300+
Free plates in Balch Springs, July 2022
Two days after a grass fire destroyed 11 homes, the truck fed families and first responders at no charge. “It really broke my heart, and I said I am going to do something about it.”
Our story
Fire for the Lord has always been a ministry before it's a business. This is how a man who didn't know how to barbecue ended up keeping one of Greenville's oldest pits burning.
2016
Angel was working in a Dallas ISD warehouse, filling food orders for the city's schools, when he felt the Lord speak to his heart: “I want you to go serve.”
He didn't know yet that God was handing him a full-time ministry. But he took a leap of faith, left the job and started Fire for the Lord with the only money he had: twenty dollars. With his kids and a friend, he bought Bibles, a little food and sandwich buns and went under a bridge in South Dallas to feed whoever was hungry.
“It's better to give than receive. Right then and there, I knew this is what the Lord had in store for me. He made something out of nothing.”
Angel · Acts 20:35
Under the bridge
One of those first nights, a woman came up and said she was hungry. Angel handed her a sandwich, and she devoured it like she hadn't eaten in days. When he asked her why, she said she'd been told she was an animal.
“No,” Angel told her. “You're a child of God. You're loved by the King.” She started weeping and asked him to pray for her. They gave her another sandwich, and this time she got to enjoy it.
“Something happened that I didn't have anything to do with,” Angel says. “It was between the Holy Spirit and her.” That meal showed him what Fire for the Lord was for.
Trial & error
“When I started this ministry, I didn't know how to barbecue,” Angel says. He learned the hard way: a little 5×10 trailer with a four-foot smoker, then a 16-foot tandem-axle rig he designed himself, with a metal roof and lights so he could serve after dark.
Through Dallas, Garland and the COVID years, the lines kept getting longer. Today Angel still cuts and hauls his own wood. “It's just like a pastor,” he says. “A pastor doesn't just climb the pulpit.”
Formerly Ernie's Pit Barbeque
For years the truck came to Greenville for the Bob Wills Fiddle Festival and other downtown events. During one of those visits, a friend at the city mentioned that the owner of Ernie's Pit Barbeque, a Wesley Street landmark since 1948, was ready to sell.
Angel drove the food truck straight there and asked if the place was for sale. Before the deal was done, he prayed: “God, let it be your will, not mine. I can cook, I can smoke, I can work, but I need your grace and favor.” The doors opened. They closed the deal in December 2024, on Jennifer's birthday, and celebrated right there in the restaurant with family, praying over the outgoing owner and his family.
They kept the Ernie's Pit name for over a year before lighting it up as Fire for the Lord BBQ. The family now calls Greenville home.
1948
Ernie's Pit Barbeque opens on Wesley Street.
2016
Fire for the Lord starts under a bridge in South Dallas.
2022
300+ free plates for Balch Springs wildfire families.
2024
Angel & Jennifer take over the Wesley Street pit.
2026
A fire tests the family. The smoker stands.
The ministry
Moms with kids, folks down on their luck, a widow just out of the hospital: if you walk in hungry, you'll be fed. “This food isn't just gonna feed you,” Angel says. “It's gonna talk to your soul, because we pray over it.”
300+
Two days after a grass fire destroyed 11 homes, the truck fed families and first responders at no charge. “It really broke my heart, and I said I am going to do something about it.”
Thanksgiving
Smoked turkeys, rice, beans and warm clothes for neighbors at Our Calling Resource Center, “for the love of Jesus Christ.”
Daily
“Lord, thank you. Bless the food we're gonna serve. Bless the men and women that are coming. Bless the crew. Give us grace. Give us favor.”
October 13, 2026
On a Tuesday night in October, a fire broke out in our storage room. A neighbor called 911 within minutes, and Greenville Fire-Rescue saved the building. Nobody was hurt. We lost tools, a log splitter and the ice machine, but the smoker, the firewood and the food truck were untouched.
With the power out, we didn't want the food to go to waste, so the next day we gave our groceries away to families in need. “We want to be a blessing.” That weekend the truck served at the Toys for Tots car show, and on Oct 24 Gearheads 4 Christ hosted a Benefit Cruise-In in our parking lot. The line didn't stop.
Thank you, Greenville. This is a testimony to how the God we serve is in control of everything.
Pitmaster, owner & the guy handing you a sample
Co-owner
The pitmaster's daughter. Her favorite part: “meeting people, treating them as family.”
Family, and Angel's right hand at the counter for almost three years
Herald-Banner · Oct 14, 2026
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Greenville Biz Network · Oct 16, 2026
CBS Texas · Jul 27, 2022
Come hungry. Leave blessed.