12/31/2021
Good Morning y’all. I rarely post on this page, but i usually post on my personal page. I am going to try to get better about that when it comes to programs and other things we have going on.
Below I am going to post an extremely informal recap of this year for the ministry.
We started out this year still in the midst of Covid but fortunately for us, It has not slowed us down. It's just changed the way we do things and has opened up some really great opportunities for us to serve.
Earlier this year, we were a recipient of a grant from the Arkansas Community Foundation.
With that, we have been able to purchase a freezer and are in the process of getting the electricity run to a building we had constructed last year.
We moved forward with the cool summers project and were also able to purchase 50 fans thanks to some amazing partners.
Covid did impact one of our staple projects this summer when we did the Safety Swim Day. We had actually restructure it to spread it out over the course of a week, but there was an exposure on the first day which forced us to cancel the remainder of the week.
Next year, we will hold the event again, but will go back to making it a one day event.
Another partnership has been with Safe Night, a ministry run by Karen Bagwell. It is an incredible ministry and she started it after the domestic violence shelter closed. She started helping victims of domestic violence and it has been a beautiful thing to watch it grow!
More recently, we partnered with B&B Supply in Highland who helped supply 50 electric heaters.
We also partnered with Cully Parr and the Veterans Outreach Program in Fulton County.
They up to helping actively serve over 150 veterans right now and have been an incredible partner when it comes to helping us have firewood to give out this winter. We have already given out several heaters and quite a bit of firewood but I anticipate that will continue because it's finally starting to really feel like winter.
The Highland Elks Lodge awarded us with a grant that really made a difference. It was for $2,500 and was to be used to help with the wintertime projects and in this community, $2,500 can go a long way!
We are exceptionally blessed to live, work and serve in such a giving community.
We are wrapping up the Silver Tree Project and this is our second year. We've again partnered with the Peace Lutheran Church in Cherokee Village and the Heavenly Stitches ministry at the Cherokee Village First Baptist Church.
That has been absolutely tremendous. Last year we had 100 seniors nominated and provided 100 Christmas baskets.
This year, we didn't have as many and I partially attribute that to the fact families are able to gather and have been able to see each other more this year. We had 42 nominated this year and spent the weekend putting the boxes together. We delivered them the week of Christmas.
We also partnered as a go between with The Cozy Nook who kicked off their first A Cozy Christmas. We helped them find places to send the toys they had collected through auctions and toys were given to the Mission of Hope for their toy room, Inspired Communities for the kids they help serve, the Highland Elks Lodge for their Christmas Baskets and they had also collected items for the Silver Tree which was great!
At the last minute, we've decided to launch a new program. It called the Sponsor a Senior project. That's the only name that came to mind when I was trying to figure out what to call it.
Recently we had been getting a lot of calls for help for things like, gas money to get back and forth to the doctor, some people have been having to choose between medication to treat the symptoms, or buying gas to go to the doctor to find out what the cause is. Others have been having to choose between food or fuel. It's not that they're irresponsible with their funds. Its that prices are going up and when you're on a fixed income, you can only do so much to make that stretch. Not only is that heartbreaking, but quite frankly, it's unacceptable and we can do something about that for some people. And we will.
We are collecting monetary donations or gas cards specifically for that project and we've actually already kicked it off.
There was some extra funds left over from the Silver Tree Project, rather than buying more supplies, we agreed to turn it in to gas cards. We have already had a couple folks reach out to be sponsors for the project to get it started. I don't know how long it will run, but Its something I know is needed and although there are a ton of programs out there, I don't think one that helps with gas money is one of them.
Our goal is to find a need and fill it. We want to be the hands and feet of Jesus in practical ways. I really hope that the programs and projects we do, make long term differences for people.
This has been an incredible year and we look forward to seeing what God has planned for next year.
