The Life Impact Centre, at Lower South Hill, and the Hilltop Baptist Church, at Island Harbour, closed their doors to their regular Sunday morning services on December 8. They instead united at the Pond Fill, Island Harbour, for another type of ministry: proving food and clothing for all who attended.
It was a busy tent event with one section distributing an assortment of cooked food; a second section donating clothes of all sizes, styles and colours; and a third section providing seats for the some two hundred persons in attendance.
Initiator of the event, Apostle Lucien McDonna of the Life Impact Centre, told The Anguillian newspaper that the outing was all Biblical based. “We felt it was important for us to close off the year by showing love to the community. We did it before in other parts of the island,” he explained. “We decided to begin the New Year, 2020, by demonstrating unity. Churches, over the years, have been taking money and gifts from the people but now we are here to give back in terms of food and groceries. We spent thousands of dollars to say, to the Anguillian community, we love you and we are showing God’s love, grace and strength.”
Apostle McDonna continued: “We decided to get out of the church walls. We have been there for all these years and this is something fresh for the congregations. Everybody is so excited. We are doing ministry right here. This is what Jesus talked about. Pastor Gareth Hodge and I combined for this event and hopefully other churches will catch on. We can do this every three or four months – close down the churches and go into the community and show God’s love.
“The response was overwhelming. We had over two hundred people here today, notwithstanding we had some people on the radio trying to discourage persons from coming and attacked Pastor Hodge and I – but look down the road, people are still coming. I don’t want to call names because I want to stay above the fray.
“It is unfortunate but then it is good because the Bible says: ‘They that live godly, must suffer persecution.’ Even in Christ’s days the church was persecuted and slandered. We created over two hundred gift bags with only a very small number left back. We had one hundred pounds of rice and seven cases of chicken and it is all done.”
Pastor Gareth Hodge commented: “Jesus said in Matthew 25: ‘Enter into my joy because when you saw me hungry, you feed me; when you saw me naked, you clothed me.’ Then someone said to the Lord: ‘When did I see you naked or hungry and did not clothe or feed you?’ Jesus replied: ‘When you did it unto the least of these, you did it to me; and when you did not do it to the least of these, you did not do it unto me.’
We therefore have a commission to look out for the needy. We are not saying that people are hungry, because some people who, came are well off. We said to them: “Come, we want to show God’s love. It has nothing to do with a person’s economic status.”
He added: “the response has been good. The people understood that it is not about name or fame, pomp or pride among these two Pastors. It is just about the community and God’s love.”
