COASTAL OBSERVER

Michele and Jeff Herwig found their calling four years ago when they started cooking and serving free meals to people in Pawleys Island.

Eventually they expanded their ministry across the bridges.

They used a utility trailer that was converted into a food trailer.

“My husband and I love to cook and eat and feed people,” Michele said. “We can feed 100 people and it’s not a big deal. So we just take our talents and our heart to serve.”

“We’re not trying to win brownie points with God,” Jeff said. “We’re just doing what we know is right.”

In September, someone stole the Herwigs’ trailer from the parking lot of Pawleys Island Community Church, where the couple are parishioners and use the kitchen to prepare the free meals.

“I was in shock,” Jeff said. “It was a terrible feeling.”

“It was a heartbreak. Why would you do this to this great community?” Michele said. “We’re just trying to help people. We’re just trying to help people like Jesus would.”

The trailer was stolen around 5 a.m. on a Wednesday, which is the day the Herwigs serve folks at Baskervill Food Pantry on the campus of Holy Cross Faith Memorial Episcopal Church. 

The couple was visiting family in Maryland when they received a phone call about the theft.

Michele’s first thought was of the people who would not get a meal that day. 

“It was heartbreaking,” Michele said. “They’re close enough to us that we can pray with them. They look forward to hanging out.”

The volunteers who help the Herwigs packed up the food in their vehicles and went ahead and served anyway.

“They just rolled. They just said, ‘we’re going to give it out anyway,’” Michele said. “It was such a gift to know the bad fella wasn’t going to win.”

During that two-week period in September, a handful of trailers were stolen in Pawleys Island and Murrells Inlet.

The Herwigs’ trailer was parked under some trees in the church parking lot. It never occurred to them that someone would steal it

“Sadly, live and learn the hard way,” Michele said.

The Herwig’s new trailer.

The theft was not the end of the Herwigs’ ministry.

“There were multiple miracles after that,” Jeff said.

When the Herwigs called the manufacturer in Macon, Ga., and said they needed a new trailer the owner of the company was excited because he thought they were expanding their ministry.

When Jeff told him that the trailer had been stolen the man quoted  Genesis 50:20: “What man meant for evil God meant for good.”

“I didn’t even realize he was a Christian,” Jeff said.

The man told the couple he would sell them a new trailer at cost. Even with the discounted price the new trailer was 30 percent more than what the couple paid four years ago.

The $7,000 the couple received as an insurance payout on the old trailer would not be enough to pay for the new one.

That’s when the community church and its parishioners stepped in.

The church donated money and welcomed the Herwigs as an official ministry.

Parishioners also donated money, including one who promised to pay for the new trailer himself if they needed him too.

“There’s bad in the world but God’s bigger than that,” Michele said.

The new trailer is still parked at the church, but now it is behind a a retractable bollard, which is a metal pole that has to be lowered into the ground before the trailer can be driven away.

There is also a “boot,” like one the police would use on a vehicle, on one of the tires that has to be removed before the trailer can be towed.

“The church jumped all over it.” Michele said. “They said, ‘whatever we have to do to make it secure.’”

“The church spent a lot of money to protect it,” Jeff said.

Not having a trailer did not stop the Herwigs from serving meals. They just used their own vehicles and volunteers’ vehicles.

“We’ve been able to operate like normal,” Jeff said. “It wasn’t the same as serving out of a truck but nevertheless it didn’t stop us.”

In addition to Baskervill, the Herwigs make regular visits to Friendship Place and two trailer parks in Georgetown.

“We’re from Pawleys, but Georgetown is our neighborhood too,” Michele said. “I love that we’re able to expand.”

One of the trailer parks has a large Hispanic population so the Herwigs bought Spanish language Bibles to pass out and Jeff is brushing up on his Spanish so he can talk with the people who come for meals. 

Along with the people inside the trailer serving the food, the Herwigs and their volunteers stand outside to interact with people, talking to them and sometimes praying with them.

“It’s very rewarding to us, but we want them to know they’re not invisible,” Jeff said. “We are with them. We are not above them.”