January 29
The “Guiding Lights” are coming to Leland
Still Amazed-Jan 29 at the First Baptist Church of Woodburn
The First Baptist Church of Woodburn, located on Lee Drive in Leland, will be hosting the gospel singing group, “The Guiding Lights” on Sunday, January 29 at 6pm at the church,. The gospel sing is open to the public and admission is free. Please come and enjoy this special service.
Stop Hunger Now–Woodburn Presbyterian Church-Leland NC
Over 10,000 meals packages prepared
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Two years of Manna Ministries in Leland
September marks the 2nd anniversary of Manna Ministries, the Leland Area food pantry. What started as a pilot project has become a monthly event in Old Leland.
In April of 2008, several pastors and church leaders were gathered together to speak with the executive leadership of Shallotte based, Brunswick Family Assistance, regarding community assistance needs. One of the pastors suggested that the area was in real need of a food pantry. Plans were then laid out to “try out” a pantry in the Fall of 2008, with the backing of Brunswick Family Assistance.
A goal of feeding 100 families a month was set, with an estimated need of $900 per month in food or cash. After working all summer to raise awareness and food supplies, the group was still over $700 short. Just days before the first food distribution, a phone call came in from an acquaintance of one of the pastors, asking for a quick meeting. At the meeting, the individual said that they were touched by a recent message about the food pantry. Their family had to make tough choices when they were growing up, and the need struck a chord. At the meeting, the person said “I decided to give you my ‘mad’ money. I was going to spend it on things for me. I want you to have it for the food pantry.” It was $750 – exactly enough to meet the financial goal for the first month.
This was just one of the MANY small miracles that have occurred in the last two years.
The food pantry is held monthly, outdoors, on the grounds of Victory Church on Wayne Street in Leland. The weather extremes can be brutal, but the volunteers are steadfast in their task. Amazingly, it has not rained on the day of the food distribution, since October 2008. One time it rained right up to 9 am when the pantry starts, and then quit until after everything was cleaned up. Another time it misted off and on, but it did not rain.
One day, one of the volunteers received a phone call, it was a wrong number. The caller was actually looking for a specific charity in Wilmington, so they could give a donation. The volunteer struck up a conversation and said, “Maybe this call was not a coincidence, let me tell you about our local food pantry…” This turned into a monthly commitment that has been much more than a wrong number.
In November of 2008, when the volunteers came to unlock and set up, there was already a line of over 100 waiting in sub-freezing temperatures. The pantry gave out all they had and sent for more. In less than two hours, the fledgling pantry had given out groceries to 175 families. The volunteers restocked and re-opened 3 days later and served 50 more families.
Looking back, the economy crashed the autumn of 2008. We didn’t know it at the time, but our neighbors were feeling it. In God’s providence, He began planning for it in the spring of 2008. Since then, over a dozen churches, neighborhoods, businesses, civic, political and even government organizations have come to help.
Each day, volunteers also receive bread from a local bakery and drive all over the area distributing it to central meeting places, organizations and individuals. This daily network of neighbors helping neighbors is also part of the ministry. It was Jesus who said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
After a recent encouraging visit by our local congressman, he commented that it was truly a “loaves and fishes” miracle at work.
The name Manna comes from the old story of how God provided a miracle of food, when there was no food to be found. Manna is literally bread from heaven and the pantry gives Him all the glory.
If you want to help, or know someone in need, more information can be found on the web at http://vfwbc.org. Click on the “Food Distribution” or “Food Drive” tabs.
Leland Native Jay Coker Visits His Home Church, Tells of Outreach and Mission Efforts in Haiti
Dr Jay Coker with refugee in Haiti
When one sits down to write a story about someone as talented with a dynamic personality as Jay Coker, it is hard to put words on paper to express and describe the life of one of Leland’s favorite sons. Dr. John “Jay” Coker visited his home church Sunday, July 25, and made a presentation regarding his last mission trip to Haiti. He expressed his thanks to the church for the support it has given the mission efforts in providing much needed vitamins and hygienic supplies for the people in Haiti. Relief efforts are still going forward, he said, even though the focus has gone from search and rescue to the rebuilding and reconstruction of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
“There are still bodies lying in the rubble of the crushed building because they just don’t have the equipment to move the heavy walls and rubble,” Coker said. “The odor is not too bad except when it rains and then the smell comes to the surface,” he added. Coker, through the First Presbyterian Church in Fayetteville where he is lead minister, has been making regular (two per year) mission trips to Haiti, even before the recent earthquake.
He and the First Presbyterian church has been sponsoring regular trips to Cite Soleil ( a very poor suburb of Porta Prince) for many years helping to build schools, providing medical and dental care, a house of worship and even more so building relationships with an organization called the Haiti Outreach Ministries. With teams of volunteers including but not limited to:
Medical Staff Volunteers
medical professionals, construction workers and educators, Coker through his and the First Church’s ministries, has built a long lasting bond with the people in Haiti. Even though the earthquake completely wrecked the buildings volunteers have built in years past, it has not deterred the love and determination to help the people there. Now, he noted, they have a
Pre-schoolers at one of the schools sponsored by the Church
huge task of rebuilding.
Before church volunteers leave on the mission trips, Coker advises them they have 150 pounds of luggage they can take. However, he quickly tells them the 150 pounds designated for their luggage bags is for medical, educational, and construction tools and materials they will give and use during their week- long stay. It is almost impossible to have freight hauled in due to the terrible red tape and government corruption that takes place, even in this time of desperation. The volunteers are told to expect only to wear the clothes on their backs with a possible small carry-on bag for essentials and whatever they can stuff in their pockets.
Coker went on to explain how government corruption is widespread. For example, there is brand new heavy construction equipment at the airport that other nations have shipped in, but, due to governmental red tape, it just sits there. As you come into the airport, customs agents ask you if you have items such as pharmaceuticals. Unless you pay a “bribe to the officials they could or will confiscate all the materials that you have brought in your 150 pound tote bag.” He said that during the last trip, the customs agent on duty called his supervisor who was also there to take his share of the “bribe” before they would let the medical supplies into the country.
Electricity is so scarce and undependable you may have it, and you may not, Coker said. But mostly, you do not have it at night. Construction materials are also so scarce that what you can purchase is so expensive that you only can use the minimal wood framing to build a roof. According to Coker, there is still much to do in Haiti, but there is progress being made.
construction work in Haiti is going on but is slow
Coker is a driven individual that, even though he is a minister “he lives his faith, he shares his faith, but does not wear it on his sleeve,” as one of his church members describes him in a recent interview in the Fayetteville Observer. His father worked for Riegelwood Paper Mill and his mother took care of him and his two siblings. He went to school in Leland and graduated from UNCW. Coker began thinking of the ministry as a junior at UNCW. After graduation from UNCW, he enrolled in the Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Miss. While at the seminary, he journeyed to Long Beach, N.C. in his early years of the ministry to help organize the Oak Island Presbyterian Church.
Later he met and married a fifth grade school teacher Sharon Beasley of Miss. and was later called to his first church Forest Lake Presbyterian church in Columbia, S.C. He eventually was called to his first lead pastor position at the First Presbyterian church in Pascagoula Miss., where he stayed for nine years. After running into Earl Vaughn (which he thinks was more than coincidental) his minister from his early years at Woodburn Presbyterian Church in Leland he was then lead to the First Presbyterian Church in Fayetteville where he has been since 1994. He believes he was led to the church by the chance meeting with his minister from Leland. Coker says in an interview that he “loves a good Damascus Road experience as much as anyone” and goes on to say “It makes it a lot easier. But rarely do you get that.”
Coker has turned around the church in Fayetteville, as described by Gillie Revelle, a friend and longtime church member. “He’s brought such a sweeping spirit into the church and he’s made it exciting,” Revelle said. “Can you believe it? A Presbyterian church that’s exciting?”
It is very apparent that Coker is a missionary and a disciple of the word. He travels all over the world with his missions, including two per year to Haiti for the past 12 years. After the earthquake, his congregation quickly filled 25,000 emergency bags that included such things as hygienic items for the earthquake victims. Coker says, “I believe the winners are those who keep the legacy of faith going. If they have in their head great things can happen, then great things are going to happen. It’s the anticipation of those great things of waiting to see what God has in store that makes such a wonderful place.”
(Contributors to this article were Fayetteville Observer staff writer Chick Jacobs; and the Local News Review)
Gospel Singing
NOTE: CONCERT HAS BEEN CANCELED AT THIS TIME. A RE-SCHEDULED DATE WILL BE ANNOUNCED LATER.
The Southern Praise Quartet will be in concert Sunday August 8, 2010, 10:30 am, at the Bridge of Life Church, 2220 Mercantile Dr. in Leland. Admission is FREE, but a love offering will be received. For additional information, please call 910-383-2553, 655-4904, or 540-2619
