For the last five years, the Hamburg Community Group of Fleetwood Bible Church has been traveling to the Hope Rescue Mission in Reading to make hundreds of fastnachts for the men. This year, the number reached more than 700.
Also, for the last five years, we have been inviting the press to join our journey. Before each year’s journey, we challenge ourselves to question the purpose. Are we truly listening to Jesus when he said “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me”? Or, do we like the accolades that we receive and enjoy seeing ourselves on TV and in print?
The more I learn about my faith, the more I learn that life is about story. It’s about connecting with people, learning what’s important to them, and helping them to be the best person that they can be.
Our fastnacht story began because one of our members did not want to see his grandmother’s delicious fastnacht recipe die with her. As a tribute to her, we decided to start making them at the mission and blessing the men. We don’t sell them. We serve them to the men. It took one man coming up to us with tears in his eyes to state, “These taste just like my grandmother used to make. I have not had them in years,” to realize that we were hooked. A ministry was born.
Every year, the blessings keep humbling us. We are grateful to the school district for approving educational absences for our children so that they can serve these men.
Last year, a woman saw us featured on the news and reached out to our church for a copy of the recipe. It warmed our hearts to know that, if she could have gotten the day off, she would have joined us at the mission this year to give us a hand.
This year I was touched to learn that five members of our group either took a personal day, rearranged their work schedule, or took the day off without pay so that they could participate in this project. One of these five was a man who was raised in Ecuador and had never even heard of a fastnacht let alone ate one prior to making this commitment.
Another blessing that happened this year was that one of our youth group mentors felt led to challenge our youth to collect toiletry items for the men at the mission since the mission’s supply had been depleted due to the increased use of the Code Blue facility this winter. She was completely unaware of our annual fastnacht trip when this project was put on her heart. She and the youth put several care bags together for the men while watching the Super Bowl. This mentor was not only able to personally deliver the care bags to the men but also join us in making the fastnachts.
Some of the fasnachts even made it to different locations this year. One of our families met a homeless man on one of the bitter cold days in January. They learned that he was living at the Opportunity House, so we made sure that some of the fastnachts made their way to him. Some were also delivered to Freedom Gate Ministries through another connection that God made for us.
Recently, I started a Bible study in the book of Isaiah. It was written somewhere around 740 BC. Isaiah issues a stern warning that we should be evaluating the idols in our life and analyzing everything that we do. Do we engage in worship because its a routine? Or, do we worship because we truly want a relationship with our God? I believe those warnings are just as relevant today as they were back then.
I found myself back to the yearly conundrum of asking myself why we make all the fastnachts and why we contact the press? Though I invited the press this year, I honestly didn’t expect much response because this year seemed to be the year of the fastnacht article. How do you eat your fastnacht? Do you like them glazed or with powdered sugar? What type of syrup do you put on them? This year there is even a restaurant that is serving a hamburger between a sliced fastnacht.
I began to think that we had completely lost the idea behind Fastnacht Day. Few articles were mentioning the fact that fastnachts had anything to do with the start of Lent. It seemed I was feeling a pull to write an article on the history of the fastnacht. Then, last week’s Hamburg Item and Kutztown Patriot arrived. It contained a beautifully written article on the history of the fastnacht. That article also mentioned that two other local churches have started what I will call a fastnacht ministry. Did either of those churches start their ministry because they read about our group or saw us on the news? I have no idea. But God does and that’s when I decided that there is plenty of room in this world for more fastnacht ministries and news articles.
