By Josh Mitchell
Corinth Today News Editor
As R.M. Brooks stood next to boxes of food at Pinecrest Baptist Church in Corinth, he gripped a large thank you card from local children.
“They look so much forward to that little blue bag that we carry them every weekend,” Brooks said. “They appreciate that so much.”
Brooks’ ministry provides children with snack packs to take home on weekends.
One day children poured out of Corinth Elementary waving and offering thanks. Inside the large thank you card were letters from the students expressing their appreciation.
But Brooks is quick to say that he takes no credit for the ministry, which is called Pinecrest Weekend Snackpacks for Kids.
“People say that I started this, but I didn’t start this,” Brooks said. “God started this. He just uses me to do it. I take no credit for it at all.”
The ministry, which has numerous volunteers, started about five years ago after Brooks was “saved.”
The Corinth Civitans are recognizing local ministries this month, and Brooks spoke to the group Wednesday at Pizza Grocery.
In each one of the snackpacks is a card that says “Every good gift . . . is from God . . .”
Brooks said he is happy to talk to people about what Jesus has done in his life. He lived for 69 years without knowing Christ and said the last five years have been the happiest of his life.
Before he was saved, his wife made him go to church, but he was not excited about it. Now, he is a Sunday school superintendent.
Shortly after he was saved, Brooks heard the lyrics “amazing grace, my chains are gone, I’ve been set free.” He could “hardly sit still” in the pew, and now he witnesses to people so they can know the joy he feels.
Soon after finding the Lord, Brooks got a feeling that God wanted him to do something, and he talked to his preacher. They prayed about it, and the preacher’s wife mentioned a snackpack program in Arkansas.
“When she told me that I said, ‘That’s it. That’s what I want to do.”’
The program is run by donations from individuals and others. For instance, Modern Woodmen has provided matching funds.
The program has expanded to include a pantry so families can get food, clothes and other items. Gardner’s Supermarket donated shopping carts that families use in the pantry.
The ministry also helps in other ways such as building a wheelchair ramp for a woman’s house.
“We try to help anybody we can,” Brooks noted. “It’s just something that blesses my heart to do.”
He also helps the Gideons replace Bibles in hotels and says God is his “strength.”
People can donate food such as cereal, mac and cheese, granola bars, juice boxes and fruit for the snackpacks, he added. The goal is to give the children healthy food.
“We’ve been putting apples in all the bags lately,” Brooks said.
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