CHEROKEE VILLAGE, ARKANSAS – The following report of answered prayer was recently received from Larry W. White, pastor of First Baptist Church in Cherokee Village.
At the beginning of 2021, Glenn Mitchell, co-director of the church’s food pantry ministry, shared that he needed help due to a potential shortage of workers and the ongoing need for provisions. We prayed and I encouraged him to pray and encourage all involved to pray together to ask God to provide the food and workers. He and the others who serve in that ministry began meeting in prayer each week before they distributed food. They gather in a circle while holding hands to pray for direction, more workers, and food to share with those in need.
When Glenn began reporting back to me of how God was answering prayer, I requested a written testimony to share with our church family. Following are highlights from that testimony.
In April we received an abundance of food from the food bank in Mountain Home and most of it was free. This free food totally loaded a pickup truck, inside and out. Delivery was on the day our church’s Family Life Center was being used by White River Medical Center as a clinic. The nurses and volunteers from the clinic blessed us by helping with unloading the truck.
When the month of May rolled around, we could not decide – to order or not to order food from the food bank. We did not order and here is the reason. A man in our church family said there was a karate tournament going on here and they were sending a semi-trailer load of food our way to be distributed among the food pantries in this area. Talk about a GOD moment!
A group met at the food pantry on Friday evening to unload the trailer full of food to bless our community. There was so much free food given that we had to overflow storage to a classroom … God is good!
But it does not stop there.
On June 24, one of our youth leaders, Rosie Murdie, was at a local corporately owned store, whose freezers had quit working. At that time, a shipment of frozen meat arrived, along with the things the store already had on hand in the freezer that had quit working. The manager asked Rosie, “Do you know anyone who can take this shipment for free?” Rosie said that our food pantry might be able to use it. One phone call and Glen and co-director Brenda Drew were there loading down their vehicles with cases and cases of food. GOD is good – He answers prayers!
On June 29, we received a call from the same store that had donated the frozen food. It seems they were not able to get the freezer repaired and another delivery came, so they offered that load of frozen foods to our food pantry ministry. Glenn and Brenda packed both of their vehicles and yet there was more. Glenn was very excited about how our Lord is hearing the prayers of His people. He called me asking for help. Morris Street and I went and picked up the remainder, which was several cases. We packed all of our church’s freezers and some of our members’ freezers, who offered to store it until the food pantry needed it. Also, the director of the New Beginnings Pregnancy Center offered to allow us to use a freezer she has at her home, which happened to be empty. Glenn estimated this donation’s value to be around $5,000,00.
On July 11, as I was getting ready to complete this written testimony of our Lord answering prayer, that store manager called again to tell us their freezers had not been repaired and they had another delivery that they could not send back to the company, so they gave that load of food to our church food pantry.
God is truly answering prayer as we strive to serve the needs of hurting people. To Him be the Glory, Honor, and Praise! Please join with us in praying for God’s continued blessings and that those who receive the food will know He loves them and for those who do not know Jesus to come to a personal, living relationship with Him.