Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. Today is Wednesday, September 13, 2023. +

This past Sunday, September 3, Peakland gathered for worship in our sanctuary and in our fellowship hall and online for Sunday worship. We sang, we prayed, we listened to the scriptures and how Jesus tells us to fight like a Christian. In worship on Sunday, we had babies and children and youth and young adults, not so young adults and all people are welcome. It was a good Sunday morning here at Peakland.

Later that same Sunday afternoon, over 70 folks from Peakland came together to Rise Against Hunger and create these – sealed bags of rice, sorghum, dehydrated vegetables, and a vitamin packet. Each of these bags contains 6 servings.


It took us about an hour to set up our fellowship hall into a meal making factory, with stations for filling the bag, weighing the bag, sealing it, and packing them up.

In an hour and 10 minutes our Peakland volunteers created 10,126 meals. We finished the job 20 minutes sooner than expected. Cleanup happened in about 40 minutes, but you may still see one or two errant grains of rice in the fellowship hall and on the sidewalk outside. Rober is one the job though!

My great thanks to the people of Rise Against Hunger for coming to Peakland and helping us reach out, serve all, and extend God’s Table and God’s Love.

From Peakland, these meals will be stored for a short time with Rise Against Hunger and then sent to a needed to community, could be a community in Haiti, could be a community in southern Africa. Rise Against Hunger will let us know when and where the meals end up, and I’ll keep you posted.

I’m grateful to all the people who donated funds so this ministry could happen at Peakland.

I’m grateful to God for the many, many volunteers of all ages who gave their time and energy. We had folks younger than age 8 and older than 80 giving of themselves so others might eat.

There aren’t too many places in the world where folks of all ages and stages of life can come together to worship and to work together to make a difference in the world.
I’m grateful to God that Peakland is such a place where all are welcome, and everyone has a place here. My hope is to bring Rise Against Hunger back to us again next year at this time. Perhaps we can raise enough funds to prepare 15,000 meals.

Next Sunday, we’ll gather again for worship and Jesus will teach us how to forgive like a Christian. And in the weeks to come we’ll gather for food and fellowship and service and worship.

If you are looking for a church home, or if it’s been a while since you were here at Peakland, now is the time to be present here.

Reach out to me at PeaklandPastor@gmail.com, I want to hear from you and help you find your place in this great church community. Thanks be to God!