Christmas Outreach

Something our church really enjoyed last year at Christmas was the opportunity to adopt two needy families from our community and provide gifts for their children.  It turns out that that experience opened the door for continued ministry with one of the families who began coming to our AWANA club on Wednesday nights.  This on-going opportunity to build a relationship and invest further into their lives was actually one of the goals of the adopt-a-family program, so it's been exciting to see some lasting fruit!

This year, we decided to adopt that family again as well as another family from AWANA who have been struggling financially.  It is really fun to watch the church family come together and excitedly purchase gifts from off the children's wish lists and bring them all wrapped up to the church.  Then, Nathan and I, along with a few others, make the deliveries a day or two before Christmas.  Here are some pictures from the delivery days!

This family consists of three daughters (ages 8, 4, and 2), a mother who is a new Christian, and a father who is struggling to find full time work.  (The 8 year old was away when the the pictures were taken.)

They were so blessed to receive the gifts they had requested.

Isaac gets in on the fun!

Super excited with her La-La-Loopsy doll!

Sweet sisters.

This is the family we adopted last year.  There were four children being parented by a single mother; however, this past summer, the youngest child, a three-year-old boy, was killed in a hit-and-run car accident in their trailer park.  A few days later, the mother gave birth to her fifth child, a little girl.  However, she has been so overcome with grief due to her son's death, she has been unable to care for the baby and instead, her mother is doing the care-taking next door.

Showing off his new coloring books!

Some snazzy boots!

Cars!

Here is the baby over for a little visit with her grandmother.

Excited to have some big girl play things. :)

Yay for snow boots!

And more cars!  (He received about 50, it seemed!)

We LOVE having these kiddos in our AWANA club!  They are great students and really enjoy memorizing God's Word.

Here they are with their mother.  Please pray for further opportunities to reach out to this family; the Mormons have gotten a foothold in their lives this past year so we are in a battle!