‘“Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?’ He said ‘The one who had mercy on him.’ Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”’ Luke 10:36-37
In Luke 10, the expert in the law, in his self-righteousness, wanted to know who his neighbor was so that he could check off the box of “loving his neighbor as himself”. Through the Parable of the Good Samaritan however Jesus teaches that it is not as simple as that. Each person is our neighbor and it is our calling as Christians to love everyone as Christ loved us.
On Saturday, November 2, Restoration Church members took time to pass out empty bags of food in Northwest DC to collect food for families in Southeast that they may never see. Washington D.C. is a city of marble and cardboard and each one of its citizens is a neighbor that Jesus has commanded us to love. On Tuesday we dropped off 80 bags of groceries, diapers, and cleaning supplies to be donated to the families and individuals that come to A Wider Circle. The average income of a family at A Wider Circle is 12,000 for a family of four and this includes all forms of public assistance as well as income. Many kids depend on school lunches as their mean source of food and will not eat over enough over the weekend when school is out.
The food donated by Restoration Church will be going to two different places. It will help to provide Thanksgiving baskets for the dozens upon dozens of family who are dependent upon A Wider Circle for a Thanksgiving meal. It will also be loaded onto one of our box trucks for our monthly trip to Southeast Washington D.C. to pass out to Emmanuel Baptist Church, Hope Village, and other surrounding communities. As someone who works with the families when they come in to A Wider Circle, I (Megan T.) wanted to thank you all for the ways that you are caring for your neighbor through your prayers, time, and donations. Yesterday I handed a formerly homeless veteran a bag containing Kleenex, paper towels, toilet paper, rice, beans, peaches, pasta, and green beans and it was priceless the way that his face lit up.