Lenore Loxsom-Salazar and other volunteers for the Eagle Rock church "soup kitchen" served up full plates for guests who came for the weekly free meal. For several years, four teams of eight or 10 willing volunteers have rotated to maintain the congregation's community food ministry.

"Our volunteers prepare restaurant-quality food," said interim pastor Howard Flynn. "We treat the guests, many of whom are homeless, with great respect. Guests can take food home if they wish, and we give them clothing and other help as needed." Special dinners are served on Christmas and New Year's Day, with gifts of personal items and candy.

Meals begin with a devotional, which Flynn keeps brief. "These people are hungry," commented Flynn. "We don't want to keep them waiting long." As many as 50 guests come each week.

In recent months some guests have requested studies with a pastor and a few have attended the midweek service. Both the service and the Monday-evening meals are followed by Celebrate Recovery meetings, a Christian ministry that deals with addiction recovery. A third CR meeting is scheduled on Saturday evenings.

Susan Kunkel, RN, coordinates the church's CR ministry. "One young woman who was hard core into the occult has begun Bible studies and is turning her life around," she explained.

"A young couple who attends our meetings plan to attend 'Renovatus,' our Friday evening young adult service," Kunkel added. "Russell McDonald, another ministry volunteer, has been opening new concepts to them from the Bible, correlating CR principles with Scripture."

The CR program directory lists 74 groups in the area, giving the Eagle Rock group a substantial support and referral network. "We are dealing with people who are often in denial," Kunkel noted. "We celebrated with one man who said he had been ‘clean' for a year, later learning otherwise when his case worker called. I tried calling him, but only got his voice mail. We coached him via voicemail messages and his text message responses. Since then, he has celebrated a bona fide year of sobriety."

Through CR networking, Kunkel or the pastoral staff are notified when individuals are being released from prison into the area. An attorney faxed that a young woman parolee wanted to make Eagle Rock her church home and attend the CR meetings. The soup kitchen and CR also receive referrals from 211, a phone number listing community service options.

For more information, contact Susan Kunkel at 323-257-5803.