The Meal & The Word

by Melinda Tuhus - The Independent News | November 23, 2007 9:15 AM | Photos by Melinda Tuhus

Which comes first: feeding the body or the soul? It was a tough call for members of the Abundant Harvest Outreach Ministry who provided a hearty breakfast for all comers at the Newhallville police substation on Winchester Avenue on Thanksgiving morning.  It was a mouth-watering and heart-stopping spread of scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, grits swimming in butter, and biscuits, orange drink and coffee.

James Lewis (on right in picture) was shepherding neighbors and passersby into the substation. “We give ‘em a good breakfast. And then we get a few who come in and find the Lord — that’s the main reason [for the breakfast], to help them get their lives together. We don’t try to force anyone; we just make it available to them, prayer if they need it or any other type of request. The main thing is to get a hot meal, and then behind that is the Word.”  Is that a contradiction? Lewis clarified, “We want to make sure they eat. They got to have sustenance in order the have the strength to even listen. And behind [the meal] is the Word.”

“We provide the opportunity for people to start developing a relationship with God, and at the same time we befriend them and feed them,” said Dawn Poindexter (on left in the photo, with Lewis), outreach coordinator for Abundant Harvest. She and Lewis said last year a man came in with a horribly infected eye; by the time he left the breakfast, he was healed.

The ministry has a new building on State Street in the Cedar Hill neighborhood. So why are they in Newhallville? Poindexter said when they started the Thanksgiving breakfast a few years ago in the Dwight neighborhood, lots of people from Newhallville came over, so they decided to come to them. They also plan to start programs in Cedar Hill.   

Deborah Stewart (pictured) was one of the volunteers who’d been working in the tiny kitchen since early morning. She said they prepare food for a hundred people, and they usually run out by the time the breakfast ends at 11 a.m.   Outreach Ministry member Lisa Knight (left in picture) came for her first time to help serve breakfast. “I think Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for what you have, but also to share with others because there are people who don’t have the things we have, and it’s time to give of yourself, not only at Thanksgiving, but all year round.”  Some people ate on site, while others took their loaded plates down the street or back to their own homes. And everyone seemed very thankful.