Tom and I recently helped out with the Wilson Weight Challenge at church.  We have been getting more involved at church and trying to plug in where we can.  The Wilson Weight Challenge is a local mission project that only took a couple of hours one Sunday.  Perfect for our schedule.

The Lewis Center United Methodist Church is very mission oriented.  It is one of the the things we like best about the church.  They offer all kinds of opportunities to reach out and help in our local community.  Here are just a few of the things offered during August.  A youth car wash to raise money for their mission trip next summer.  Provide food or serve it at a breakfast in the Hilltop area.  Walk to raise money for building water wells in Africa.

The Wilson Weight Challenge is another mission opportunity that takes place every year in August.  The church collects food for the People in Need (PIN) program in Delaware County.  PIN deals primarily with food insecurity.  People can come and pick up food up to once a week.  The food pantry serves an average of 400 families every week, which means they need lots of food.  They try to give each family enough food for three days.

Lewis Center started the Wilson Weight Challenge to encourage the church people to bring food for the food pantry.  Roy and Sarah Wilson were very active with PIN and always encouraged the church to bring food.  Once a year there would be a special push when the Wilsons challenged the congregation to give a lot of food at once.  Although Roy and Sarah are in heaven now, the church continues the drive in their memory every year in August.

This year Tom and I helped load the truck after the collection at church and then drove to PIN to help unload the items.  Many people helped load the truck and it didn’t take long to get everything packed.  About 20 of us went to Delaware to help unload the truck.  We sorted the food from the non-food items and then filled grocery carts and weighed them.  Tom was in his element lifting heavy things.  I spent most of my time in the pantry sorting items, checking expiration dates and putting the items on the shelves.

All together the Lewis Center Church collected 5,800 pounds of food and non-food items!  The director of the food pantry was very excited to see all the food, but said most of it would be gone that week.  PIN needs lots of partners like Lewis Center in order to fulfill its mission.  Tom and I were glad to be able to help out.