MUST Clear Hurdles

When we encounter obstacles in our individual lives and in the corporate work of the Church, we can
remember the sustaining power of God. Hebrews 10 states:
35 Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.
36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:
37 "For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.
38 Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.

It can be easy to be discouraged these days for Christian believers - our lives have been turned upside down by the threat of a worldwide virus, and our communities have once again been rocked by unrest.  It is now when the Church can rise up and reflect the love of Christ.  Even when we face obstacles, we can find fresh strength in order to sustain and direct us.  Maybe we can find new ways to do ministry and be more effective in living out the Word of God.

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We can depend on the Lord to bring us new insight and fresh power - that power of the Holy Spirit was expressed on the Day of Pentecost about which we read in the book of Acts, a day which was
celebrated worldwide yesterday. Isaiah 43 says:
18 "Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old.
19 Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert.

I was recently reading a policy-heavy article from the Washington Examiner that dealt with how government officials had relaxed burdensome regulations during the Coronavirus crisis.  The piece illustrates something that I have said, that perhaps practices implemented during the crisis can be retooled and incorporated after COVID-19 is a thing of the past - that certainly applies to the Church.

So, I was reading along and found a reference to a ministry in Georgia called MUST Ministries, which has been involved in helping the homeless and feeding school children. I actually know this ministry - my parents had been involved in it.  And, its annual Thanksgiving Day run goes right through the neighborhood that I grew up in and where my mother still lives.

Seems that MUST had dealt with its own struggles with government overregulation and its feeding program for needy children had been on the verge of being shut down.  An op-ed piece on the Marietta Daily Journal website stated:

According to WSBTV, “(MUST Ministries has) been handing out up to 7,000 free sack lunches a day for kids and families every summer” for almost 25 years. Last summer alone, MUST provided nearly 260,000 sandwiches to the needy.

But the Cobb and Douglas Public Health Department recently told MUST that it cannot do so any longer, at least not under its current system. This news came shortly before MUST was set to begin its summer sandwich program. For those depending on the aid, the timing is devastating.

Apparently, volunteers making sandwiches for children violates health standards.  The article notes that:

This is a serious overreaction. MUST has operated this program for nearly a quarter century, and according to MUST Ministries President and CEO Ike Reighard, there has “never been a problem;” nobody has ever even gotten sick from their food. Beyond this, unless there’s an obscure sandwich law that we don’t know about, in most cases any private citizen can make a sandwich in their home, walk outside and give it away. But for some reason, MUST cannot do the same.

The Atlanta Journal Consitution reported that indeed, MUST was mandated to restructure its programs, and last year announced a campaign to accept donations in order to arrange for the hundreds of thousands of sandwiches to be made.

This was last spring; in the fall, another hurdle was encountered by this major ministry operation. It was looking to expand to accommodate more homeless people, to increase from its 72-bed capacity.  11 Alive Television reported that MUST needed an 80-foot variance and the local zoning authority approved it, but a citizens board rejected it.  Finally, the ministry went before the Marietta mayor and city council, who gave their stamp of approval.  Another hurdle cleared!

During the Coronavirus crisis, MUST Ministries has been on the front lines.  The ministry created a Rapid Response initiative to get food to needy families across two metro area counties, according to the AJC website.  The program, according to the site, "provides family food boxes that individuals and families in need can pick up once a month."

I realize that we live in discouraging times, but we can recognize that God has raised up the Church - local churches, as well as community ministries and national ministries, to take up the mantle of spreading God's love and truth.  There will be some who do not want to accommodate the work of the Church, but it is vital in these times.  Every Christian believer should keep persevering.  There may be obstacles, but I believe that the Lord would have us to continue to draw strength from His Spirit.

We can also be reminded to keep adapting.  We live in challenging times, and the former ways of doing ministry may not work - the message doesn't change, mind you, but perhaps COVID-19 has taught us ways to meet new challenges.  Moving forward, I believe that we will have to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit to lead us forward in the area of race relations, and the Church should lead the way in demonstrating Biblical and compassionate ways to heal the rift between people of different races and cultures.

All in all, we can look for God's open doors.  The presence of Christ grows and manifests itself in crisis.  He wants us to take up His mantle, empowered by the Spirit and to be hands and feet - and the voice - of Jesus in our culture.