Author: Elizabeth Mullins

On December 9, GC St. Michaels held a community engagement at a local skilled nursing facility. Each year, we budget for a community service during the holiday season. This year, the Love Avenue team decided to buy Christmas presents for the residents of the facility. Rather than merely dropping off the gifts, we received permission to plan a fun game that could be interactive and relational. We played the Dice Game with the gift-wrapped presents; if you roll doubles, you get to pick out a prize. (Some people know it as the White Elephant Game.)

The staff of the skilled nursing facility said that their residents did not often participate in group activities, so we should not expect any more than a couple people to show up. We were grateful and surprised when around 20 residents attended! One resident, who really wanted to attend, had recently contracted COVID. We selected a couple of presents to be delivered to her room. She was overwhelmed to be remembered and cried tears of joy.

The residents who joined in the game had mobility limitations, so the youth from our congregation helped make the game accessible for them. Our young members (grades kindergarten to sophomore in high school) walked the dice around to each player, sometimes even helping the person roll the dice. If the player got doubles, their young helper would run up to the table, pick out a present, and bring it back to them.

I was so proud of our young people and the interactions and relationships they established with the residents. At first, they were a little shy. Actually, both the residents and our youth were shy! But in no time, everyone was talking, laughing, and having a great time. The staff of the nursing home was amazed at how well it went.

By Jon Arnold, Facilitator
St. Michaels, MN, US

On November 19, Grace Communion Cleveland held a wonderful outreach event. We served our neighbors Thanksgiving dinner with all the traditional Thanksgiving dishes and pies.

For this engagement, we partnered with another community organization, the Heights Emergency Food Center. The event was advertised in advance with a poster at the Center, inviting their clients to receive a free dine-in or take-out meal. We also provided take-home flyers, and a sign-up sheet helped us keep track of how many were planning to eat with us.

Another church in Cleveland Heights where the Center is located allowed us to borrow their commercial kitchen with an attached fellowship hall. GC Cleveland members cooked the food items at home. Then we used the commercial kitchen to keep the food warm as we distributed the meals. Although very few people stayed to dine in with us, we had many good conversations and prayer requests with our take-out clients. We also delivered nearly 30 meals to nearby apartment residents. There were lots of smiling faces that day, not only from the recipients but the servers too!

We only planned food for 96 people, but we served 149 meals in total. Jesus saw to it that we could actually serve many more meals than projected. A true “loaves and fishes” event was witnessed that day!

By Pat Shiels, Love Avenue Champion
Cleveland, OH, US

 

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For many, Christmas includes the tradition of giving gifts. Have you ever watched someone open a gift and recognized that it wasn’t what they wanted? Is it wrong to want more?

We are often admonished to be grateful for what we have. Can we be both? Can we be grateful and still long for more?

We are in the season of Epiphany. It is the time in the worship calendar when we celebrate God manifesting as the baby Jesus and revealing Godself to the world. Jesus came into the world because the world needed more.

Is it wrong to want more?

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, magi from the east came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star in the east and have come to pay him homage.” Matthew 2:1-2

The Magi are also remembered in this Epiphany season. What can we learn from their story? How deep was their longing for more to seek the Messiah, to risk this journey?

“Their courage gives our questing hearts a voice
To seek, to find, to worship, to rejoice.” — Malcom Guite, from the sonnet, The magi

May we be grateful that light has come into the world and reconciled all. May we seek the light, as we long for more to walk in the light.

Prayer
Beautiful, triune God, we are grateful for the Incarnation, for the way you are manifested in Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, for revealing the Father. Thank you, Spirit, for stirring in us a longing for your kingdom. May your kingdom come in all its fullness. And wrap your hope around our weary hearts when we grow tired of waiting for the world to be good and beautiful and kind. Amen.

By Elizabeth Mullins, Update Editor
Durham, NC, US