“Our current culture promotes having to have the latest and greatest,” Pastor Keith Minier told his congregation at Grace Fellowship Church one Sunday morning last summer.
What keeps us from being greedy, he said, is generosity and thinking of others rather than ourselves. He then invited churchgoers to leave their shoes for people who have none.
The response was overwhelming. Nearly 300 adults and children went home in stocking or bare feet. Another 500 pairs of shoes were donated by the following Wednesday. All were given to a worldwide organization called Soles4Souls.
This is just one of hundreds of acts of generosity and kindness performed by members of Pickerington-Violet Township churches at Christmastime and throughout the year.
Other examples of such unselfish acts are abundant.
Instead of shoes, the members of Epiphany Lutheran Church collect coats, mittens, hats and blankets each October. They are distributed to the men and women of Fairhaven Place, a transitional housing program for the homeless in Fairfield County, and the Central Ohio community.
Many Pickerington-area churches focus on feeding the hungry, as well.
On the second and fourth Tuesday of each month, Sherry Stephens and members of Sycamore Creek Church provide dinner for 120 homeless people at Better Way Ministries (38 W. Greenwood Ave. in Columbus).
“At Thanksgiving we collect and deliver several vans filled with useful gifts for the homeless, including sleeping bags, flashlights, personal care items and Kroger gift certificates,” Stephens says.
Carol Smith and her friend Barbara Freeman were first-time servers in October at Broad Street United Methodist Church, 501 E. Broad St., in Columbus. They joined other volunteers from Pickerington’s Peace United Methodist Church who have served dinner to the homeless at this location for several years. The dinners are provided by The Open Shelter, Inc. of Columbus.
“The dinner guests are so appreciative,” says Smith, whose family and other Peace United volunteers also cook meals for their church’s “Helping Hands” ministry. Seniors and the home-bound who are members of the congregation receive a visit and a hot meal each Wednesday through this program.
2009 will mark the ninth Christmas Tracey Middendorf of Seton Parish has coordinated a holiday dinner giveaway for families in Portsmouth, Ohio. Middendorf and other volunteers collect and distribute the makings of complete holiday dinners, which include ham, side dishes and other items donated by parishioners. Last year, 700 families registered in advance for the dinners, which were distributed at the Holy Redeemer Church activity center in Portsmouth.
Middendorf also coordinates a shoe drive for the benefit of school children living in Harlan County, Kentucky.
“These two trips have such an impact on the youth of our parish as well as the people we are helping,” Middendorf says.
Some Pickerington-Violet Township church members give to others in more unusual ways.
For the past 17 years, Trinity Family Life Center has participated in the national “Prison Fellowship” ministry founded by Chuck Colson. Colson was the former White House special counsel during the Nixon administration and was sent to prison during the Watergate scandal.
“A team from Trinity and other area churches spend every other Tuesday evening at Southeastern Correctional Institution in Lancaster,” says Jorge Rossi, one of Trinity’s Prison Fellowship team members. They offer friendship and support as well as Bible study and marriage seminars. On the first Saturday in December the team presents a Christmas program for the Institute’s male inmates and their families. The program includes singing, pizza, creating Christmas cards, decorating cookies and other activities.
“Military Outreach” is one of many outreach programs created by the Rev. James Klima at Seton Parish. Marianne Wenger, Susie Prewitt and Mandy Vadala coordinate the program.
“We collect emergency hospital clothing for soldiers who are wounded in a location where they are away from their gear, arriving at the hospital with only what they are wearing on their backs,” Wenger says. In past years, packs filled with pajamas, undergarments, socks, flip flops and toiletries were sent to various military hospitals in Iraq. During spring 2009 the packs were sent to the Craig Joint Theatre Military Hospital at Bagram Field, Afghanistan.
“We will send to them again in spring 2010 as that hospital is a huge operation and often is the liaison point to send wounded military back to Germany,” Wenger says.
In addition, in October a group of Seton retired school teachers stitched and shipped100 lap quilts for members of the U.S. military hospitalized in Afghanistan.
A “hospital equipment loan program” is operated by Peace United Methodist Church. The church collects and loans durable medical equipment for people in need. Items include crutches, canes, walkers, wheelchairs and more.
Epiphany Lutheran collects cell phones and chargers and donates them to Lifecare Alliance, which distributes the phones to older adults in Central Ohio for emergency purposes. Although the donated phones do not have regular cell service, they do have 9-1-1 service.
Christmas card greetings are sent to residents at the Abbington of Pickerington assisted living facility by members of Pickerington Church of the Nazarene.
All of this happens with little fanfare, awards, applause or media coverage. Our church friends and neighbors simply go quietly about their business of helping the poor, the unemployed and the lonely.
Maggie Arendt is a contributing writer for Pickerington Magazine.