EVERYONE IS gathered around the table spread with seasonal and family favorites near the glow of a fir tree stuffed with shiny ornaments and overflowing with presents. With a soundtrack of old favorites and lively conversation, it’s the ideal Christmas portrayed in bombarding advertisements and holiday movies. But for many area residents, it’s only a dream.
A little church along Highway 64 in the Wheel community works year-round, assisting individuals and families in Bedford County with food, clothing, and basic needs, but their annual Christmas giveaway makes the holiday brighter for area children.
It began with a Sunday school class project to provide food and gifts for one family that would otherwise be without and grew quickly from there.
Mary Ann Neill, who coordinates the outreach program at Shiloh Outreach Church (SOC), said, “The next year, we called Liberty School to get names of people [in need] and decided the whole church would take on the project. After the first year or two, we needed to have more funds available because we wanted to serve more people. The church voted to do 60 food boxes for Thanksgiving and 60 for Christmas.”
Still, they wanted to do more, so SOC soon adopted Liberty School students who might otherwise be without during the holidays. The deliveries included siblings not known to be assisted by other programs, and 75 to 80 children received gifts and food boxes, and it’s grown from there.
“We still do between 60 and 70 food boxes each year, but we have supplied presents to as many as 139 children in a year. The school lets us know what’s needed most, and we buy that. We give each child under 18 in the family an outfit, a pair of shoes, and toys,” said Neill.
It’s possible thanks to the church’s mission, the dedication of its congregation, and partnerships with other churches and organizations. Members choose an angel, purchase the gifts, and bring them to the church, where they’re organized and packaged for delivery. No angel is left out, thanks to a partnership with the Salvation Army.
If you’ve passed a bell-ringing volunteer outside Shelbyville’s Walmart and dropped a donation into their red kettle in recent years, then you’ve contributed to making a difference at Christmas in the life of a local child. Donations fund the SOC Christmas Outreach Program, reaching beyond the limits of the church’s budget and the members’ additional contributions.
“I receive some donations, too. People will give me $50-100 and say they don’t have time to shop, which goes toward it. When you read the stories about the kids, you kind of know what they need [and] what they want. We always get bicycles if they want a bicycle,” Neill said. “It’s a lot of work to get it all together, but when it goes out the door, you know those kids are going to have a good Christmas morning, and it’s all worth it.”
But it’s more than a Christmas and Thanksgiving project — they serve the community year-round through multiple programs. Their monthly food giveaway, the Wheel Community Food Pantry, opens its doors the last Friday of each month from 1-6 p.m. to anyone struggling to make ends meet, and they partner with Whitney Kratz and Clothe Our Kids to provide backpacks and clothing.
The need is great and growing every day.
It’s not just adults. When a family is homeless, everybody’s homeless, including the children. There are a lot of reasons someone may become homeless or go broke. It’s not just because they don’t want to work; sometimes you can’t. Sometimes, you lose your job. There’s all kinds of reasons,” said Neill.
But helping one home at a time and one person at a time, even the homeless, greatly improves their quality of life and blesses all who give their time and resources.
She said, “We just want to help as many people as we can to have a better life, especially the children. If we can touch a child’s life by showing them that somebody in their childhood cared to make sure they had clean clothes to wear to school and a meal on the table, then maybe that child will grow up and break the pattern.”
There’s a way for everyone to get involved.
Neill said, “A lot of people want to help, but they just don’t know how. And that’s true of churches as well. They have the assets, but they don’t have anybody there to pioneer a program or do these things that will help the community.”
Any church, organization, and individual is welcome to contribute to the SOC Outreach Programs. While financial contributions are always needed, volunteers to work the food giveaway and ring the bell during the holiday season are priceless contributions. And you are welcome to any of the services or Bible studies at SOC.
The ultimate goal of the church is simple.
“It’s not so much a program for us; it’s a way of life. We’re a giving and praying church. It’s just who we are,” said Neill.
Be a part of the reason a child isn’t hungry tonight or without a Christmas this December. Partner with SOC and change our community, one life at a time. GN
