Members of CrossPoint eagerly jumped in to put together over 150 produce boxes

There’s nothing more beautiful than arriving at the Ysleta Lutheran Mission Human Care (YLM) campus early on Saturday morning to be greeted with activity as every volunteer present worked together to assemble boxes filled with produce and dry goods.  “I didn’t realize there would be these many of our members wanting to help,” Michael Schuetzler, one of the vicars at CrossPoint Church in El Paso, explained, “We’ll definitely have to schedule more Saturdays to adopt the food pantry than just once a quarter.”

Before the gates open at 7:30am, all servants are invited to join in prayer

Members of CrossPoint Church arrived early in the morning and went right to work, filling boxes to get them ready to be distributed long before the start time of 7:30am.  CrossPoint’s Senior Pastor, Dan Sattelmeier, helped bring everyone’s focus to what they are accomplishing through prayer, then assisted throughout the Drive-Thru Food Pantry by greeting and offering prayer to every person who drove through.

“There were quite a few people who took him up on his offer,” Scott Juengel, elder of San Pablo Lutheran Church and their Missions and Ministry Facilitator, shared, “They pulled over to the side and spent time in prayer with Pastor Dan.”

Pastor Dan offers to pray for people, moving out of the line to pray with them as the Drive-Thru continues

For over thirty years, YLM has been working alongside churches to create a bridge between them and their communities.  As all involved with YLM can attest, the main point of the different areas of mercy is not to just meet the physical needs of people, but to also offer God’s love through His Word, prayer, music, and evangelism.

“We don’t force it on people,” Rev. Dr. Karl Heimer explained, “But we recognize if we simply feed them and don’t tell them about how loved they are by God, then we aren’t doing them any good.  So we offer to share His love with them, just as God offered it to us.”

One of the members brought his younger son, teaching him the love shown through service to others

Through the Drive-Thru Food Pantry, local churches can reach out to people within their community with acts of kindness and care, as well as share the Good News, as did Pastor Sattelmeier through the offer of prayer.  Whether believers or not, many people appreciate having someone pray with them.

“It is opportunities like these church congregations are looking for,” Luz Soto, Director of Youth at Ascension Lutheran Church in west El Paso, shared when scheduling their youth group to Adopt the Food Pantry, “We are eager to bring our children, youth, and adult members into situations where they not only get to serve, but they also get to share their faith.”

As the year progresses and needs increase, including spiritual ones, Adopt the Food Pantry continues to reach out to local churches to help connect them with opportunities to love and serve their neighbors.