As the Missions staff at Houston’s First began praying about how to serve frontline medical workers during the coronavirus outbreak, they began to see God move.

“Our Missions team was praying about what hospital we should reach out to and then we were forwarded a community email blast from Harris Health System that same day requesting food,” Minister of Mobilization Ameer Omar explains. Harris Health System operates two local hospitals — Ben Taub Hospital and Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital. “It was pretty clear that these were the hospitals we were going to partner with. It was God leading us and answering our prayer on the same day.”

That email blast was forwarded by Houston’s First member Terri Toy who serves on the Missions Council and is involved in medical mobilization efforts, which includes leading the Cambodia medical mission trip. Omar and Toy began working together on how to coordinate food to send to the hospitals. Omar explains how this also led to an answered prayer.

“I was on the phone with Terri and we were praying about how we get food to medical workers.” Omar explains. “And then, while we were praying on the phone, I received an email from two Houston’s First staff leaders saying that they want to utilize our culinary team to make meals and asked if we knew of any such need in our community.”

Missions delivers lunches prepared by the Houston’s First Culinary Services team to staff members at the two hospitals, with 200 meals going to each hospital each week. They go to one hospital on Tuesday and another on Thursday and plan on this schedule through the month of May.

“The 200 meals we send are enough to feed the entire staff for lunch,” Toy shares. “Our contact with Harris Health has expressed appreciation for the generosity of our church during this time”

The Missions staff is also exercising precaution as they deliver the meals.

“Our staff wears masks and gloves as they deliver the meals. They also don’t go inside the hospital,” Omar says. “They just hand it over to a contact person from the hospital.”

Each meal comes with a note from Houston’s First that encourages the hospital staff members and let’s them know we appreciate them and are praying for them.

“We wanted to provide a note encouraging the hospital staff and thanking them for their service. We have included our website and social media handles on the card so they can connect with us,” Omar explains.

Omar shares the importance of showing God’s love to frontline workers during this trying time.

“Jesus didn’t come to be served but to serve, and we should take the same posture.” Omar says. “The hospital staff are dealing with a lot of stress right now so providing food for them lets them know that they are loved and that their work during this time is seen.”