News From The Assembly

Disciples Help At The Northside Inter-Church Agency
July 21, 2007 - Disciples News Service - Fort Worth, Texas

Disciples from several congregations around the country pitched in during pre-events at the General Assembly to aid the Northside Inter-Church Agency (NICA), located in a low-income Hispanic neighborhood north of the city.

First Christian Church in Liberal, Kansas, had volunteers there Friday, building shelves in the large pantry and stocking non-perishable food.

Clint Horton, 17, was among several young men tucked away in a corner of the pantry stacking 500 cases of grapefruit juice, each case weighing 37 pounds, that had just been donated. The pantry also had shelves loaded with paper and plastic sacks of all types of non-perishable food, as well as several freezers and refrigerators. In an adjoining rooms were racks of clothes.

"We're doing this to help those in need," Horton said. "We're ready to help anyone in need."

Caity Hinnergardt, 13, busily loaded canned goods into a cabinet labeled "Homeless Food."

"I feel good when I'm helping people," she said.

NICA Director Connie Nahoolewa, watching the Disciples volunteers scurry about the building, said the agency's purpose is to prevent poverty by helping people in need help themselves and their neighbors.

"We try to help them escape poverty by educating families and also by helping their children stay in school," Nahoolewa said. "We have an advisory council of clients and, when asked their goals, they replied that they wanted their kids to get higher education. So we help high school students by paying them to be mentors to younger children. Their pay must go into a bank account for college."

One of NICA's long-time supporters is the River Oaks Christian Church in Fort Worth. Helen Harris and M.B. Lee said their small church manages to send quite a few volunteers to work on a regular basis during the year.

Cheryl Horton, one of the three adults from First Christian in Liberal, said her group visited a Mental Health and Mental Retardation facility the day before, feeding and playing games with the residents.

"We are excited to have all of these Disciples around this week," Nahoolewa said.

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By:  John Hotard, freelance writer