4 • The Beacon April 7 , 2022
Fresno Bible Church helps Ukrainian refugees
By Marianne Austin
n April 2 Fresno Bible
O Church members packed 10,000 meals to be loaded onto a shipping container and transported to different relief agencies serving Ukrainian refugees .
“ We are working with Lifeline Christian Ministries . We became acquainted with them last fall , and they do food packs that they send around the world to needy folks in some thirdworld countries ,” church member Chuck Ellis said . “ With the present Ukrainian crisis and the concern we have for those refugees , we found out that Lifeline was going to be doing food packs for those people . All the food that we pack today will be going to Ukrainian refugees relief projects over there .”
Lifeline takes food packs of rice with soy protein and other vegetables that are sealed in plastic bags , and then they are cased up and shipped overseas . They can even spice it up or season it however they like it .
“ Our hope today was to make 10,000 meals that will be shipped out , and they already have a container ship with 300,000 meals on it that is ready to go ,” Ellis said . “ They have been working with other churches . Our church members from senior citizens in their 70s to children about 6 years old and even younger are packing these food bags today . It ’ s a great project for our church to be a part of . Casey Wright and I went down to Westerville , and we thought it was a good ministry , as well as a good project to be a part of .
“ I work at Pearl Valley Cheese , and we have trucks , so
I drove one of the trucks down , picked up the material and I ’ ll take the finished food back down next week . There is some cost involved . The church will be paying for the food ingredients and packaging costs that go into it , but they have the ships that go to needy countries . We believe Jesus ’ example in the Gospel was to care for people in need , especially the hungry . This is a good example of feeding people . We are just trying to do what he expects us to do .”
Pastoral staff member Casey Wright said , “ Most of the volunteers are church members and some from Lifeline that have come to help . Over 70 have volunteered to help . Everyone is excited to help Lifeline . I was just over there in Moldova , which is neighboring Ukraine , back in September and met some pastors , and some have friendships with the people helping refugees come out . So oftentimes we feel so distant from what ’ s happening , and we pray for them . We were able to help support the church in Moldova , and they are helping the refugees , but this is something that our church family can be a part of in helping the people in this awful crisis they are going through right now .”
Rob McCabe is the Columbus Center director of Lifeline Christian Mission for people who are willing to come to Westerville and pack meals .
“ We are on the road today ,” he said . “ We take this operation everywhere . Today we are packing 10,000 meals for the people of the Ukraine who are displaced into Romania and Poland . We are about to ship our first container of 300,000 meals there , but obviously with 3 million refugees without a home , there are a lot of meals needed . We are in touch , and we will ship as much as we have to , keeping in mind we care for everybody , everywhere , even U . S . citizens . We have different recipes for different cultures . Today we are doing rice and vegetables , very simple . Soy is the main ingredient in the sense that it provides three times as much protein as red meat pound for pound , so that ’ s exciting , and these bags have a shelf life of three years , but we know it ’ s going to be consumed in the next six months .
“ That is just a part of what Christian Mission does . The people of the Ukraine are primarily in refugee camps , some are living in people ’ s homes and at least 100,000 are coming to the United States . Some may come to our community , and maybe we can befriend them at least and help them feel like they have a home away from home . God bless these people here . We have 70-plus people here , and they ’ re doing 10,000 meals . We depend on people donating funds . Anything that is donated toward meals between now and Easter will go to the Ukraine . Last year we did 8 1 / 2 million meals .”
Lifeline Christian Mission has communities where they employ more than 300 nationals from Haiti , Central America and Ecuador , and it takes about 3 million meals to serve those people and their families , and the other 5 million goes around the world including wild fire victims in the West Coast of
America and hurricane relief in America .
They went into Cambodia , Korea and many African countries . “ We are always open to work with any other organization that wants to serve people ,” McCabe said . “ If we can provide food and bless people , that is what we are all about . We have different recipes for different cultures . There are ingredients we have to buy , the bags and boxes , and there is a shipping amount , but we have gotten the cost down to about 29 cents per meal .
A Lifeline
On April 2 Fresno Bible Church members packed 10,000 meals to be loaded onto a shipping container and transported to different relief agencies serving Ukrainian refugees .
“ Each bag produced here is six meals or six servings . It is a rice-based recipe . In this case this bag of rice looks small , but when you cook this bag , it fills the pot . It is so chocked with nutrients , protein and vitamins that it is designed to save lives . If this was the only meal you got in a day , you would live and live healthy , and that ’ s what we are going for .”
For more information about Lifeline Christian Mission , call McCabe at 614-426- 8611 ( office ) or 614-726-0013 ( mobile ).
Marianne Austin
More than 70 people of all ages volunteered to help pack meals for Ukrainian refugees .