New Beginnings Ministry spreads Christmas cheer
Kassidy Davis, Lisa Dunfee and Tom Matthews prepare food for the community dinner. (Marianne Austin)
The New Beginning Church volunteers take a break from preparing and delivering Christmas meals to the community on Dec. 17. (Marianne Austin)
New Beginnings Ministry in Warsaw has a caring heart for all people in the community and beyond.
“This is something the Lord placed on my heart years ago when we first came to Warsaw to minister,” said Connie Dunfee wife of Pastor Bill Dunfee. “I saw a need and we have done this for about 20 years now. It’s been a wonderful blessing over the years. Today we’re feeding over 200. The most people we have served was around 500 when we had the ice storm a few years ago. At that time, we fed people here and traveled to deliver meals. We had a generator set up here and it was amazing. It was one of those things that you look back on and think, ‘How did we do that?’ It’s always been a blessing and we hear so many wonderful stories from people who are so thankful and people who have gotten saved and give their heart to Jesus through this. We do it to bless them but in turn they bless us. We just want to be obedient servants to the Lord. Through this we are truly blessed.”
Eleven teams of two or more went out to deliver 20 or more meals to anyone who had a need. Many times, they have several counties. One year they fed people in five counties from the Fresno area, Newcomerstown and West Lafayette to Mount Vernon.
“One year we had the high rise in Coshocton and Seton, Ravenswood and here in Warsaw,” Connie said. “We try to be like Jesus and show the spirit of Christmas. Some people are sad this time of year and they need this, there has been a lot of loss. They need to see hope and we know the hope is Jesus. ”
Lisa Dunfee wife of Pastor Kyle Dunfee said, “Every year we fix a meal for the people in the community – anyone in need of a Christmas meal. We advertise and they can call in or maybe somebody in the community knows someone. The crew started cooking in the church at 7 a.m. We start packaging the meals at 10 a.m. and then go from there. There was 57 of us here this morning to help. It’s usually our congregation but we’ve had people from other churches come and help. The congregation makes homemade Christmas cookies, and everyone brings them in. It’s a lot of fun, a good outreach and the kids enjoy it. We take some of the kids out to deliver and minister to kids as well. ”
The menu this year included turkey, ham, green beans, mashed potatoes, stuffing, dinner rolls and a cookie.
Category: Faith
