Your Compassionate Care Impact

Thank you for serving the Lord with gladness with your many donations this past year to help those in need locally and even internationally. This year you have reached out locally to help those with disabilities at Turnstone, provided cleaning needs for a women’s shelter, hygiene items for babies in families experiencing hardship in Ft. Wayne, and eased the fears of hospitalized children with new books. You participated in outreach to our neighborhood by helping the VBS collection and even candy for Trunk-or-Treat for area families and food donations.

But you did not stop with just our community. The second hand shoe collection was a huge hit this year. (Something tells me there was some spring cleaning going on in our homes.) Usable shoes went to homeless in need. But the other shoes will transform into playground surfaces for excited children all over the country.

Internationally, you have cared for the seminary families with your food donations. (On a personal note, my Honda CRV trunk was full almost to the ceiling with breakfast foods—about 100 bags/ boxes collected.) The students and families come from all over the world, and will serve all over the world when they complete their time at the seminary. Each summer, a collection of items is taken for Lutheran World Relief (LWR) kits. Last year, adult hygiene kits were sent. Do you remember the ship that lost power and broke the bridge on the east coast? The crew of that ship were not allowed to disembark. LWR kits, similar to ours, were sent over to the crew, and were received with great joy by them. This year we sent out 15 baby kits. We do not know where ours will go, but they are needed by the hurricane devastated areas in the southeast USA. If not used in our country, there are plenty of other areas in dire need now and in years to come.

You have been blessed to be a blessing to others during this challenging year. As we look ahead to 2025, we hope to continue a similar mix of local and far reaching CCC needs. Turnstone will start off the CCC again in January. We always like to support those babies, children and local shelters. Our LWR collection this year will focus on school kits. We will need people to sew the school kit bags, and others to fill them with supplies. Of course, we will take adult hygiene items and baby kit items—just label them as such when you put them in the baskets. You can look up the kit needs on LWR’s website. Those seminarians, and their families, need a good breakfast. They will definitely be on the autumn collection again. Maybe we can fill 2 CRV trunks next year. If you have any suggestions on groups that need items (no cash or gift cards) or preferences for types of collection, please let the church office know. Thank you so much for your generosity. To God be the Glory. 

Looking for an area to serve? Reach out to Debbie Haentfling, Bobbi Shadle, or the Church Office to schedule a time to shadow them. See what they do and see if it's the right fit for you to fill your cup through service to others for Christ.