OKC Faith Church: Back-to-School Blessings

Every fall, Oklahoma City Faith Church of Oklahoma City reaches out to the kids (and their parents) of their community with a massive cookout and backpack giveaway.

"Well, we have a multitude of items. We give away backpacks, pencils, pens, paper, notebook, pocket folders, Kleenex, and a lot of things that are required by the schools," says Lisa Matthew.

"People always hear the Gospel. But we didn’t want to just share the Gospel—we wanted to show the Gospel," says Senior Pastor Terry Bates.

The day is filled with entertainment, food, and free school supplies.

"We give away school supplies, and for a lot of people that is why they come," adds Pastor Terry's wife, Robin Bates. And the feeding is just an added bonus to it. We give Jesus away in the process because we give them a Gospel message. So, it’s giving Him away."

"You wanna see people get saved, and you have a heart to see people get saved," says Spanish Ministries pastor, Paul Ramon. "Automatically you start seeing all these hands go up throughout the whole sanctuary."

Even the workers are blessed. "The faces bless me because you can see the thankfulness and the gratefulness in the faces of the children," says a volunteer.

A mother of some of the students appreciates the outreach. "They’re very thoughtful. That is so giving. A church like that—makes you wanna go to it," she says.

"God calls all of us to do something, and this is my little part of helping," says another church worker.

Congratulations to Oklahoma City Faith church of Oklahoma City for being America’s Church of the Week.