ExecMagazine

I first met Lucious about 10 years ago.  He came to our church to make an appeal for help.  Here is how I remember his story.

About 22 years ago, at age 70, Lucious Newsome, then a Baptist minister in Chattanooga Tennessee was invited to Indianapolis by a friend to help feed the poor for Thanksgiving.  He was overwhelmed by the amount of hungry people that really had no one to care for them.  After that days feeding, he asked his friend, “so what do we do now?”  He was told that he should go back to Tennessee and if he wanted to, he could come back next year.  “But they will still be hungry tomorrow, he said”.  Therein formed the ground work for what would become “the Lords Pantry.

Having compassion for the hungry, Lucious went to Baptist elders to get help in furthering his cause and was turned away.  Without pride he went asking help to the Catholic Church and found a group that would help begin his ministry.  Aside from the food, his first mission was to get table to serve the food on.  “These people should not have to pick up the food from the ground”, he says.

10 years ago is when I first rode with Lucious, we went in a caravan of mini vans and started stopping in at grocery stores.  He had already set up a couple of these stops in advance so the hard work was done.  I would come to find that in my own efforts to secure additional food from stores, that they were not open to this, as there were liability issues regarding handing over dated food.  Corporations did not need this kind of liability. 

Not having helped Lucious since last Christmas, my wife and I found we needed to help out again.  There were no big surprises, but it left me once again feeling the need to do more.  I told Lucious that I had a few dollars that I could help with and what did he want me to do?  In the past, he first asked me to pay a few peoples electric bills.  A couple of years later he told me a story about a battered woman that had to leave her house in the middle of the night and literally had nothing.  Her kids slept on the floor and that just wasn’t right.  He told me that I needed to get them beds… but there was a twist.  While I could have easily gone out and bought beds, he told me that I needed to beg for them.  I would need to ask people if they would give me a bed.  Needless to say, I was shaken up.  I went into work the next day and began begging people for beds.  Within 10 minutes I found a coworker whose mother had passed away and they needed to empty there house.  He was happy to donate them to me.  I needed to borrow a truck to pick them up, 50, miles away.  A friend was happy to loan me his truck.  That day my wife and then 8 year old son had our own little mission and we accomplished it.

Today, while he was busy feeding 2-300 people, I told Lucious that I had a few dollars that I could help him with.  He immediately told someone… “Get me my little girl; you have got to meet her”.  In came a very attractive 15 or 16 year old girl.  She was a high school student and a few months ago she had told Lucious that she wanted to open up a place for battered women.  You see, while Lucious spends much of his time feeding the poor, he is also a champion for battered women as well.  This young lady began telling me about her little project.  Lucious had a beaten down property close to the women’s prison that was all boarded up and in need of repair.  She began to tell me how she and some friends had already pulled 4 dumpsters full of trash out of the house and that they would have to totally renovate it.  She had already found a plumber and carpenters.  She needed an electrician and money.  She would have a massive group of people helping her out on December 8^th, 2007.  After helping out today we drove by this house and it looked like a war zone.  How could this young gal put this together?  It’s really quite simple, we are all put here to help each other.  Now it’s time for me to beg.

I don’t know how far this will go, but if anyone can help physically or monetarily, here are the details. The property that will be worked on is at 242 and 244 Hendricks Street, in Indianapolis.  It is a one way street and you must get there off of New York Street.  If you would like to meet Lucious in person, come down on any Saturday to:  The Lords Pantry, 303 Elder Street, Indianapolis, IN 46222.  Be prepared to meet someone special.

Should you feel generous enough to donate jackets, please be sure that they are new and nothing less than what you would want to wear yourself.  As I’ve come to learn, each person that we serve IS CHRIST!!!  I would never want to give Him anything more than the best.

If you would like to meet the closest resemblance to Christ, come and meet Lucious Newsome.  Ask him what he needs you to beg for?  For more information or further verification of the lords pantry and this ministry, contact editor@execmagazine.com