First Church Family,
Happy Thanksgiving! If you participated with us on our “Bless This Meal” Thanksgiving project, either by contributing financially or working on Thursday or Saturday, you blessed others and were blessed yourself!
This past weekend, our volunteers: unpacked trailers of food; packed boxes with meals and carried them out to people’s cars; delivered boxes to persons who didn’t have transportation; visited with, prayed for and provided breakfast for our guests;
gave a stuffed animal or toy for every child who came; and shared the love of Christ with those in our community who are food insecure.
Over the past four days (yes meals are being delivered and people are still coming to pick-up their food) we provided a full take-home Thanksgiving meal that families were able to take home and prepare in the comfort, privacy, and dignity of their
own homes.
Through Tuesday, we had provided Thanksgiving meals for 111 families, which, when multiplied by an average of five and a half people per family, means that we at FUMC provided 610 individual people in our community with a first-class meal for
Thanksgiving.
What a blessing! Thank you for following God with us in that endeavor.
But that is not all. This past week we had a team volunteer at Yokefellow, painting. And too, our George and Sandy Maust delivered our Operation Christmas child boxes to be distributed to needy children across the world. We also delivered 131 additional pounds of life-sustaining foods to our ministry partner, Yokefellow, bringing our total to more than an estimated 3 tons for the year.
Let the magnitude of that ministry sink in. No one near here served like you did this week. I say that not out of pride, but humility. That is what we are called to do. God is good, all the time.
And now it’s on to Advent and Christmas. Next Sunday, December 28, is the first Sunday in Advent.
On Monday, a dozen volunteers were in the Sanctuary decorating and putting up our new Chrismon tree. It is beautiful, and will help us glorify God during the season that
precedes Christmas.
I pray that your realization of how our church is ministering to those around us is a blessing to you this week in your celebration of Thanksgiving.
Blessings and love,
Pastor Dave