THE needs were clearly evident. All around. Everywhere.
Needs, yes. And opportunities.
But how could they be met? The budget was stretched to the limit.
How could a church struggling to launch an educational program and build a school, also planning a new church structure how could it finance an effective program to meet the community's ever-present needs and thus share the Good News?
By their fruits---that's how.
Members of the Dalton, Georgia, Adventist church saw the limitless potential of services urgently needed by their community and resolved to fill that lack. They would have to secure a resource for income to finance their endeavors.
They would sell fruit.
The H. & S. Citrus, Inc., an Adventist firm in Fort Pierce, Florida, was contacted. Arrangements were made for the church to sell Indian River fruit to finance their community projects.
That was seven or eight years ago, and the program has grown almost beyond imagination. In 1973 seven semi-truckloads of fresh fruit were sold by church members, netting a profit of more than $7,500.
As a result of this newly acquired income, the Community Services center is a full-time operation.
The facility is open five full days each week. On Tuesdays and Thursdays clothing and food are distributed. On the other days wearing apparel, household items, and furniture are sorted and prepared for distribution.
The center has a director, an assistant director, and a general supervisor who is the center's only paid worker. Approximately thirty other church members men and women volunteer scores of hours of labor each week.
Officially opened in May, 1972, the center has received high acclaim in this city of more than 40,000 residents. A feature article in the daily newspaper described the center as "one of the best-organized places in Dalton."
In the first seventeen months of operation the center helped more than 600 families with gifts of 25,000 articles of clothing.
During the past school year, the Community Services center sponsored a drug-education seminar in area schools, which reached 15,000 to 20,000 students from first grade through high school.
Covering two area counties, as well as the Dalton city schools, with films, lectures, and question-and-answer periods, the seminar has also been in demand at service clubs, teachers' conventions, and PTA organizations. With money from the fruit sales, hundreds of dollars' worth of films and related drug-education materials have been purchased for use in the program.
Another Community Services project sponsored by members of the Dalton church was a four-day vegetarian-cookery seminar held last October. Two sessions were required to handle the 120 registrants, eighty-five of whom were nonmembers. Several men were among those attending.
The local paper and radio stations carried several extensive stories, and all local media carried free advertisements for the seminar. Television in Chattanooga, thirty-one miles north, also gave the seminar wide coverage. One television channel carried a fifteen-minute special report on the program.
As a result of this seminar, many who attended requested Bible studies.
Jesus said, "By their fruits ye shall know them."
An active Community Services center, an extensive drug-education program, and a timely nutrition seminar all carried on by a church whose budget was already fully committed. But the members of the Adventist church in Dalton and the great work of God they represent are certainly being known by their fruits their good deeds to meet the city's needs financed by funds from fruit sales.
