The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
HOMEMADE, HEARTY, SATISFYING
Group effort means poor aren’t hungry on these days
Barbara Ballard’s easy laugh and gentle ways mask a tough determination to live faithfully by serving needs of the local poor and homeless.
So when winds howl and snow swirls, Barbara and her husband, Clarence Ballard, think of those strolling the streets by the hour with no warm shelter or food.
They rouse themselves to faithful service, and show up at Greater Victory Christian Ministries, 559 Reid Ave., Lorain, ready to cook hearty pots of chili with cornbread, spaghetti with salad, or baked chicken with green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy.
“In the wintertime, we like to do food that is going to keep you warmer and feeling full longer,” she said. “There’s a need. There are a lot of people who are hungry. That’s a need and somebody has got to do it. I’ve been fortunate. I was labeled with an eye ailment. I made it if the Lord would let me see, I would do for Him for as long as I live.”
The soup kitchen at Greater Victory is open the first and second Saturdays of each month, she said. They give out bags of food to families on those days, as well as on the fourth Sunday of the month when money can be tight for people on fixed incomes.
They’re also involved in fundraisers, such as a recent soul food dinner, to provide money for the food pantry, she said.
“There is really a need. You would be surprised,” Ballard said. “We feed 75 to 100 people. Sometimes they’re the same ones; sometimes they’re different.”
Ballard insists she’s one of many church workers who share the servant heart. They make sure to offer rolls and dessert as a special touch.
“But sometimes in the summertime we make one of these big hoagie sandwiches and cut off a piece and give it to them with salad with all the trimmings and dessert, especially if the weather is really nice. It depends on what we can get from the cupboard for our soup kitchen,” Ballard said. “Whatever we get, a lot of that is what we try to feed them. We try to fix something that is good and healthy for them. We really don’t have a whole lot of complaints.”
She said the crew appreciates teenagers from the
PACE Foundation who help on Saturdays.
And last Saturday men from a motorcycle club helped serve food, she said.
“This ministry was Inez James’ baby,” Ballard said. “She says, ‘I get it started. I’m working myself out of a job.’ She’s got a heart of gold. We’ve been doing this and God has been good to us. We have managed to keep it going, but trust me: It is a job. When that snow is out there real bad and
“In the wintertime, we like to do food that is going to keep you warmer and feeling full longer. There’s a need. There are a lot of people who are hungry. That’s a need and somebody has got to do it. I’ve been fortunate. I was labeled with an eye ailment. I made it if the Lord would let me see, I would do for Him for as long as I live..”
— Barbara Ballard, Greater Victory Christian Ministries volunteer
that wind is blowing, when you want to go back to your bed, the Spirit says, ‘No. You have to go to the church.’ At 11:30 the doors open. They will be there. We serve lunch at noon. We always have a fresh brewed pot of coffee for them. They’re depending on you to do this. It’s a way to keep on going.
“God has been good to me, and I try to be faithful to do whatever it is he needs me to do,” Ballard said. “My husband keeps me going. He is the driver. He picks up the food. We have a good crew of people.”
Knowing the need stretches beyond the hot meals, the church also provides for each person bags of food from Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio on Baumhart Road in Lorain. Jerri Evans oversees that effort, she said.
“Some people, they come to the end. You would be surprised of the people who walk up and down,” Ballard said. “They don’t have any place to go. The shelter lets you come in the evening. In the morning they put you out. They don’t have anywhere to go but the library, and walk up and down the street.
“When all of the places that were in business around here are out of business now, you have a lot of homeless people,” Ballard said. “You have a lot of people who have lost jobs. With no jobs that means you will have no money. The Bible says, ‘The poor you will have with you always.’ There’s a lot of that.”
The most heartwarming part of stirring pots of hot food in the kitchen week after week is the response, she said.
“When they get ready to go, they say, ‘Thank you. We enjoyed the meal,’” Ballard said. “And they always want to say, ‘God bless you.’ That’s when we know, ‘Yeah, we’re in the right place. We’re doing the right thing.’
“There’s a big need in Lorain County,” Ballard said. “That’s mainly why I do it, because there is a need. That’s really a calling.”
“That’s mainly why I do it, because there is a need. That’s really a calling.”
— Barbara Ballard