Initiative has given the local Adventist church increased visibility in the area.
The Seventh-day Adventist church in Wenang, in the city of Manado, Indonesia, has found the right ingredients to start a new and exciting ministry. They called it “Drop and Grab.” The ingredients are location, circumstance, and church members themselves.
The Wenang church is located near a public transportation hub, where people come and go. The pandemic caused people to lose their jobs and the ability to provide for themselves even a decent meal every day. Members of Wenang Seventh-day Adventist Church proposed to reach out to this community by providing free lunch packs every Friday. They would visit the church to drop food items they wanted to share, and the church would make these food items available to the public.
About 70 to 80 individuals, primarily public transportation drivers, passengers, and store owners, flock to the church every Friday to receive their free meals. The number is expected to grow as word about the free meals is passed around.
Members of the Wenang Adventist church hand out food packs to anyone passing by the church, making sure that they receive a little spark of happiness on that day. [Photo: courtesy of Alvianus Saleppang]
“People started to acknowledge our church in the neighborhood. Some of the people who are not aware of the existence of the church became curious and interested,” Peter Tappy, church leader of the Wenang church, said. “The church is not just a building but the people inside doing something good and driven by compassion towards their neighbors,” Tappy added.
The idea of Drop and Grab is not only to provide food but also to extend a ray of sunshine to everyone who comes to receive his or her free meal. The goal is to share happiness and positivity with the community in every pack they receive.
“It is my prayer to always encourage our church members to do something. It’s not enough for us to just attend church. We need to do something,” Alvianus Saleppang, Wenang church pastor emphasized. “We need to reach out to the community who are needy and suffering. We cannot feed everyone in Manado city, but at least we can feed a few people on that day and give them a little taste of happiness in this sinful world,” he said.
The original version of this story was posted on the Southern Asia-Pacific Division news site.
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