No One Fights Alone

RockPointe Church in Flower Mound, TX has packed more meals with Feed the Hunger than any other church. They have two Packathons each year, because they have found the Packathon to be the leading event both in engaging their church membership in serving and in bringing people in from the community who see packing food as a less-threatening experience than attending a worship service.

One of the remarkable things about the Packathon ministry at RockPointe is that it is almost completely driven by volunteers. Yes, there is a FtH staff member who offers guidance, but the bulk of the details and tasks are carried out by members of RockPointe. The makeup of the core team changes periodically, but they all are passionate about Feed The Hunger and leading their church in feeding the spiritual and physical hunger of as many people as possible.

Whenever a new couple or family joins the core team at RockPointe, I always enjoy hearing what led them to step up and volunteer to help organize a Packathon. At their most recent packing event, I met a very special family for the first time—the Zindels. Their story is truly inspiring!

Their journey toward helping with the Packathon started when they were invited by their neighbors to come and pack food. The Zindels were going to a different church at the time, but decided to do this service project together at RockPointe. The Packathon helped them evaluate their own faith walk, where Garrett and Kelly determined that they were largely going through the motions of following God. They felt drawn to RockPointe to deepen their walk with God.

It was around this same time when Garrett and Kelly’s seven-year-old son, Kincaid, complained of prolonged, fierce headaches, and Kelly noticed that Kincaid’s speech would also slur during the headache periods. After going through numerous scans, it was determined that Kincaid had a benign brain tumor near his pituitary gland. Further, a piece of the tumor had broken off and attached itself to his spinal column. Because of the location of the tumors, surgery was not an option. The plan was for Kincaid to undergo 18 months of intense chemotherapy treatments to try to stop the growth of the tumors.

As Kincaid fought through the rigorous treatments, many friends and family—even total strangers—rallied behind him. They formed Team Kincaid, whose motto is “No One Fights Alone.” The Zindels felt blessed by God and used the support they received to assist other children fighting cancer. Most recently, Kincaid is organizing a cookbook to sell, with the proceeds going to help children Kincaid has met along the way. You can follow Team Kincaid here.

It’s been 18 months since Kincaid, now 10 years old, stopped his chemo treatments and, praise God, his tumors have not grown during that time! In fact, less than two weeks ago he had his port where he received his medicine removed. That’s a huge step!

With Kincaid feeling better, the Zindels felt it was the right time to step forward when they heard the announcement one Sunday that RockPointe was looking for another family to help lead the Packathon. It only took one glance at each other for Garrett and Kelly to know this was another step in serving others that God had for them.

Now the whole family is part of the Feed the Hunger RockPointe “Crew.” Garrett is becoming the emcee of each shift for RockPointe, while Kelly is leading registration for each shift. Their oldest daughter, Bella, who has juvenile diabetes, worked as part of our warehouse team, carrying rice to tables and finished boxes to our truck. Maddy, their youngest child, loves to lead the group in “the wave” to get everyone going. And Kincaid’s favorite part? He likes to yell “Rice!” and “Beans!” in his loudest voice during our instructional talk on how to pack.

It was a joy to meet the Zindels and serve beside them at the most recent RockPointe Packathon. I look forward to many more events together. To watch this family draw strength from serving others shows that no one has to fight alone!

Scott Hahn | Packathon Director