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Posted: 5/30/03

Texas Baptist Men ship 600
boxes of food donated for Iraqi people

By John Hall

Texas Baptist Communications

DALLAS–Texas Baptist Men has shipped about 600 food boxes donated by Texas churches to Iraq to help with relief efforts.

The cause brought Baptists together to provide boxes that will feed a family of five for a month. Churches in the Austin, Burnet-Llano and Tarrant Baptist associations collected large numbers of boxes. Local churches brought food from Waco, Plains, Gatesville, Dallas and Corsicana.

The Baptist Student Ministry at East Texas Baptist University also pitched in.

Rodney Gant of First Baptist Church in Plano applies to the food boxes stickers that read John 1:17 in Arabic. Texas Baptist Men coordinated shipping the food boxes as part of a national effort by the SBC International Mission Board.

Cooperation between various Baptist groups within the Austin Baptist Association was particularly impressive, according to Associate Director of Missions Randy Newberry. The association collected more than 150 food boxes.

“The exciting thing is seeing the people get excited and keep bringing things,” he said. “This is the kingdom ministering in the name of Jesus.”

Bill Mauldin, a Texas Baptist Men volunteer from Northwest Baptist Church in Austin, said the food drive helped his church be “part of God's kingdom” by “fulfilling God's command to take care of people.”

The boxes, labeled with John 1:17 in Arabic, offer a message of hope and love, he said.

Mission workers in Iraq will determine which families have the most need for the food, and volunteers will take the food to them. While the workers have not been chosen, there's about a 90 percent chance Texas Baptist Men will be present when the distribution time comes, said Cotton Bridges, a vice president for the men's mission movement.

Volunteers will bring the food to the families with a message similar to “God has been good to us, and he's sent some food to you,” according to Bridges, who has delivered relief supplies before. Workers most likely will ask if they can pray for the family, a request Bridges never has seen rejected.

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