Be A Loving Neighbor in October
By Charity Gwaltney
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.” - Luke 10:27
Loving our neighbors. For the past several years, First Baptist Starkville has hosted a Fall Festival in October as an opportunity to tangibly share the love of Christ with families in our church and in our Starkville community. In a very real sense, Fall Festival exists as a large-scale opportunity for our church to meet the needs of our neighbors – our Starkville community neighbors. However, due to recommended pandemic guidelines for health and safety, we’ve canceled Fall Festival this year. There are two ways that we as a church congregation could respond to this situation. We could cry and complain about its cancellation, or we can look for an alternative and safe way for our church family to serve the people in their individual neighborhoods and show them the love of Christ.
During the month of October, we would like to encourage you to be intentional in sharing the love of Christ with those immediately around you – your neighbors. Here are some fun, family-friendly, and safe ways to intentionally love those who live in your neighborhood.
Treat your neighbors by surprising them with baked goods, fresh flowers, or either a homemade or store-bought card. If you want to give your gift a bit of added “fun,” leave your neighbor’s present on their front porch, ring the doorbell, and run!
Invite your neighbors over for dinner, a bonfire, or to watch a sporting event. Make it an outdoor event and emphasize social distancing to keep it comfortable and safe for everyone.
Do random acts of kindness, such as putting your neighbors’ newspapers on their front porch in the morning or bringing their trash cans back up to their house after the trash has been picked up.
Offer to care for your neighbor’s pets, water their plants, bring in their mail, cut their grass, or rake their leaves if they need to be out of town. Offer to do it for free!
Do a front-porch visit to check on neighbors that are at home because of the pandemic. Offer to pick up their groceries, to bring them books, or to run errands for them.
Invite your neighbors to church services at FBC with you either in-person or online.
Trick or treat! Dozens of children from your neighborhood and the Starkville community will be coming to your doorstep on the evening of October 31. This is a great opportunity to share Christ’s love with those who would never attend a formal church event. Turn on your house lights and decorate your front porch for Autumn: set out some friendly pumpkins, hay bales, scarecrows, and fall flowers. Prepare ahead of time by individually wrapping candy into small goodie bags, including information about FBC’s services and programs. Consider some bags with non-candy options such as: glow sticks, stickers, playdough, bubbles, or other small toys. These non-candy options will give children with food allergies the opportunity to be included in the night. If you do this, place a teal pumpkin in a visible place so that parents are aware that you have non-food treats available.
Additionally, loving your neighbors doesn’t have to just mean those in your immediate neighborhood. Starkville is a small close-knit community where loving your neighbor can mean that you take the opportunity to love those on the other side of the city. Here is a list of several ideas to get you started with sharing the love of Christ within the greater Starkville community.
Donate to local food pantries. Some locations include:
• Calvary Baptist Food Pantry (405 North Jackson Street) has been in operation for the past 19 years. It can always use pantry and household staples such as: cooking oil, toilet paper, paper towels, spaghetti noodles, spaghetti sauce, jars of peanut butter, rice, toothpaste, and soap. You can also consider giving a monetary donation so that those who run the pantry can purchase what is needed.
• First United Methodist’s Community Food Pantry (located across the road from FUMC) is a small box where you can place non-perishable food items for those in need. It’s as simple as purchasing a few items, driving up to the box, placing the items inside, and driving away.
• Peter’s Rock Food Pantry (221 Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Drive) is another local food pantry that provides support to our community. You can contact Peter’s Rock Church of God in Christ for more information on how to donate or support their food ministry.
2. Donate Books:
Little lending library boxes have sprung up all around the Starkville community where you can drop off (or borrow) gently used books for others to read and to return. Some of the locations include: Main Street, Patriot’s Park, Pecan Lane off of Reed Ranch Road, and North Montgomery Street.
3. Donate to the First Baptist Starkville Adoption and Foster Care Closet:
FBC maintains a resource room where families who foster children can go and get much-needed supplies, often within a last-minute time frame. Items currently needed are diapers of all sizes, wipes, and clothes and shoes for elementary-age children. Or, deliver individually-wrapped snacks on behalf of the church to the main Child Protective Services office.
4. Give to a school or to a schoolteacher:
Teachers often stock their classrooms with items purchased out of their own resources. Ask a teacher what he or she needs and then get those items for them. And while you are at it, give them a small personal gift just to say “thanks.”
5. Pay for the order behind you in the drive-thru:
Make someone’s day by offering to pay for their coffee order. It’s a small and often anonymous act that brings a big smile to the recipient.
6. Look for ways to minister to the Starkville Police and Fire Departments:
Individually packaged snacks dropped off at their offices will let them know that they have community support. If you feel the need to do something more, join with other families in your community group and provide a department with a meal.
Hopefully, Fall Festival will return next year as a more visible way that First Baptist can share the love of Christ with our community. But for now, you can still be the hands and feet of Christ and you can still share His love tangibly with your Starkville neighbors.