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Some sun in the morning with increasing clouds during the afternoon. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 98F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph..
Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 73F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.
Updated: August 9, 2022 @ 12:07 am
Deacon Harold Davis prepares a potato salad in the kitchen of St. John Missionary Baptist Church. Part of it is fed to prisoners of the Correctional facility on the south side of town.
Johannes Becht/StaffIt’s a sunny Sunday morning, and Harold Davis is working on a potato salad in a kitchen in the facilities of St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church in south Lawton.
Harold is also making baked beans, BBQ chicken wings and smoked sausage, as well as bread, ice cream and cake. The food is not for himself. It is for his church members and for prisoners.
Former pastor J. L. Davenport started the Feeding Ministry in the early 1980s along with Harold’s wife, Betty L. Davis, and for over 40 years, St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church has been feeding people from the community, as well as inmates from a nearby prison.
Every fourth Sunday of the month, Harold, who is a deacon at St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church, and his wife, Betty, plus six other people, prepare meals that they not only serve to their church members, but also to the Lawton Community Corrections Center near the airport on the southwest side of town. The facility was built and designed to prepare inmates for life after prison, providing a gradual reentry process and addressing employment, housing, and other needs.
“They are on their way home, and we want to let them know that we still care about them,” Betty said, adding, “Everybody makes a mistake.”
“Jesus said, ‘I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’ If we feed them, we feed Jesus, and that’s what we are ordered to do,” she said.
Betty, guided by the scriptures, states that “we are not supposed to just walk away.” Betty and her husband are both retired and have made it their mission to feed around 135 prisoners once a month.
“We do it as long as we can,” Harold says.
The money for the food comes from direct donations by their church members, Harold said.
Betty recalled experiences she had while visiting patients at home while working for Comanche County Memorial Hospital, realizing they didn’t have any food in the fridge. She knew then and there that she needed to change that and went to talk to pastor Davenport about it.
“God’s words are not suggestions,” Betty says. “That’s just what you do. We discriminate who we should take care of, but that’s not right. We need to take care of everybody who is in need.”
Now, more than 40 years after Betty approached Davenport, a Feeding Ministry is offered daily for those in need, and for 23 years, St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church is feeding inmates — something that some of them never forget.
Betty and Harold remember being approached in Oklahoma City by somebody who recognized them because he was one of the inmates in the Lawton Community Correction facility.
One of them said “You fed my while I was in Lawton,” Betty remembered.
“This makes you feel good,” Betty said.
One of the things that makes Betty especially proud is that even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the church didn’t stop.
“We were the only church that was feeding them on Sundays,” Betty said.
