Food For Life

By Jim Creech

This book will take you on a journey of faith, love and a determination to fulfill the call of God on a remnant of believers. It is a testimony of what God can do with a willing heart. It is the outline of how to answer the voice of God and start a food bank ministry with no experience from start to finish. It includes a step-by-step process from vision to multiplication. Included you will find the personal testimonies of triumph through an ever increasing faith. A group of believers from a tiny church to feed over five thousand people each and every month. You will find what vision, faith, prayer and love can accomplish. Read the testimonies of faith that enabled a few true believers of God's word to start from scratch with no resources to eventually plant numerous other food banks, feed into the jail and prison system, and reach into another country and touch the lives within fifty-two orphanages. This book contains inspirational insights to encourage you to pursue the vision God has ordained and entrusted you with. If you have been looking for that source of encouragement, look no further as I invite you into the depth of the pages inside this inspirational book. It's time for your journey to begin. www.foodforlifeministries.org

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9781642999495

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Food For Life

Jim Creech

Copyright © 2018 by Jim Creech

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Introduction

What a blessing it is for me to be writing this book as a source of encouragement and resource. First, I would like to say, the insight and knowledge that I will be sharing with you inside the chapters of this book, have been made possible only because God is an awesome God! He directed me years ago to start a food bank outreach ministry out of nothing except a willing heart and a vision so big that only God could direct each step to make that vision become a reality.

I was a third-generation pastor of a small church with no experience in a food bank ministry, but I had a vision.

I believe a Godly vision should be much larger than we can possibly attain on our own, through the finances and limited experiences that we have at the initial vision phase. Because of this, we will rely upon God daily for direction and favor as we embark on the vision that God has planted inside of you. It will also keep you humble knowing that God has directed your paths and allowed favor to rest upon the vision that He has allowed you to become a part of. Through this walk of faith, you will always be able to give Him the praise He deserves, knowing there is no way you could do something so big and rewarding without the direction, wisdom, and knowledge that God has given you. God will outperform anything that you are thinking of right now, if you recognize that He is in charge of the vision, and we are His ambassadors to work His vision.

One of the first things you must overcome is the fear of the unknown—the fear that creeps in when we begin to start a new chapter in our lives and ministry, fears that accompany your thought process as you try to rationalize the steps of this vision. I also had fears at the beginning. They were: how do we start this whole thing? What should we do first? Where do we get the food? Where do we store the food? What about the finances? What about volunteers? How can we operate a food bank ministry with less than thirty people in the church? And, out of those thirty people, they don’t have the finances to help. So many other fears—too numerous to count. Oh, the fears of man! In the beginning, I found so many reasons why it wouldn’t work. God then reminded me that it was His vision and His heart to feed the hungry, and that He has always worked through willing vessels and that all I had to do was say yes!

Scriptures and songs of the past would begin to radiate through my spirit as encouragement. Songs like Little is much when God is in it and What a mighty God we serve. Scriptures like All things are possible with God and Have faith in God, along with I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Wow, those words came alive inside of me. I had a revelation at that moment—it wasn’t about what I couldn’t do, it was about what God can do. It wasn’t about my limits, it was about God being able to do exceedingly, abundantly, and above all we could ask or think! It wasn’t about myself; it was about Him!

Since you are reading this book, then God has already laid upon your heart about what He wants you to do. Rejoice in that! Praise God for the vision He has entrusted you with. You are either starting a new ministry, or expanding on an existing one, or both. What a way to fulfill God’s word by feeding the physical needs of mankind and at the same time to have the opportunity to feed the spirit through evangelism—yes, evangelism. Jesus always met the needs of the people, whether it was healing their physical body, or forgiving them of their sins, or feeding the five thousand. It’s amazing to see people open up to the gospel when you meet their needs in the physical. I want to encourage you to take the first step. It will take you beyond what you can imagine at this time. Inside this book you will find words of encouragement, and personal testimony of what God allowed a small body of believers to witness and be a part of. You will also find a step-by-step outline on how to start and operate a food bank ministry. I want to thank the Lord for giving me this call to write this book to help other ministries and mankind. The Lord planted this in my heart a few years back. God is never early or late—He is always right on time, and I am so happy that now is His time!

Remember, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

As far as volunteers, and my staff, and board, I will be introducing them to you later in the chapter titled Volunteers. I will be mentioning them by first name throughout the following chapters. But I will give you a closer look at them later on in that chapter.

Also, you will hear me mention many times about hearing from God. This is what I would like to clarify. I have never heard God’s voice audibly, but on numerous occasions I have heard from Him through His Word and by Him speaking into my spirit, and by someone else confirming what God had already laid upon my heart. Confirmation through others is a great way to know you are on track of what God has already shared with you.

Chapter 1

Vision

One of the things I have come to know is, no matter how big my vision is, God’s vision is always so much bigger. So whatever you are thinking now, get ready—it is so much bigger than that. The vision will end up being such a big part of your life. You will dream about it. You will talk about it constantly, and it will be in your spirit twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. It will move you in ways you have never thought possible. It will cause you to grow and be stretched in all areas of your life. I believe that is how God wants it to be. He wants us to have a passion about our calling and the vision He has placed on us.

This is how the vision spreads to other individuals. Passion! At times we can find ourselves passionate about so many other things in our life, and there is nothing like the passion to serve and fulfill the call that God has placed on our life. There is no reward like the one you receive when you are able to touch the life of someone who has lost hope. Here is one scripture that teaches us about vision.

Proverbs 29:18, in the Kings James version Bible says, Where there is no vision, the people perish.

In the New Kings James Bible, it says, Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint.

God places vision within the hearts of men and women to accomplish His will across the globe. Imagine the businesses that would not have succeeded without vision: how many churches that would not have been planted without vision; how about all of the outreach ministries that would not have been birthed without vision? We need a Godly vision to move us in areas we have never visited before. Vision is the starting line of a gift that has been placed inside of you. Vision allows you to use the gifts that God has placed within everyone. Vision is the key