Local Soup Kitchen Receives Large Donation from First Methodist Midland

Posted on 13Apr CATEGORIES: General, Missions News


The Midland Soup Kitchen Ministry is a busy and lively place at lunchtime. Midlanders of all ages, races, and religions DSC_0079surround the long cafeteria-style tables from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day of the week in an old YMCA building near De Zavala Elementary School.
 
Monday, First Methodist Midland Senior Pastor Dr. Tim Walker, strolled through the front doors for the first time?a smile on his face and a check in his pocket.
 
Dr. Walker met with Nancy Ivy, daughter of the Midland Soup Kitchen Ministry’s founder, and her husband Jason. The two were brought to tears when Dr. Walker placed a check for $10,435 in their hands. The money was the result of a special Easter Sunday offering collected during worship.

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Nancy Ivy told Dr. Walker that her family has been feeding hungry Midlanders for 30 years.

DSC_0077“One day dad said: I want to do more Lord, I want to do more, I feel like I’m not doing enough,” Ivy recalls. “So when you ask the Lord that, be ready because he’s going to answer you and be ready to accept it.”

Ivy says her family started feeding about two or three people a day that her father would just find on the streets.

Through a lot of fishing trips, which is where Mariano did a lot of thinking and convening with God, he realized that feeding the hungry was his calling. From that point on, Mariano new what he needed to do.

“I’ve seen my parents have nothing and still give something and that’s mainly how the ministry began,” she told Dr. Walker.

DSC_0065Today, the Midland Soup Kitchen Ministry feeds about 100 to 120 people every day. Ivy says that number has grown as the local economy continues to struggle due to low oil prices.

From 11:45 a.m. to noon, Jason Ivy leads everyone in worship.

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“We always want the spirit of God to be in here. Always. Because that’s what brings comfort. It’s not Jason and I. I’m just the tool. It’s the spirit of God that comes in this place and gives comfort,” she tells Dr. Walker, emphasizing that worship is not an obligation in order to get a meal.

The Midland Soup Kitchen Ministry does not receive any government grants. It only survives upon the generosity of churches, organizations, and individuals.

“This [check] is going to be amazing. This money here, it’s been prayed for and I can say that,” she says, holding back tears, “because our whole kitchen needs new flooring. Things need to happen in this ministry. This is an old building. This [money] helps us buy food, pay the bills, because if the gas is not on and the lights are out, I can’t feed.”

DSC_0083“This helps us in all aspects of the ministry and, like I said, if it wasn’t for [First Methodist Midland] and the Lord Jesus, we couldn’t do what we do.”
For more information about the Midland Soup Kitchen Ministry, visit

https://www.facebook.com/Midland-Soup-Kitchen-Ministry-766027770099887/?fref=ts.