Like any church, Dellwood Baptist is always looking for a way to do God’s work. Whether it’s inviting people to a regular Sunday morning, making room for visitors during a special service, holding a softball tournament on Friday night for a cause, or organizing an event like brotherhood, members of DBC are constantly trying to make a positive difference and live like Jesus. The latest of the church’s charitable undertakings is a blessing box situated outside the church, and Pastor Joe Bedgood hopes the public will take advantage of the newest outreach.
He explained to The Chronicle on Friday that the ministry began as an idea from another area pastor, Rev. Louis Pearce.
“Brother Pearce had mentioned doing a blessing box a while back, but it never really transpired,” Bedgood explained. “He had the initial idea, and we at Dellwood picked the idea up. My wife, Michelle—she’s the one who said, ‘Hey, we need to do this.’ I’d say between Brother Pearce and her, that’s where the idea came from.”
Sure enough, the simple wooden structure with front-opening cabinets and shelving installed on the inside was built by Brian Shumans, a member of Dellwood Baptist. The box went up the last weekend in August, then was lettered and filled with nonperishables sometime last week.
While three adults are to credit for the box’s start, a surprising age group is behind its operation. Bedgood says Dellwood’s kids are being charged with keeping the Blessing Box going.
“It’s a ministry outreach for the Dellwood Baptist children. They were the ones who stocked it this first time, and they’ll be the ones making sure canned goods are in it. It’s going to be their outreach to keep them engaged in the community. Hopefully, the Blessing Box teaches them that sometimes you can’t meet the needs people have, but you can work with other people through God to meet them.”
The Blessing Box is open to anyone, not just the Dellwood community in which the church is situated. Bedgood says people from all over can take from the box, add to it, or both.