A WORD OF THANKS

The district received this note of appreciation from Champaign following the special collection at district conference in November for outreach ministries of the Champaign congregation:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Our hearts and our pantries are full after our time at the district conference. Your gifts to support our ministries were much appreciated and very timely. I must admit to being overwhelmed, not only by the volume but at the way that your gifts dovetailed with our immediate needs.

Some of the things that you gave filled needs that we didn’t even know we would have. We were still putting things away when the first of our community members came to the door in need. A neighbor, a victim of a robbery, had his work boots stolen—and there among the boxes and bags of your donations were the size 11 work boots that he needed. He started his request with, “You probably don't have any work boots, but I need a pair of size 11 work boots if you have any.” But searching through the then-unpacked bags, we found what he needed. God knew before he did that he would need them, that we would have them, and that you had given them. The man was so grateful. He had been told that he could not return to work in tennis shoes. He and his children came back a few days later and raked and bagged the newly fallen leaves in the churchyard. Later when snow fell, they shoveled the sidewalks.

We had an increase (over last year) in the number of families we were able to serve in our food pantry, too. We are averaging two additional households weekly. We were able to purchase meat with the money that we did not have to spend on vegetables. As food prices have continued to rise, families are finding that they have “month left at the end of their food.” A young mom came by to donate two small crock pots. She and her sister have combined households, and they were on their way to purchase a larger unit that would serve their combined families. We had given her a small crock pot over a year ago while she was living in a motel. They were able to buy food with the money they saved because we were able to give her a new, larger crock pot. She also gave us two children's coats that none of the children could wear. Within the week we were able to bless another family whose children were wearing layered sweaters in below-zero weather. We were completely out of children’s coats! This morning her neighbor dropped off three more coats! Her neighbor told her about our closet when she saw that she had purchased new coats for her growing boys. They both offered to run a load of laundry for me if we received clothing donations that just needed a wash to be serviceable.

Many people are worried about feeding their families. We have more people than ever asking about getting garden beds for the spring, so the garden tools donated will surely come in handy.

God keeps filling needs. I praise God for all of you.

In His Name,

Dawn Blackman, Outreach Minister at Champaign COB