board President, enjoy watching the meals being packed.

Fundraising is the lifeblood of non-profits.  It is all  about obtaining the support necessary to keep the organization going.  So, when a non-profit turns its annual fundraising events into  service projects whereby thousands of hungry people are supplied with nutritious meals, it’s noteworthy.

“Our fundraising events each year are the largest gatherings of people who support the Inasmuch ministry,” said David Crocker, Executive Director.  “This year we wanted these events to be more than simply sharing the latest and greatest news about the ministry and asking people to support us so we can keep on doing the good work of Inasmuch.  So we invited Kids Against Hunger to come direct food packing projects in Fayetteville and Knoxville to feed hungry people in Haiti.”


The food packing fun began in Fayetteville…

Participants remarked how refreshing it was to do something to help others while renewing or beginning their support for a ministry that is based on the idea of believers serving “the least of these.”  While some were treated to a delicious meal, others packed food for Haiti.  After about half an hour, the groups rotated so that everyone had a chance to help out.  5,040 meals were packed in Fayetteville and 6,024 meals in Knoxville.


And the fun continued in Knoxville!

“We had a about a 60 percent increase in attendance at our fundraising events this year and I am convinced it was because we offered folk a chance actually to do something to serve others,” said Crocker.  “Everyone had a blast.  It was fun and productive and will make a huge difference in the lives other lots of people.  We didn’t just feed ourselves; we fed many more who will never have what we ate at those events.”

He added:  “We are already talking about what we will do next year.  We may go for 20,000 meals!  Wouldn’t that be something?!  Of course, I’m hoping people will see that Inasmuch is about serving people in need . . . anytime, anywhere, any way, even when the ministry has needs ourselves.”

“We are very excited about the future of Inasmuch,” he says.  “With continued and some new support, there is no telling what God will do with this ministry!”

eNewsletter Archive

Click on any link below to see the complete Operation Inasmuch eNewsletter for that date:

June 2012 – A Tale of Two Women and Inasmuch

May 2012 — Record-Beating Ramps and Other Revolutionary Tales 

March 2012 — “You Care About Me?” — A Story of the Revolution

Year End 2011 — Operation Inasmuch’s 2011 Impact

December 2011 — The Witch-Doctor’s Wife Said “Yes!”

November 2011 – An Amazing Painting and the 21st State

October 2011 – Carson-Newman Recognized for Service

August 2011 — Inasmuch Life is Coming to Life

July 2011 — Operation Inasmuch Feeds 50,000

June 2011 — New Web Site, New Office, New Phone Number

May 2011 — Thanks Again & New Names (for Operation Inasmuch)

March 2011 — Financial Seal of Approval & Thanks from David Crocker

February 2011 — Face of Operation Inasmuch Dies

January 2011 — Operation Inasmuch Expands Staff

Virginians to Unite for Statewide Inasmuch

On May 3, 2012, Executive Director David Crocker met with members of the Network of Association Workers comprised of Directors of Missions and Association support staff from across the state of Virginia.

By the end of the meeting, the group decided to work together to conduct an Inasmuch United Virginia in the spring of 2014!

The group anticipates that 1400 churches from across the state will serve their communities with compassion on a single day. This event makes Virginia the third state to experience the blessing of a statewide Inasmuch event, following North Carolina (Southern Baptist) and South Carolina (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America).

Cliff Hudgins, Director of Missions of the Pittsylvania Association was a strong advocate of a statewide Inasmuch Untied at the May 3 meeting. He said…

A lot of churches wait too long and do too little to wake up their congregations, to find ways to reach out to the community and to grow spiritually. Operation Inasmuch provides a model that is far more effective than most efforts to help a church move forward.

In last year’s Inasmuch event, we were able to mobilize 70% of our churches in the Association. Each church in turn had a huge number of people involved: 58% of those who attend Sunday School – well beyond the 20% that typically volunteer! As a result, over 1500 volunteers from 36 churches served their communities last fall.

The biggest benefit of our Inasmuch United is that participants realized for the first time that they don’t have to go overseas or even across the state to do mission work. They can become missionaries in their own backyard and experience the joy serving those who have needs – while having their own lives touched as well.

We are excited about the opportunity to share the missionary thrill with churches and churchgoers across Virginia in 2014!

Operation Inasmuch’s presence in Virginia is not new. More than 115 churches individually and in groups have been conducting Inasmuch events for several years now.

Churches in Tappahanock, VA, have worked together for 5 years in a community-wide Essex Churches Together Inasmuch event. Northern Neck churches (near Warsaw, VA) have been serving together for 3 years. The Portsmouth and Pittsylvania Baptist Associations started Inasmuch events last year and hope to expand to neighboring Associations in 2013.

May, 2012 eNewsletter

You Care About Me?

Two members of St. James Lutheran Church, Lexington, SC, stand on a rickety porch and nervously await their first door knock of the day. They stand with smoke detectors and batteries in hand hoping to give some away through the course of the day.

The door finally opens and a gruff man with tattooed arms and no shirt answers the door. With an angry look on his face he barks, “What do you want?”

“Well,” says the older St. James member nervously. “We’ve got these smoke detectors and batteries we’re are trying to give away as part of our church’s Operation Inasmuch event.”

“Why would you want to do that?” asked the man.

“Because,” answered the door knocker we want you to know that God and the members of St. James Lutheran Church care about you.” The countenance of the man changed with those words and the nervousness of the moment flitted away.

“You care about me?” he asked.

Operation Inasmuch has helped to give our church a voice in the community, and it has helped us to hear such questions as the one mentioned before. It has changed the way we look at the people who live and work in the area around our church, and it has changed the way that they see us.

Instead of [being known as] the church across the street from Red Bank Baptist church, we are [now known as] the church that distributes food to hundreds of hungry people each month.

Instead of a stoic building with signs that prohibit skateboarding, we are a church that identifies itself by the ways we help and serve those in our community. This is how Operation Inasmuch has changed our church.

Many times over the last three years members of our church now ask a different question when developing some program or project. They have not asked how some project will benefit their church, but they have asked how a project will further our mission of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others.

They have asked how they can serve the community whose voice they have clearly heard. They have clearly heard the community’s voice, because they have knocked on their doors. They have clearly heard the community’s voice, because they are now friends with the people who are fed by our food pantry. They have clearly heard the community’s voice, because they remember one man’s question upon receiving a smoke detector: “You care about me?”

This is why we participate in Operation Inasmuch; to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to us through the community God has called us to serve.

(This story was written by St. James Lutheran Church at the request of the South Carolina Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It was posted on the Synod’s web site with several other church stories to encourage churches as they prepare for their upcoming April 21 Inasmuch United. Watch a video about St. James’ Inasmuch Day experience here.).

Published in March, 2012 eNewsletter.

Inasmuch Churches Receive Award

Lutheran churches in South Carolina have conducted Inasmuch events for several years. On those days the churches often serve the United Cerebral Palsy (CP) Homes in Columbia.

Consequently, Joan Rizzo of the United Cerebral Palsy Homes of South Carolina and Georgia awarded these churches the Outstanding Volunteer Group award in November, 2011.

“We receive funding from government sources for our work with people with cerebral palsy but we receive nothing for our facilities,” says Rizzo. “When we buy a home and it becomes a group home housing up to four people with CP, we have to raise all the funds for that. So, when churches send people during an Inasmuch Day to landscape, paint or otherwise improve our facilities, it’s a huge help for us.”

Rizzo continues: “Not only is the quality of life of the residents enhanced by the work that the Inasmuch volunteers do but they also connect with those churches and form relationships that continue well past the Inasmuch event.”

“What a good story,” says David Crocker, Executive Director of Operation Inasmuch, Inc. “It verifies again what we’ve been saying for years, namely, that Inasmuch enhances the image of the church in the community.”

Published in March, 2012 eNewsletter

Call to Ministry Follows Inasmuch Day

From near death to a ministry calling – that’s the short version of Dr. Frank Smist’s story. In October, his church — Leawood Baptist Church, Leawood, Kansas — conducted their third Inasmuch Day. Frank participated.

And the result was far more than he or anyone else could have expected.
“God used our Inasmuch Day to call me into full-time ministry where I can do more of’what I did on that day,” says Smist. He is currently a seminary student preparing for’professional ministry.

The back-story is what makes Smist’s journey so amazing. A few years ago, Smist was a well-respected college professor and author. But his life took an abrupt turn…

… when he was struck by a vehicle traveling 53 mph.

Smist lay in a coma for months.  He was told he would never be able to function normally again because his physical and mental faculties were devastated by the accident. But three years ago, Smist began to improve slowly. Today, he has recovered almost 100% of his mental function while still dealing with some lingering physical problems.

Despite these challenges, Frank signed up for Leawood Baptist’s Inasmuch Day.

He was assigned to go with the Pastor, Rev. Mike McKinney and Inasmuch Coordinator, Brock Rowatt, to visit the sick and shut-ins that day. Something happened in those visits that neither McKinney nor Rowatt recognized.

“I felt God tugging at my heart,” says Smist, “telling me I am supposed to use the rest of my life serving people as I did during the Inasmuch Day.” Since that day, Smist has been licensed to the gospel ministry and he is a student at Central Baptist Seminary in Kansas City.

Reflecting on that experience, Frank says

I can never say enough what Operation Inasmuch means to me. It has given me a new direction in life.

“What an amazing story this is,” says David Crocker, Executive Director of Operation Inasmuch, Inc. “It is one more of what is becoming a very long list of stories confirming one of Operation Inasmuch’s core values: when we do what God tells us to do, He always has more in mind!”

The Witch-Doctor’s Wife said “Yes!”

He said “No,” but she said, “Yes” to volunteers from Open Baptist Church, Gaborone, Botswana (in south-central Africa), who were delivering food boxes to families as one of their Inasmuch Day projects.  He is a traditional witch-doctor.  She is his wife and normally would not have gone against his authority, BUT she had already seen the love expressed by the church through the Inasmuch volunteers.

Delivering Food and the Gospel

Though the witch-doctor’s wife had never attended the church, when she saw the volunteers painting a security wall in her community, she grabbed a roller and joined the effort.  Later that day, other volunteers from the church showed up at her home offering a box of food. Without hesitating, she let them in and accepted the gift — over the objections of her husband.  And the story only gets better….

A few days later, the witch-doctor’s wife attended a prayer meeting at the church!

Open Baptist conducted their very first Inasmuch Day On November 19,
with 160 volunteers involved in 9 projects.  In addition to painting security walls and delivering food, Open Baptist volunteers visited an orphanage, a hospital, and the local prison where about 130 inmates are incarcerated.

At the prison, roughly 30 of the inmates participated in a Bible study and 14 of them prayed to receive Christ!!  Prison officials have asked if the volunteers from Open Baptist would come back on a regular basis.  A church member who is a chaplain at the prison is organizing what they believe will be an ongoing ministry.

“Altogether, we served about 500 people,” says Jeff Sukup, Missions Pastor at the church.  He continues:

What’s interesting is that there is no word in the Botswana language for volunteer.

Botswanians are consumed with doing what is necessary merely to survive, so the idea of serving others is foreign to them.  Our church has many ex-patriots and well-educated professionals from the university across the street.  Therefore, we could implement the Inasmuch Day model of community ministry without some of the cultural challenges that might exist elsewhere in Africa.

One woman in our church expressed what many others felt when she said many times how blessed she was to be involved in such a caring ministry as Operation Inasmuch

Open Baptist learned about Operation Inasmuch when our Senior Pastor Norman Schafer visited Alice Drive Baptist Church in Sumter, South Carolina last spring.  He brought back the concept of an Inasmuch Day and we implemented it in November.

Volunteers Prepare to Visit an Orphanage

“We didn’t even know your organization existed,” Sukup emailed David Crocker.  Now a working relationship has been formed and we are exploring ways to help Open Baptist conduct an Inasmuch United in Gaborone.

“Needless to say, this is an exciting new chapter in the Inasmuch story,” says David Crocker, Executive Director of Operation Inasmuch, Inc.  “It’s HUGE for us that God has used Operation Inasmuch to introduce compassion ministry in a part of the world where the needs are enormous. It shows once again that God has big plans for this ministry.”

 

Inamuch Unites Churches and Races

Something extraordinary happened in Lowndes County, Alabama, one of the poorest counties in the state, where many traditional prejudices are alive and well. A dozen churches of various denominations and races conducted their first Inasmuch United. One person called this reconciling event “ground-breaking.”

The idea that churches would work together was unheard of in the county – before the Inasmuch United.  Certainly white churches did not work with black congregations.  “Even the black churches didn’t work together!” says Rev. Sylvester Hardey, Pastor of Jonathan’s House of Prayer.

Church people responded to the idea of collaborating with more than a little skepticism.  One man openly objected to being involved….  However, the man later relented, volunteered for the October 22nd event, and is now a major advocate for continued collaboration!

During this Inasmuch United, a hundred volunteers from 6 churches conducted 15 home repair projects throughout the community.  For one of these projects, volunteers restored water service to a local resident who had been without running water for 15 years.  The volunteers also underpinned the man’s trailer and made more repairs.  Needless to say, this man’s quality of life has improved exponentially!

Rev. Darrell Paulk, Pastor of Hayneville Baptist Church said, “We had been talking for some time about how we could do something, when Lisa Rose, Church and Community Minister in the nearby Montgomery Baptist Association, came to us with the concept of an Inasmuch United.  Rev. Steve Stephens said, “Inasmuch gave us a structure to do what we had envisioned but had not been able to get done.”

“People are already talking about the next Inasmuch event in Lowndes County,” said one leader.  David Crocker recently met with the Inasmuch United leaders to explore ways to expand their efforts and perhaps replicate their experience throughout the state of Alabama.