Tony McBrayer with one of the vans from the Peanut Butter and Jesus . The community ministry has served nearly a half million bags to Tift County residents .
“ To go from 141 bags and one route to as many as 1,800 and five routes — it ’ s just exploded ,” McBrayer said .
When it started , McBrayer took inspiration from earlier programs in the area , in Homerville , Nashville and Lakeland . “ We kind of inherited what Lakeland was doing ,” he said . His pastor at the time , he said , was praying for some kind of outreach program . Even though Pineview ’ s membership is small , they sought out something they could do .
Somehow , they had seen two green vans in Lakeland , leftovers from when their Peanut Butter and Jesus program ran into difficulties . Calls around the town produced their owner , who offered them free to Pineview if they would use them for the same purpose .
“ The Lord put it in our lap and we had to do something with it ,” said McBrayer .
As of mid-May , Tifton ’ s Peanut Butter and Jesus has been running six years and eight months . More impressively , 347 consecutive weekends .
Peanut Butter and Jesus has continued through all kinds of weather . It kept going through Covid-19 .
“ That was a community effort ,” he said about how they continued through the pandemic . They have never been completely stopped in bad weather , but occasionally are delayed by it .
By the end of summer , Mc- Brayer figures they will cross the half-million mark in lunch bags filled . They were at 487,000 in May .
He reflected on how long Peanut Butter and Jesus has been around in the community . A child 10 or 11 years old then would be graduating from high school now .
McBrayer and crew are not just out on the routes to offer a bagged meal . He ’ s prayed with people on the routes . The kindness is coming back around . Some of the individuals helped are now volunteers . He believes he ’ ll see even more of that as the program continues .
“ It ’ s a great mission work for churches ,” he said . Not just Pineview is involved . Other churches help out — it ’ s been a community ministry from the start — as do businesses , organizations and school clubs . “ It ’ s a great community service for them to do .”
24 TiftonScene | JULY 2024