iTouch Fort Worth

FORT WORTH – The Grace Temple Seventh-day Adventist Church embarked upon touching 120,000 people within Fort Worth, Tex., through random and intentional acts of kindness during the 2020 fiscal year. We called this outreach “iTouch Fort Worth.”

Our purpose was to create sensitivity for community consciousness and service. To facilitate that, we modified our Sabbath School and worship times on Saturdays to allow members to meet at the church in the morning to pray and then go out to participate in several outreach services. 

These services programs included: “Praise at the Pump” (giving away gas cards), “Loads of Love” (providing coins for laundry), “Gracious Groceries” (bagging groceries), “Adopt-a-Block” (cleaning a block near the church), “Adopt First Responders” (praying for our first responders), participating in our local Meals on Wheels or helping out at our local homeless shelters. In addition, we “adopted” nearby Dunbar High School and got involved in “Dads for Dunbar.”

Other service programs were performed on weekdays and on special days such as: “Layla’s Lunches,” “Feed My Starving Children” and bike giveaways, to name a few. Our food pantry also led the way in feeding hundreds of people and providing much-needed face masks, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the service programs have motivated us, it has been the stories about caring for our community that have inspired us. For example, we met a homeless woman at a shelter who had received a care package, a meal and prayer. After receiving these tokens of kindness, she teared up because she realized that people still care.

The pandemic has not stopped us. We are still serving our community and touching hearts and lives. Our goal is to touch 120,000 by the end of 2020. But most importantly, our goal is to see community transformation. In The Ministry of Healing, Ellen G. White says, “The poor are to be relieved, the sick cared for, the sorrowing and the bereaved comforted… Accompanied by the power of persuasion, the power of prayer, the power of the love of God, this work will not, cannot, be without fruit… that this type of work ‘will not, cannot be without fruit.’” 

By Johnny McKenzie