by Hunter Dawkins
One of the most dominant verses of the Holy Bible comes from the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 25 Verse 40 where Jesus tells to the apostles, “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
Nowhere is this more evident than the Pass Christian group, Gone Fishing Ministries (GFM), which operates at the Goodwill Missionary Baptist Church off Davis Avenue.
“We are all strictly volunteers and there is no requirement for a meal,” said GFM representative Andrew Fountain, a member of this organization’s board of directors. “We deliver with a church van to an average of 120 people on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.”
Since 2006, the organization is an outgrowth of the Disaster Relief Committee of the Goodwill Missionary Baptist Church in Pass Christian, which currently prepares and distributes approximately 250 hot, nutritious meals each week to those in need in the Pass Christian Community. GFM is a current certified 501(c)3 non-profit organization that has a nine member board of directors led by Sonya Ashley.
The mission of Gone Fishing Ministries is to combat hunger and malnutrition by providing food, nutritional and health education, advocacy and disaster and emergency food services.
The need for food and especially, nutritious food, is great. According to numbers recently released by the American Community Survey, administered by the Census Bureau, Harrison County poverty statistics rose to 22.6 percent in 2013 from 19.5 percent in 2012. This level of poverty is eight percent above the national average.
The program, free to all who walk in the door, serves meals on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 11am to a little after noon. GFM asks for a donation to help purchase of fix specific equipment and the address is Gone Fishing Ministries, P. O. Box 292, Pass Christian, MS 39571.
For more information about our organization, please contact Sonya Ashley at 228-263-0703 or Judy Jaynes at 228-342-1468 or send an email to info@gonefishingministries.com.
