SERVE | Harvest Hope
I’m Lucas. I’m the new pastor here at Downtown Church I’m a type 3 on the enneagram. Therefore, I like to get things done. Service has always been a huge aspect of my faith and is what led me to seminary and subsequently DOWNTOWN CHURCH. Being new in town, I wanted to explore ways to serve. Last week I found a highly accessible and safe way to serve my neighbor here in Columbia at Harvest Hope.
I heard about Harvest Hope through a forwarded email. For those looking to forward me more emails, I’ll warn you that they usually end up in my trash, but this one caught my eye. After reading a bit of their story, I signed up for a shift online from 9-11 distributing boxes of food in their drive-through food pantry. The next week I drove to their location on Shop Road. A long line of cars was awaiting the opening of the pantry and I was able to slip past them into the parking lot where I met the handful of other volunteers. I was assigned my spot in line and we prepared for the cars to start rolling through.
As folks came through, I was able to greet each car and load a box of food in their trunk. It was quite a well-oiled machine. Over the 2 hours that I was there, we served around 150 carloads of our Columbia neighbors who for whatever reason need assistance getting food. Afterwards I hopped in my car, a bit sweatier than when I had arrived, and headed back to the church.
Service is complicated and I’ll be the first to say that no service is perfect. There are certainly greater issues to explore that make me ask the question why there are so many here in Columbia who are food-insecure?
Yet, as those greater issues are addressed and hopefully solved, organizations like Harvest Hope are doing the good, and necessary work of feeding our neighbors and doing so with dignity and care. If you’re looking for a scheduled, hands on, quasi-physical way to embody Jesus’ call to love your neighbor, then I encourage you to explore volunteering with Harvest Hope sometime. They have locations in Columbia, Greenville, and Florence.