Rev. Steve Willis "... real fruits and vegetables"

August 17, 2010

Pastor Steve Willis found that his work load grew considerably when he moved from youth pastor to teaching pastor at First Baptist Church of Kenova.

"I was in the hospital four days a week visiting people," he told Putnam Rotary today, "and it struck me that most of the reasons people were in the hospital was for illnesses related to obesity and poor nutrition."

He watched one of his congregants die "right there in front of me," of complications following open-heart surgery. "One of the tubes came loose in his chest, and I watched him bleed out -- one of the arteries. I stood there in shock and watched him die."

Willis heard a family member say, "I guess it was God's will. I guess it was time to go."

"That ran like a spear through my heart," said Willis. The man had been 200 pounds overweight. "Here was a man in his mid-fifties, and he was dead because he had had a quadruple bypass -- and we're blaming it on God, because of the health problems.

"Two parents came into my office not long after that," said Willis. "Both of them were fairly obese. They were complaining about how their kids' health wasn't good. Their kids were overweight. They were too tired to work with their kids in the evening. They didn't have any energy. They couldn't get out of debt because of all this money they were owing in medical bills. Their insurance wouldn't cover the medications they needed."

Willis went to his church leadership. "Gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins," he said. "But it is the only one accepted by the church, that you can practice and nobody will say anything to you about it. If you smoke or drink, we're ready to kick you out, but if you eat three plates at Golden Corral -- that's just fine.

"I was tired of watching people die," said the young pastor who is currently working on a second doctorate at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville.

The Friday before his opening sermon on the sin of gluttony, the Center for Disease Control released its 2008 report stating that "Huntington was the most obese city in America."

At church, "forty people came forward," said Willis. "I didn't even give an invitation. Forty people came up and said, 'We want to lose at least forty pounds.'

"So they started losing. We had one lady that lost eighty pounds. Another lost seventy. K-Love ran a story about the church doing something about (obesity).

"But after a few months," Willis continued, "we weren't dropping as much as we should. I know something about exercise and athletics," he said, " but I don't know anything about nutrition.

"After watching our smorgasbord fellowship dinners -- throw in some butter and some sugar, and make it good -- we had to address the nutritional aspect of who we are.

"We prayed about it," said Willis, "We needed somebody to come in and teach our people about nutrition. And the very next day the producers from ABC, and Jamie Oliver's people called; said, 'We've heard about what you're doing, and we want to come help -- not just the people in Huntington, but across the country.

"They came into town. They brought a lot of attention. We've been trying to change the school lunch programs, the local food pantries. Cabell County has been approved to be a prototype for the nation

"We're doing more food with fresh ingredients, not as much of the processed stuff, real fruits and vegetables. Because what we found is that kids were only wanting nuggets and pizza and stuff like that -- they were acquiring the taste for junk at school!

"They had junk breakfast and junk for lunch, so they ate processed foods at home. They didn't have a taste for fresh fruits and vegetables.

"Low and behold, it's worked! The more we give them fresh fruits and vegetables, they eat the fruit first."

Willis shared lunch with the group, and for dessert he chose the strawberries over the fudge brownies.