OAK GROVE, Mo. -- One month ago FOX 4 told you about an Oak Grove food pantry whose truck went up in flames. Just four weeks later, they have a new truck thanks to generous donors -- but not any just any donors. FOX 4 viewers.
"I just didn't see any way as a small church we could come up with the money we needed to replace the truck," said pastor John Jones of Faith in Christ Fellowship.
Many in the congregation worried that prayer wouldn't be enough.
"As someone that trusts God that should have been my first reaction -- God will take care of this," food pantry manager Sylvanna Wilson said. "But I'm human, and my worry was the first thing that hit."
When the story originally aired on FOX 4, our viewers answered the call.
"To have it come together in less than two weeks, really, and to have even more than what we initially asked for to cover all of our other costs -- God just really blessed us, and he used FOX 4 viewers to do that. Isn't that cool?" Jones said.
People gave anywhere from one dollar to hundreds, and one donor put them almost $1,000 over their goal.
"She looked at us, and she said, 'You know, I'm going to write this for $2,000 just so that you have extra to do whatever fees and whatnot you need,'" Jones said.
The pantry feeds about 250 people each week, and their new truck holds around one ton more food than before.
"It wasn't going to quit. It wasn't going to end. God said, 'No, we're not done with you. We're going to keep going, and we're going to make sure that you're blessed with better than what you had.' And that's what he's provided is better than what we had before," Wilson said.
"It definitely happened for a reason," Jones said. "I believe that through this event, he confirmed that this is something we need to be doing for the community."
Although the church has a new truck, they say the real gift donors gave is to the families that count on the pantry each week.
"It's not just food. It's not just fellowship. It's not just the blessing of knowing there's someone out there that cares," Wilson said. "It's the stability of community that's going to bless them for the rest of their life."
Jones said the leftover funds are in an account that will help take care of the truck's costs over its lifetime.
