Friday, April 30, 2004

Early Bread

By DAVID EPPS
Pastor

Every Sunday morning in Wilmington, N.C., a quiet drama is played out by a handful of committed individuals.

At 6 a.m., fifty-two Sundays a year, as many as 15 bleary-eyed men and women begin to gather at The Church of St. Peter the Fisherman to prepare a hearty breakfast for up to 150 men and women. Nearly half of these who come for breakfast are among Wilmington’s homeless with the remainder being people who are “down on their luck.” Most of the people who come for a meal are men but several women also come for breakfast and, occasionally, children are among those who receive a meal.

Early Bread, as the ministry is called, began in May 1999 with 10 people being served breakfast on that first Sunday. Tom Deen, Jessie Moseley, and Joan Bozeman were present on that first day and the three St. Peter’s members will still be found nearly every Sunday cooking, serving, and cleaning up afterward.

Wilmington is a community of some 200,000 people situated in southeastern North Carolina on the Atlantic Ocean and St. Peter’s, a Charismatic Episcopal Church founded in 1995 by Drs. Robert and Ruth Bayley, is just ten minutes from Wrightsville Beach. The ocean and warm weather attract hundreds of thousands of tourists each year. People who are seeking a new start or a better climate, including the homeless and the destitute, also come to Wilmington.

During the Summer months, St. Peter’s Early Bread program serves from 80-100 people each week while, during the colder months, 125-150 are crowded into the church’s fellowship hall. The three original workers have since been joined by several other volunteers. Some come from St. Peter’s and most of the others attend either Grace United Methodist Church or Wesley United Methodist Church.

Breakfast is served from 7:30-8:30 a.m., although most are finished eating by 8 a.m. Those who come on time will likely hear a brief presentation of the Gospel, with the emphasis on the love of God, by Tom Deen. After urging the crowd to form a circle and join hands, Deen or another volunteer leads in prayer. Then, the men and women patiently line up to receive breakfast cafeteria-style. On a typical Sunday, the breakfast consists of generous portions of hard-boiled or scrambled eggs, grits, toast covered in cheese, fruit, cereal, milk, juice and coffee.

Father Mark Johnson, who came to the church as associate rector in 2001 and became rector in 2002, says that it costs about a dollar a person to provide breakfast. The St. Peter’s congregation funds the Early Bread program, although offerings sometimes come in from other sources.

At 8:30 a.m., a time of teaching is offered for those who chose to remain. Recently, the church offered The Alpha Course on video and plans are underway to begin a discipleship program for attendees. Johnson said that as many as 20-30 people remain for the teaching. Some even stay over for the 10 a.m. worship service in the church’s sanctuary next door.

On a good day, 20-30 of the Early Bread recipients will remain for worship and receive Holy Communion. On a recent Sunday, three men came forward for prayer during the worship service indicating they wanted to “rededicate their lives to Christ and get their lives together.”

Johnson, who was an Assemblies of God minister before being ordained to the priesthood in 1996, served as pastor at The Church of the Good Shepherd in Milledgeville, Ga., and served as associate pastor at Christ the King Church in Sharpsburg prior to relocating to Wilmington with his wife, Natalie, and three children. A former law enforcement chaplain and insurance adjuster, Johnson sometimes finds it necessary to correct Early Bread participants who become unruly.

As one volunteer said, “Many of these men don’t get along at all on the streets. Most of the time, when they come in here, they keep themselves in line and respect this place and what we’re doing.” When they don’t, they encounter “Father Mark,” who gives them the choice of “settling down or hitting the road.”

Generally, however, the time at Early Bread isÊ peaceful and joyous. Occasionally, to the delight of the crowd, a volunteer brings a guitar and sings during breakfast. Many of the volunteers know most of the homeless by name and even take pains to fix special meals for those who are ill or require special diets.

On one recent Sunday, long after the kitchen had closed, a man and woman came through the doors hoping to find a meal. Undaunted, the volunteers heated up the stove once again and began to scramble eggs and prepare cheese toast.

“Why do you do this?” one Early Bread volunteer was asked.

Smiling, she said, “Jesus said, ‘Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto Me.’”

That seems to be reason enough.

[Father David Epps is rector of Christ the King Charismatic Episcopal Church, which meets at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Sundays at 4881 E. Ga. Highway 34. He may be contacted at 770-252-2428, at frepps@ctkcec.org or at www.ctkcec.org. Those wishing to assist in feeding Wilmington's homeless may send checks to The Church of St. Peter the Fisherman (memo: Early Bread), 314 South Carolina Ave., Wilmington, NC 28401.]

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