Charity creates line at the pump
Published: May 16, 2008
With motorists paying nearly $4 a gallon for gasoline, many residents are having a hard time taking care of their families and paying for gas to drive to and from work. A Wilmington church decided to provide some help for those families and others by following Jesus’ philosophy — Give and it shall be given unto you.
The Bible Baptist Church of Wilmington sponsored a gas buy-down Saturday at J & D Corner Market on U.S. 22 and 3 at Sligo.
“We partnered with the gas station here and we’re lowering the price of gasoline 40 cents a gallon from 10 a.m. to noon only,” said Pastor Kelley McInerney Saturday morning. “We’re picking up the cost of that 40 cents a gallon so the store owner is not out anything.”
McInerney continued, “With the high prices of gas and the way it’s crunching everybody’s budgets, we thought this was a very tangible way that we could show the love of Christ to people by giving.”
When the promotion began at 10 a.m. Saturday, J & D’s lot was full and vehicles were backed up in both directions on U.S. 22. Two sheriff’s deputies took care of traffic control on the highway and members of the church assisted with traffic control on the lot, guiding motorists to the pumps and out of the lot by way of the back of the building.
“Our church philosophy is not to take but to give so this is a way we can make a difference in a lot of people’s lives,” McInerney said. “Our deacons are working the pumps and we’re handing out free bottles of water and popcorn and we’re offering to wash windshields for folks.”
Customers driving anything from a small Jeep to a Hummer took advantage of the cut in price for the gasoline. Many brought gas containers to be filled as well.
One customer, who identified herself as Debbie, was excited after filling up her Suburban. “I have never filled up before and it was right to the penny — it was $100 and it (pump) shut off,” she said as she showed her receipt from the pump. “It’s (price of gas) just about breaking us right now.”
Jim Keeton, owner of J & D Corner Market said a total of 2,757 gallons of gasoline was sold during the two hours. Cost of the gasoline to the church was $1,102.80.
“It was very successful,” Keeton said. “They (Bible Baptist) had a wonderful turnout. It went really smooth. We get a lot of regular customers from Bible Baptist Church and we were happy to do this for the community. And we’re hoping we’ll gain some new customers out of this.”
At noon there were still six or eight cars on the lot, Keeton said.
“I would encourage other churches to take that admonition of the Lord and believe it — Give and It Shall be Given,” McInerney said. “And this is just a real practical way — especially with the high gas prices — that people can realize, ‘Hey, there’s people who care and they’re trying to help us.’ It’s a great outreach.”
Pastor McInerney said he has heard of gas buy-downs across the country. “We’ve never seen one in our area so we thought we would be the first to try it. We appreciate Jim Keeton letting us partner with him and providing his facility to us and letting us do this work. It’s a community thing.”
McInerney and members of the church also promoted Friend Day on May 18 at the Clinton County Fairground. The theme for Friend Day is, ‘You have a friend at Bible Baptist Church.’ “We’re also giving out tickets to our Friend Day, our big pig roast dinner next Sunday at the fairground. We reserved the whole fairgrounds, the grandstand and all the buildings and we’re having a gospel concert with the Hoppers, a national gospel group. We’re having the free pig roast, beef and chicken dinner. It’s all free after the concert. It’s our biggest annual event that we do. There’ll be things for the kids and gifts for everybody. It kind of coincides with our anniversary of celebration.”
Last year, over 1,700 people attended Friend Day. “Last year was a record. We’re thinking we may break that this year, especially if the weather’s nice,” McInerney said. “Our church supplies all the beef, pork and chicken. Every one of our families brings a dessert and some ladies sign up for the vegetables and potato salad and things like that. But the guests don’t have to bring anything.”
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