Each Monday night, a group of 15 to 20 Harding students spend their evenings ministering to those with not only physical needs, but with spiritual needs as well. This group of college students walks from trailer house to trailer house delivering pizzas and different items to local residents in hope of eventually getting the chance to share the Bibl
Sophomore Isaac Pannell, a ministry and Spanish major, started helping with the “Pizza Ministry” because he said he thought it was a good way to reach out to people. According to Pannell, former Harding graduate Braden Kehl originally started the group, but when it was time for him to graduate, Pannell stepped in.
“It was originally mostly a group of guys from Gamma Sigma Phi that went out to the trailer park,” Pannell said. “Then eventually it became a mixture of students.
Each week, the local Little Caesar’s restaurant donates 15-20 Hot ‘N Ready pizzas to the ministry group and then they deliver each pizza to different families throughout the trailer park located behind College Church.
Pannell said they knock on doors, pray with the families and try to get to know the families better. Many of the residents are Spanish-speaking, which presents somewhat of a challenge, but has also given them an opportunity to teach the Bible.
In an effort to help the people improve their English, Pannell and several others have been trying to teach English using the Bible.
“We use the Bible to read from and that’s just kind of how we teach them,” Pannell said. “So we’re teaching them English, but we’re also teaching them the Bible and reaching out. We haven’t started having real in-depth studies with them yet, but we’re going through and teaching them who Jesus is. We’re teaching them why he is important and just showing them love.”
Along with teaching the Bible through language learning, they have also started conducting children’s classes and trying to build relationships with the children. Pannell said now that the parents have become more comfortable with the Harding students and more trusting, the group has been able to have more interaction with the childr
The Student Association recently donated leftover stuffed toys from the LaPlace Disaster Relief trip to the pizza ministry, which they handed out at their trunk-or-treat
“We wanted to have something for the kids during Halloween, but with club week going on the same week, we didn’t get a chance,” Pannell said. “We just decided to go ahead and have trunk-or-treat this week and pass out candy and the stuffed toys.”
The ministry group is hoping to continue to do more work in the future. As of right now, they plan to continue delivering pizzas and host a clothes and toy drive closer to the Christmas holiday.
To get more information on how to get involved with the ministry, contact the group on Facebook; Pizza Ministry.
