Ulysses Ministerial Alliance Hosts Annual Soup Supper

Managing Editor/Publisher

Soup was on!

Ulysses' Ministerial Alliance hosted their annual Soup Supper February 10, at Grant County Civic Center in Ulysses. The annual event not only appeals to the palate, it serves to help those in need.

"It's purely for the benevolence fund that we, as participating Christian churches do together," explained New Beginnings Co-Pastor Larry Borthwick of where the funds go. "If somebody in need comes to one of the churches that participates and needs some kind of benevolence support, each church, wherever they go, has the right, and normally a budget, to offer some kind of assistance."

According to Borthwick, who is the chairman of the soup supper,  "often times, people asking for help aren't necessarily  associated with the congregation."

"So, what we have estabalished," Borthwick explained, "we send them to one person and that person is Samantha Sanchez at the Methodist Church."

Borthwick says when someone goes to Sanchez, she then has a process she goes through with them.

"When the person gets there, (Samantha) asks them for legal identification, so we understand that they are a legal resident and then she talks to them about what their need is, whether it is a utility bill, hospital bill, or whatever" Borthwick said. "She asks to see a copy of the bill and explains to them how much we have authorized for that kind of assistance. She explains to them how our system works and then if they are still willing to participate, then she fills out a little half page form they will take to the police department. The police department then makes sure there are no outstanding wants or warrants for the individual and signs off if they are fine."

From there, Borthwick explained, the "client" will take their form to wherever the need is.

"Whether that is for their rent, food or whatever - using the form as a receipt," he said. "They get the service and then whoever it is that has the bill, say a landlord, will send it to the Ministerial Alliance and we pay for it. The individual themselves never see any cash."

The old way of doing it, pastors would take turns handling benevolence requests.

"When I came here 12 years ago, it was before the system with Samantha," Borthwick said. "I would take a month and everybody would send them to me no matter who they were or what their need was. I completing the filling in of the forms, explaining the system, etc., and then the next month it would be one of the other pastors and so on. It works better now that we send them to a certain location. The one thing I miss a little is knowing who to pray for and what their need is. How to encourage them. Now most of the time, I don't even know they had a need, because I'm not the one who sent them down there. Samantha meets with the Ministerial Alliance on a routine basis and she talks to us about who the clients have been what help they needed so administratively we know, but as far as more personal contact not necessarily."

Although the Ministerial Alliance primarily assists residents of Grant County, they have helped others.

"We have helped those passing through before," Borthwick said. "That is a little different situation the majority of the time. If they are not residents, sometimes they need a place to stay for the night, so we might help put them up in a motel room or if they need fuel - we have helped with both of those needs."

Each individual need has an amount associated with it that the Alliance has established is an amount they can assist with. And all of the assistance is done through the money raised at the annual soup supper.

"It is the only fundraiser we do," Borthwick said.

The recent event, once again, had a good turnout.

"The number of people who came was probably around what we expected," Borthwick said. "We were pleased with the number of people, but compared to last year the receipts were down some. It wasn't enough to be alarming, but they were down."

Borthwick said the Alliance would prefer not to release the amount of money they raised from the event, which included a "pie auction".

"The money from the auction all goes in to the same funding account," he said. "People normally donate pies and we call it the pie auction, but we have had one individual who is somewhat known in the community for being a good cook. He will normally smoke a brisket. It is all food items in our auction."

There were 20 or more items in this year's auction, Borthwick said, with some going for more than $100 each.

"Again, we have certain people in the community who are known for their baking," Borthwick said. "Janet Long, for example, if people hear Janet Long has a pie here - that's a big deal. People like to pay for Janet Long's pies. It's kind of the same way with the soups. Jerry Dupree, for example, he makes gumbo. We don't get gumbo very often in Western Kansas, so when Jerry makes a big pot of gumbo - that's always a big hit."

As for the soups, there was a lot to choose from.

"We literally have everything imaginable," Borthwick said. "From chicken noocle to gumb, all kinds of chili, all kinds of taco soups... The churches that want to participate in this, we have a form letter saying we need help with this activity or that one. We ask them to bring soups or crockpots and then we let them decide what they want to bring. They just show up with it and we provide them a spot for it."

Set up for the event this year was quick and easy.

"We actually had some high school kids come in at 2 and they helped set up all of the tables and chairs and the rest of the set up," Borthwick said. "We were done by 2:30. I told the kids I have been doing this 12 years and we have set a brand new set up record by at least an hour. I told them I really appreciated them. They were great. They just took right after it."

People started bringing food in for the event around 4 p.m.

"We also ask the churches to bring a share of crackers, carrot sticks, and celery in addition to the individuals bringing the soup and pies," Borthwick said. "There were a lot of pies and desserts not in the auction, so we had a group in the kitchen cutting them in to serving sizes. Normally, that takes an hour or so. We try to be done with the event itself around 7 or shortly thereafter. Also on the form we send out we ask for volunteers to help clean up afterwards. By 8 p.m., we are normally out of there."

The event is important to assist the churches with reaching out to help those in need, but it also has another importance attached to it.

"Getting the Christian churches to work together is one of the reasons it is important," Borthwick said. "I love sitting here and listening to all of the chatter, catching up on families, grandkids, health conditions - it's just neat to see different Christian churches, different denominations, working side by side for a common goal. I think that is what Christ had in mind when he started the church in the first place. I just really enjoy that part of it."

Borthwick says through their benevolence program they are able to help.

"And because of the system we have in place, we can help people who aren't necessarily members of the churches, but who need help, and we can do it in a financially responsible way," he added. "Once or twice a year, we in the Ministerial Alliance, will get a text to our group saying there was an individual who came to the church and wanted help. But, after we explained the system to them and how they could access it, they didn't want to do it for whatever reason. There may be a reason for them not wanting to participate, but we want to be good stewards of God's money that people in the community have given us. In my years of ministry, I have never seen it done in another way community wise as efficiently as we do."

Borthwick wasn't sure how long the soup supper has been going on, however, he said, he knows it has been there for awhile.

"My first one was in 2013," he said. "I had come to town in the Fall of 2012 and helped out and it had been going on before I got here. It's been going on for many, many years."

When asked if he knew how many people had been helped, Borthwick replied, "Over the years, I'm sure it is in the 100s."

They also offer other assistance.

"There is a limit to how often someone can come and ask for our help and we explain that to them," Borthwick said. "If it appears that it is becoming a habitual need for a certain individual, we say, 'look, do you need some training on how to stay healthy? Do you need training on budget issues?' We can offer them help to get them out of that cycle."

One thing Borthwick is particularly proud of is the "pay it forward" they have witnessed.

"We have had people we have assisted in the past who have gotten their feet on the groud so to speak - got their life situation changed, and they've actually come back with funds that matched whatever we helped them with and said, 'here, we wanted to put this back in to the account and help somebody the way you helped us'," he said. "That's a pretty neat thing to be a part of. Does that happen to a high degree? No, but it's nice when it does."

Borthwick enjoys traveling to churches in other communities to tell them about their benevolence program.

"I really get excited about telling other communities about what we do here," he said. "I think it is unique and it is exciting to be a part of. This is probably my last year of being chairman for the soup supper, but I still intend to support the event. Next month I will be as old as Abraham was when God called him in to service. I'm beginning to slow down a little, but I still want to help."

If you want to know about next year's soup supper, there's an easy way to remember when it will be.

"We always have it the Monday after the Super Bowl," Borthwick said.

Borthwick said any of the Christian churches is welcome to be a part of the Ministerial Alliance. As of now, he said members include New Beginnings, Church of Christ, Shelton Memorial, First United Methodist Church, Heartland Faith Church, Celebration Baptist, Primera Baptista, Templo Emmanuel and Oasis. Pastor Casey Chapman of Shelton Memorial is the current president of the Ministerial Alliance Association and Pastor Nathan Engleman of New Beginnings is vice president.