Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Giving is in this Christmas

I talk a lot about “giving” in our church. I believe it is the key to our health and growth—people keep on responding, we keep on expanding and the cycle goes round and round.

The Mat Program in our Tri-Cities is about inviting the homeless street people into our Poco church building during the cold winter months. We, and a few other giving churches in our community, have each offered our buildings as overnight homes for one month. We provide a warm, safe place for them to sleep, plus dinner and breakfast.

December has been our month to participate, and with temperatures dipping below zero, it’s been very well received. Our guests have been gracious and thankful

On Sunday, I simply asked the church if they’d be willing to volunteer their help. We need people to serve and clean-up, but we also need warm clothes, casseroles, fruit, drinks, etc. Before the three services were done, we had enough volunteers to fill every need, plus multiple offers for food.

Today there was parade of people bringing the things we asked for. One man received a bonus from his boss; he went out and purchased a whole bag of underwear. Another lady had knit a big bunch of scarves and toques which she gave. The gift goes on……

Pastor Ingrid mentioned the project our kids are giving towards to buy gifts for Romanian orphans connected to our church. A couple of kids stood at the door with boots in hand to collect spare change. Our church gave another $1,500+ as they were leaving the services. Thank you Lord for your grace and generosity!

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