Make Your Own Mission TOGETHER!!!

by Jake Schaefer

This past Christmas, our college-aged guys Community Group was able to have an impact on a suffering low-income family. We met at our normal meeting time of 7 P.M. on a Monday night. One of the guys in our group had previously asked the mother of the house to have each of the kids make a Christmas list. The lists included clothing items, toys, and candy. When everyone from our group arrived, we each chose a kid that we would be shopping for. We carpooled to Target and went shopping for the child on our list. We picked up remote control cars, guitars, Barbies, and many other toys for the different children. We also purchased practical clothing items including shoes, sweaters, beanies, gloves, etc.

After we were done shopping, we went back to the house and transformed Josh Hager’s living room into Santa’s Workshop. We wrapped all the presents with candy canes taped to the wrapping paper. We also made personalized cards for each kid with Christmas pictures decorating the inside and out. Once all of the presents and cards were wrapped and ready to go, we loaded them all into the back of a truck and off we went! We delivered all the gifts and Christmas cards to the family’s little apartment located in a low-income neighborhood of Highland. The kids were ECSTATIC!!! I should note that these kids would not have otherwise had a traditional Christmas celebration. No presents, no Christmas tree, etc. These kids were totally surprised and completely overwhelmed.

It was a wonderful experience for our group to bring so much joy to this family. As a group, we felt that we were fulfilling Christ’s calling to serve the poor and love our neighbors as ourselves. Serving the needy or fulfilling any act of service is one of the best ways for a Community Group to bond together. It was not just the kids who received so much joy that night, but our group was full of joy as well. We had a blast serving Christ together as brothers in the Lord. I would challenge all Community Groups, if you haven’t already, to “make your own mission” by finding a ministry project in which your group can serve and meet a need together. Our Community Groups are the hands and feet of Christ. We should be finding needs in our community and actively striving to fulfill them in order to shine the light of God’s love to a dark world.