Paula spends her secluded days scour ing the streets, searching for roadside
trash that catches her fancy.
She has been gathering dusty jars and discarded trinkets for
at least a half-dozen years, adding them to the growing collection in her modest
apartment.
Paula spends her secluded days scour ing the streets, searching for roadside
trash that catches her fancy.
She has been gathering dusty jars and discarded trinkets for
at least a half-dozen years, adding them to the growing collection in her modest
apartment.
She lives alone in an apartment complex in Granite City, Ill.,
where the landlord turns her heat off at night to cut corners on his utility
bills.
Paula (not her real name) says he has told her she will be
out on the streets if she reports him. She has been kicked out of apartments
before, so she knows how hard it is to find a place to live. Most landlords
do not like her cherished collection in their buildings, so she remains silent
about this latest injustice about heating.
Her trash menagerie provides most of her company. A grown daughter
lives on the other side of town, but she seldom sees her; a son lives farther
away.
Her boyfriend seems more enamored with his visits to the Casino
Queen, a riverboat gambling establishment docked along the Mississippi River
in East St. Louis. Paula grew up Catholic but is not attending any church.
Nevertheless, one afternoon a week, she catches a bus to take
her to a stop across the street from Grace Baptist Church.
It is the one place she knows she can get a warm meal and lots
of conversation. Both come thanks to Meals Of Love, a ministry fueled by volunteers
from 13 churches in the Madison County Baptist Association, roughly half the
churches in the association.
Paula is just one of 85 or so people making their way to the
church every Tuesday, where free meals are distributed from 4:30 to 6 p.m.
Some of the other regulars have only a short walk to reach
the fellowship hall in the churchs basement. For some of them, Meals Of
Love serves the only balanced meal they will eat all week.
Volunteer drivers navigate church vans through the citys
neighborhoods to bring in other folks. They pick up elderly passengers from
the Anchorage Nursing Home and homeless women and children from The Good Samaritan
House, a Christian nonprofit agency that provides temporary shelter for them.
Meals Of Love has been serving suppers since June 1992 to people
in this corner of Madison County, a struggling industrial community just a short
drive from downtown St. Louis. When the ministry sounded its first dinner bell,
a sparse eight people were on hand.
The ministry grew out of a concern recognized by the associations
mission development committee. It has had three homes, all Baptist churches.
A bakers dozen churches take turns preparing the meals, rotating on a
schedule so they each take charge of four meals a year.
“But were always eager to get more churches involved,”
says Jane Raphael, a committee member who has served as the programs coordinator
since its inception. She arrives at 2:30 p.m. nearly every Tuesday, awaiting
the volunteers for that day.
Each church has a different way of doing things. Some arrive
early and cook in Grace Baptists kitchen. Others have their meals almost
prepared and come in a bit later. The association helps by supplying all the
paper products, such as napkins and plates.
Raphael makes sure everything runs smoothly and spends time
talking to the people who come through the churchs door. Smaller churches
ask for volunteers from the entire congregation to help when their turn rolls
around. Larger churches rotate the responsibility through several groups, such
as Sunday School classes.
Each Tuesday, a two-sided freestanding sign is propped up on
Grace Baptist Churchs lawn near the road, letting people know that the
free meals will be served later that day. Folks also hear about the ministry
through word of mouth, fliers distributed through town and occasional paid ads
placed in local newspapers.
On a recent Tuesday, about an hour before the meal begins,
a small group arrives for crafts and Bible studies. Evelyn Maessen teaches women
how to do crafts, while her husband leads a Bible study for the men. The couple
has been volunteering in the ministry for several years.
On this Tuesday, the first van arrives with senior citizens
from the nearby nursing home. More people begin to shuffle into the room as
well. Some show up by themselves; others are husbands and wives with their children
in tow.
By the time the women and children from Good Samaritan House
arrive, volunteers have to slide back a partition and set up more tables to
make room for everybody.
Church members pass out plastic-foam bowls filled with piping-hot
chili, ladled over spoonfuls of elbow macaroni, accompanied by a salad. Rather
than set up a buffet-style line, church members carry trays to the tables and
serve each person.
As volunteers serve squares of flavored red gelatin topped
with dollops of whipped cream, Mike Pascal of Granite City steps behind a wooden
lectern to kick off the evenings devotion. It is his first time to lead
this part of the program. His dad, William, handled the devotion for a couple
of years but had to step down because a new job made it impossible for him to
get to Grace Baptist on time.
Pascal has some instant fans from the senior citizens just
a few feet away. They cajole him into singing one of their favorite tunes
“Jesus Loves Me” and join in as others finish their meals.
Not everyone is as enraptured as the nursing-home residents.
They continue to eat and even carry on their conversations as Pascal works his
way through his message.
Pastors and other laypeople often will go from table to table
during the meal to connect with people and see what one-on-one ministry opportunities
arise. When the devotion wraps up, people trickle out as volunteers begin their
clean-up duties.
Paula leaves the church to step into the crisp winter night,
bundling her thin blouse and windbreaker close to her body and clutching an
orange-and-blue shopping bag. She always is ready to rescue some abandoned treasure
that someone else feels no longer carries any value.
She walks down to her daughters house, but no one is
home. Someone else at Meals Of Love is able to give her a ride back to her small
apartment.
Climbing out of the car, she fades into the night, at least until next Tuesday.
(BP)
