Crossroads Church project about ‘food, hope and love’

Crossroads Community Church in Adrian has always considered community outreach part of its mission. Originally, the church held a summer carnival to reach out to the community as a fun and caring activity, but five years ago the church decided to move in a different direction and started Project Share.“We wanted to build relationships,” said Jess Turner, Equip Pastor. “We thought this was the best use of our time and resources. It’s about food, hope and love.”On Friday, Dec. 12, beginning at 6 p.m., 200 to 300 volunteers will meet at the Merillat Sports and Fitness Center on the campus of Adrian College to pack the food into boxes. The next day, another 200 volunteers will return to Merillat Sports and Fitness Center to pick up the food boxes and deliver them all over Lenawee County directly to families who signed up for assistance.Project Share has three components, one local aspect and two international outreach projects. Project Share — Boxes is the collection and distribution of 1,000 boxes of food, hope and love to Lenawee County families in need. “We use $20,000 to make and deliver the food boxes,” Turner said. “We want to provide people with the hope that God knows what they are going through this time of year.”The love, Turner believes, comes from delivery of the food to people at their homes, respecting their dignity as individuals.“We care enough about them to deliver the food, and not make them stand in a line,” said Turner. “We’re just scratching the surface with our 1,000 boxes. We are praying that next year we are able to deliver more.”Project Share — Boxes provides shelf stable food to supplement the meals for a family of four. Food is purchased with the money donated by church members, and bought by a volunteer food buyer over several months. “We purchase all the food locally through Country Market and Aldi,” Turner said. “Our buyer watches the sale prices like a hawk. He’s wrapping the buying up this week.”Those needing help providing food for their family were able to sign up for Project Share — Boxes at Community Action Agency, Fishes and Loaves, The Daily Bread, and Care Pregnancy Center. Crossroads works with Community Action Agency to get food to the people who need it most.The money for the entire Project Share program comes from a once a year special collection, which happens to be the weekend of November 22 and 23 this year. The goal is to raise $60,000 for all three parts of Project Share.“It’s a special offering we do each year,” said Turner. “We’ve asked people to set aside a portion of what they would spend on Christmas to donate to this program. We challenge our congregation about what’s really important.”The remaining $40,000 of the money collected goes to fill three other needs. Crossroads donates $10,000 to Community Action Agency for its Heat-A-Home program that helps local residents pay their heating bills.The church donates $15,000 to a project in Romania that cares for the Roma people, helping to improve their lives. Another $15,000 goes to Honduras for an ongoing project to help those needing clean water and the basics of daily life.“As of this year we will have given over $500,000 over the last five years to Project Share, and $250,000 locally,” Turner said.To help the congregation understand how wealthy Americans are, members were directed to the website www.globalrichlist.com to see where they are in regard to world wealth. “I tell people they have won the birth lottery to be living here in the United States,” said Turner.For anyone wishing to make a financial donation to Project Share, or who is interested in volunteering on Dec. 12 or 13, call Crossroads Church at 266.1919.