Hub seeks to uphold Easter by providing meals to needy

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

Thoughts turn to those facing hard times at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and charitable organizations often make meals celebrating the holidays available for those who otherwise would be forced to do without.
For Christians, however, a day is approaching that for them stands in importance above the birth of Christ. Although not part of a six-week commercial mega-holiday, and lacking shopping sprees and a shift in radio airplay reflecting the season, Easter is the seminal event and basis for the Christian tradition.
For many, though, it does share with the other holidays a meal of traditional foods. And meals, celebratory or not, are as hard to come by for many as they were three and four months ago.
Enter Matthew 25 Hub, an organization made up of churches and other organizations “coming together as the Body of Christ to more effectively minister to people in need in Smyth County,” its brochure said.
The Hub’s coordinator is Linda Stransky who said Monday the organization will again distribute Easter meals “from ham to pie” for families in need. Stransky is now accepting both requests for meals and sponsorships.
The Hub will offer three meal sizes and corresponding levels of sponsorship. “It’s $15 to sponsor a small meal, $20 for a medium meal, and $25 for a large family,” she said.
“There’s also an Easter devotion with each meal,” Stransky said, for “the most important observance in the Christian year.”
To sponsor or request meals, contact Stransky at 782-3339. That number rings at Project Crossroads, where many know Stransky as the director of new ministries development. While she bridges the two entities, they remain separate organizations. Donations for either must include clear identification of which organization is the intended recipient.
Stransky started Matthew 25 Hub in 2007 to get churches of all Christian denominations working together for three reasons, she said.
The first reason is “just to be in conversation, to get the feel of being the Body of Christ. We have different theologies, but all share the calling of Matthew 25.”
That’s the chapter in the Bible where the King James Version has Christ saying of service to others, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Stransky’s second reason for starting the Hub is “to empower what the churches are already doing,” she said.
Finally, the cooperating churches embrace “current issues in the community that agencies might not be addressing.”
In addition to the Easter meals, Matthew 25 Hub has sponsored an Adopt-a-Room at the Agape House, a shelter for unwed mothers that needed repairs for which money was not available. “Churches bought supplies and each completed a room,” Stransky said. “It’s ready to accept people.”
In the fall, at Mount Zion Temple’s annual Community energizer, the Hub assisted with the existing ministry of providing shoe vouchers through Walmart.
The Hub grows a community garden near the old Buster Brown plant in Marion. “We give the food away,” Stransky said.
“If you look at each one of these things, it’s not huge,” she said. “But it lets people know they are not forgotten. It gives them a little bit of hope. They are not alone in this.”
While the Hub helps people, it also helps helpers.
“In this part of the country, so many churches and small and rural and don’t have resources,” Stransky said. “This lets them come together and do more than they can on their own.”
Donations may be left at Project Crossroads, 136 Snider Branch Road, Marion and Stransky said donations for Easter meals must be so-marked.
Stransky urges interested churches to consider becoming part of the Hub that meets normally the second Monday of each month, “but call ahead to be sure the meeting is still on,” she said.

dkegley@wythenews.com