Each year on World Communion Sunday, Flint River Presbytery gathers at four different church sites throughout our bounds to pack tens of thousands of meals. We partner with Rise Against Hunger, purchasing the food and providing the labor to pack bags of simple yet nutritious meals. Forsyth Presbyterian Church, where I serve as pastor, has hosted this event several times over the last nine years. In our fellowship hall, the generations joyfully gather to measure, pour, weigh and seal each bag, knowing that each bag will feed six people who would have otherwise gone hungry. Our teenagers and adults laugh and dance together to upbeat pop music from all the decades as they get into the rhythm of pouring into each bag the rice, soy protein and dried veggies. Our little ones run back and forth from station to station, changing empty baskets for full ones. Our elders sit while they carefully weigh and seal each bag. As I watch the young father with his baby resting in a sling on his chest, the grandmother guiding her grandchildren’s small hands with her now unsteady ones, the couple whose child has now moved to college, and the overworked mother of teenage boys, all smiling, all joyful, all acting out their faith together, I easily imagine Lois, Eunice, Timothy and Paul laboring with us. Those folks lived their faith through suffering and social shame, through tears and joy. They acted as heralds, apostles and teachers of the gospel, each passing on within the family of faith the power, love and self-discipline granted them by the Holy Spirit. You can find the rest of the commentary on our website.
Thank you to guest writer Rev. Marilyn McKelvey Tucker-Marek. | 
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