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.

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!”

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.

What’s in It for Me?

A pastor recently preached on the topic of compassion ministry.

He knew that he faced the often unspoken — but real — question many ask when they are challenged to give themselves in ministry to people in need:

What’s in it for me?

Our society has become so consumer-oriented that this question surfaces whenever we are asked to give—money, time, or self.

So the pastor did not duck the question, but answered it truthfully.

He said “Here’s what’s in it for you:”

  • Community—churches and individual believers serve together, cultivating community
  • Gratitude—your sense of gratitude is renewed—gratitude for the opportunity to serve
  • Purpose—you realize they are are making a difference in someone’s life
  • Spiritual growth—you know you are right where God wants you to be.

How can you answer the question: What’s in it for me?

Perhaps you can rephrase it: How has God helped me become the person He wants me to be through compassion ministry?

Some suggest that it’s wrong question to ask “What’s in it for me?” before getting involved in compassion ministry.

Instead of trying to avoid the question, why not face it head-on by answering with the positive outcomes that indeed come to us whenever we are the hands and feet of Jesus?

There IS something in it for us, and thanks be to God for that!

David Crocker, Executive Director