ROCKFORD Cars started to line up as early as 9 a.m. Tuesday for a food giveaway that was scheduled to begin at noon in the parking lot of New Missionary Baptist Church.
Before the first boxed crate of food was placed into a vehicle, the line of automobiles was snaking out of the parking lot and more than 200 yards down West Riverside Boulevard. Even though there are a lot of food banks and food pantries and all of that kind of stuff, as you can see there is still a great need, the Rev. K. Edward Copeland said of the long string of motorists, most of whom, if not all, have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. We want to do our part to help meet the need.
Audio for the feature story.
Violet Johnicker is the pastor of Brooke Road United Methodist Church in Rockford. Johnicker said her father was excited about and supported her to decision to be a minister and her mother understood the life because she herself was a preacher’s kid.
Brooke Road United Methodist Church.
Credit https://www.facebook.com/TheBrookeRockford
Johnicker’s maternal grandfather, Reverend Warren Seyfert, was a minister in the United Church of Christ in the 1970s. He died when she was 10 years old. She explained that she attended seminary school after researching his story. She said she emailed the librarian at the McCormick Theological Seminary, the school where he studied, and was given 35 pages of her grandfather s advice.