Inasmuch Adds New Ministry

April 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment

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.

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God Winks at Fort Myers

February 14, 2013 By Leave a Comment

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.

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NC Inasmuch Builds House In One Day!

September 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

When Keith Guinn was asked to head up his church’s first Inasmuch Day this past spring, he said “I can’t do it, but with God’s help, we’ll get it done.”  After Euto Baptist Church of Marshville, NC, mobilized almost half of their average Sunday attendance in April, Guinn exclaimed, “It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever been a part of!”Euto Baptist Church of Marshville, NC Inasmuch Day

One of the 19 projects conducted by the Euto congregation was building a house in one day!!  “The foundation was poured beforehand, but we completely dried-in the house—walls, roof, doors and windows—in one, long Inasmuch day,” says Guinn.  He says that about a month before Euto’s Inasmuch, one of the church members asked if the church could build his grandfather a house.  The elderly man in his mid 80s had recently lost his wife and he needed to live closer to his son but couldn’t afford to hire a contractor.  The church agreed to include the ambitious project among their list of ministry opportunities and God took over from there.  The man’s family purchased the materials and church volunteers provided the labor.

When David Crocker trained members of Euto Baptist to conduct an Inasmuch Day, he said, as he always does in these training sessions, “When we do what God tells us to do, He always has more in mind.”  Remembering that line, Guinn now says, “I am a witness to that truth.  I saw it in April of this year, and we’re already planning our next Inasmuch for 2013.”

Euto Baptist Church of Marshville, NC Inasmuch DayEuto Baptist Church involved 155 people from their church in their Inasmuch Day which is just under half their congregation.  They served more than 200 people, and the most amazing result of their day of service was that nine people became followers of Jesus as a direct result of the compassion ministry they rendered through Inasmuch!

Guinn’s unchurched neighbors were astounded at what the church did in one day.  They attended a breakfast gathering of the volunteers prior to the start of their projects and were moved to ask:  “Why are y’all doing this?”  They returned to their home that day with nothing but praise for a church that has shown, not just told, their small community God’s love.

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Indiana Inasmuch a Success!

July 3, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Trinity United Methodist Church in Evansville, IN conducted a very busy and successful Inasmuch Day on Friday, June 22. Tommy Tate served as the Event Coordinator and told David Crocker that the church expected to mobilize 70 volunteers, yet 91 showed up! Tommy shared this about their Day:

I had the joy of serving [this] day of sharing and giving through 91 volunteers. The volunteers put together 84 Care Packages and distributed them to hospital waiting rooms along with baskets of cookies to 2 fire stations. [Volunteers assembled] 100 Hygiene Kits for homeless people.

[They also] prepared and served lunch for 100+ homeless people and delivered 12 casseroles to shut-ins. [Musicians prepared and shared] a program of music … with Nursing Home residents and several properties were cleaned up and repaired. In cooperation with Wesselmans Store and the Tri-State Food Bank, we collected $309.88 in cash and over 100 lb. of food. [On top of it all,] we fed 36 lunches to workers wanting lunch!

Shane Boyles participated in the Inasmuch Day and put together a fantastic video on Facebook. Prior to the event, the article below appeared in Evansville, Indiana’s online Courier Press. What a blessing this Inasmuch Day seems to have been for all involved!

‘Operation Inasmuch’ brings volunteer blitz to Evansville

By Sara Anne Corrigan

Friday, June 22, 2012

Next week a corps of volunteers from Trinity United Methodist Church in Downtown Evansville will split up into 10 small groups to provide supplies and services to a variety of organizations that serve the community’s most needy residents.

They will clean up private property and do handyman jobs for preselected residents in the Blackford Grove/Washington Avenue area; they will man food bins and collect canned goods for the Tri-State Food Bank; they will assemble and deliver hygiene kits for the area’s homeless; they will assemble and deliver donated clothing and prepare and serve lunch for residents at United Caring Shelters; they’ll prepare and deliver casseroles to shut-ins.

“Operation Inasmuch” is a one-day blitz on June 30, said Tommy Tate, coordinator of the project.

“The name comes from Matthew 25:40,” he explained: “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, in as much as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

“It is a compassion ministry.”

Tate and the committee at Trinity did not create Operation Inasmuch out of whole cloth: “It all began in Fayetteville, N.C., at the Snyder Memorial Baptist Church back around 1995,” he said.

“I learned about it through a former (music) student of mine in Henderson, Ky., where I was choral music teacher. She had gone on to become a youth minister at that church and had met Dave Crocker there.”

Crocker is a retired minister and executive director of Operation Inasmuch Inc., which is now a national organization that provides the tools to mobilize congregations.

Tate also is retired but has been serving on the Vision Committee at Trinity for the past two years. “And I thought it might be good for our congregation and good for the community,” he said.

Senior Pastor Allen Amstutz said when Tate brought the idea to him, “I was very interested. I had been trying to find ways to engage our members in ministry, to reach out, mobilize and move into the community, but I had never had a tool, a way to generate interest.

“We have about 70 volunteers signed up right now,” he said. “Depending on our success this time, we may do this twice or even four times a year.”

Amstutz said that Trinity, located at 216 SE Third St. has established its target neighborhood as within boundaries of Riverside Drive, the Lloyd Expressway, U.S. 41 and the Ohio River.

“And this project is about Trinity members serving non-Trinity members,” although interested volunteers do not have to be Trinity members.

In addition to Amstutz and Tate, the planning committee includes Sheila Kennedy, Will Firestone, Fred Mulfinger, Andrew Hartman and Wheeler Stephens.

Operation Inasmuch, Inc., provides leadership and training, Tate said. “Dave Crocker came here and spent some time with us, training us to prepare and implement this program. We brainstormed projects we thought we could do in the area (we wanted to target); we put together 10 projects and coordinated everything.”

The projects cover an array of tasks that are meant to be of interest to volunteers with a variety of skill sets. All projects are designed to be completed within a 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. time frame, Tate said.

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A Tale of Two Women and Inasmuch

June 26, 2012 By 1 Comment

Nell at the Samaritan House

The first woman is Nell (not her real name) – a middle aged, homeless woman who lives in Sumter, South Carolina. Nell suffered from domestic abuse for years until she finally moved out of her home and in with a friend. Her job at a nearby Salvation Army helped her to survive on her own . . . for a while. But when the Air Force shipped out Nell’s friend and the Salvation Army closed, Nell was left homeless and unemployed. The streets of Sumter became her home and handouts from anyone who had mercy on her were her sustenance.

Eventually, Nell discovered the Samaritan House, a homeless shelter in Sumter. We do not know how often Nell went to the Samaritan House, but we do know that it provided her with a life-changing encounter.

The second woman is Alice (not her real name) – a twenty-something single woman, a medical professional who also lives in Sumter. About a year ago, Alice lost her job. Even worse, she was accused of misdeeds that led to a judgment against her for which her penance was 200 hours of community service…

Alice is an active member of the First Church of God, Sumter, so she inquired what she might do around the church to fulfill her required community service. Alice accepted the assignment of making a video the church’s softball team. Although she had never created a video before, Alice discovered a new talent and soon became the official videographer for the church.

Alice, Inasmuch Volunteers, and a Client of the Samaritan House

Over the months, Alice completed 182 job applications and all the while nursed deep resentment over the events that led to her unemployment and her “required” service. As she tells the story, God used that time to soften her heart and show her that He had a better plan. At some point Alice learned that all the volunteer time she’d put in at the church would not satisfy her community service atonement – which only fueled her resentment.  Nevertheless, Alice found appropriate service at the local Habitat Restore. When Alice completed her required service, she continued to volunteer at the Restore.

First Church of God, Sumter, participated with a dozen other churches in the first Inasmuch United Sumter this past April. The church conducted 21 projects with a little more than half of their average Sunday attendance participating. The Inasmuch organizers asked Alice to visit all of the projects video their members serving that day. She went to 32 locations to interview and take videos of her fellow church members as they volunteered.

Alice’s last stop was at the Samaritan House where church members served a meal to the homeless. She noticed a woman sitting by herself. It was Nell. Alice invited Nell to her church and offered to give her a ride the following day. Nell quickly accepted saying: “I’ve been looking for a church to attend.”

Inasmuch Meal Served at Samaritan House

Following worship, Alice invited Nell to stay for a spaghetti dinner at the church. The church members at dinner welcomed Nell warmly although they had no knowledge of her story or homelessness. So many people greeted Nell that she began to cry.  She said: “I have never felt so loved, not even by my own family!” When Alice and others comforted her, Nell said: “Earlier your pastor talked about how a person can receive Jesus and be baptized. I want to do that.”

Alice led her new friend into the pastor’s office where he shared the gospel with Nell and she prayed the Sinner’s Prayer. Says Alice: “I know Nell accepted Christ right then because I have never felt the power of the Holy Spirit like I did at that moment.”

Later that week, Alice called her friends at the Habitat Restore and asked if they had a job opening. They did and they hired Nell that day. The same day a medical facility in Sumter hired Alice.

Two women: unemployed, mistreated, in need of mercy and grace, brought together by Inasmuch, and forever united in eternity.

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There’s Inasmuch Life in Michigan

May 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment

David Crocker likes to say that Operation Inasmuch is not just a “one and done.”

Operation Inasmuch, Inc., has trained thousands of churches to conduct a single day of community outreach to serve those in need. But “once is not enough!”

That’s why we created the Inasmuch Life process to help churches mobilize their people to volunteer on a regular basis, with lifestyles of compassion ministry.

But sometimes a church needs no training!

The following article shows how churches in the Cheasaning, Michigan area turned their Inasmuch United into a lifetime of caring for the hungry. The article was published in the online Tri-County Citizen on May 6, 2012:

Inasmuch donations needed to continue feeding the needy

BY JEANNE MARCELLO STAFF REPORTER

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED – Volunteers sort food into boxes for needy families in the Chesaning area and surrounding communities. About 50 volunteers are needed to help with the food distribution on the second Saturday of every month. Contact Trinity United Methodist Church to volunteer time or donate money to help this effort continue. (TCC file photo)

CHESANING – For the past year, Chesaning area volunteers have been dedicating one Saturday a month to provide food for those in need. It’s an extension of Operation Inasmuch; which focuses on helping others. During the past year, several area churches, local businesses, some national chain stores and the Chesaning Union School District have all contributed to make the food program work. Once a month, each family receives a box full of food to help them through tough times. Cash donations are needed to keep these truckloads of food coming.

The project coordinator, who prefers to remain anonymous, said, “We got through the first year. We can see this is going to be a big need in the community, and we’re growing.” Presently, 175 boxes are given out on a monthly basis, feeding about 475 people per month.

The coordinator explained that while the food is not free, over the past year, the cost of truckloads of food has been $500 each month. But with increased fuel costs, the food will now be $600 each month. Local churches, businesses, even several individuals, have donated money to keep the food deliveries coming.

Those in need who would like to be put on the list of food recipients should go sign up at the Chesaning Area Emergency Relief (CAER) center up to two weeks before the food is delivered. The truck arrives on the second Saturday each month, loaded with 10,000 lbs. of food coming from the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan.

Swartzmiller Lumber owner Don Swartzmiller has been bringing equipment to unload the truck each month. Approximately 50 volunteers help through much of the day sorting food into boxes.

Over the past year, most of the food distributions have taken place at Trinity United Methodist Church. Although during the winter months, they were able to use the Chesaning Union Schools bus garage; which enabled volunteers to work indoors.

During the past year, the following organizations, and individuals, have donated funds to cover the cost of the monthly food deliveries: Our Lady Catholic Church, St. Mary Church of Albee, St. Michael Church of Oakley, Trinity United Methodist Church of Chesaning, Family Dollar, Walmart, and even an individual who had benefited from the food program while he was unemployed.

Other organizations that have contributed include: Frank’s Super Market (provided older shopping carts and boxes for packing food), Nixon’s Grocery (helps with food for community suppers), and the Boy Scouts (carry boxes to vehicles for people and help with the community suppers).

The coordinator said, “This is not really a church thing; it’s a community thing. It’s a community project. A lot of people are not affiliated with a church.”

With so many families needing help at this time, more cash donations and volunteer labor are needed to continue this worthwhile Operation Inasmuch food program.

“Some of the recipients think the food is free. It’s not free. It’s kind of a hardship for us to do this. But the need is here,” the coordinator said.

Donations can be directed to the Trinity United Methodist Church. Those interested in volunteering can call the church as well; (989) 845-3157.

 

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Inasmuch Inspires Nashville Blogger

May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Ellen M., a blogger from Nashville, Tennessee, participated in Immanuel Baptist Church’s April 21, 2012 Inasmuch Day. The day so inspired Ellen that she wrote about about her experience:

Operation INASMUCH

On Saturday, thousands of churches gathered together to do service projects in their communities for a day called Operation INASMUCH.   I joined a team from Immanuel Baptist on a cold and rainy Saturday last weekend … Continue reading here in Ellen’s blog Livin’ La Vida Divertida.

 

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Campbell U Students Inspired on Inasmuch Day

April 30, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Campbell University (Buies Creek, NC) conducted its FIFTH Inasmuch Day on April 14, 2012! Over 450 volunteers from five schools within the University participated. Students donned Inasmuch T-shirts with our Compassion Revolution graphic on the back! 

These students are surely moving the Compassion Revolution forward by their service. When we serve, of course, we are blessed, as the following inspiring stories illustrate (thanks to Campbell’s Office of Campus Minister for providing these):

We grabbed lunch at a restaurant in Dunn after we were finished. As we went to pay, our waitress came up and told us that “Good deeds do not go unnoticed”, a couple had seen our shirt and paid for our lunch (all 5 of us) and left before we could thank them or see who they were.

Jessica Robbins, Inasmuch Day Project Leader
PA Student with the College of Pharmacy and Health Services

We were provided with a list of things that needed to be done when we arrived on site [S.A.F.E of Harnett County, a battered women’s shelter] that was very different from what we had discussed prior to our arrival and the staff that was onsite on the weekend were not able to clarify the needs of the projects.

One of the projects that we were asked to do was to spread mulch, but there was no mulch provided.  We went to the hardware store to buy some and the women at the cash register had utilized SAFE’s services in the past and ended up paying for most of the mulch as a way to give back to SAFE, which was very cool.

 Sarah Brainerd, Inasmuch Day Project Leader

 See statistics and links to more photos from this event here.

 

 

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You Care About Me?

March 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment

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.

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Call to Ministry Follows Inasmuch Day

December 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

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!”

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