by Beth Lamb,
Southern Hills Baptist church purchased gifts for 48 children in Sioux City who have a parent in prison, partnering for the 10th year with Angel Tree, a ministry of Prison Fellowship. Our church members purchase the gifts, and the tag says it is from the parent in prison. It includes a message on the tag that comes from the mom or dad who is in prison to their son or daughter.
Our church has an Angel Tree party with these families, serving pizza and Christmas cookies. We share the Gospel by telling the Christmas story from Luke chapter 2, using Child Evangelism Fellowship visuals. The Gospel is clearly presented to the children & adults together in one large room.
65 people attended the Angel Tree party yesterday afternoon (children & their caregivers: single parent, grand parents, aunts, etc). Several people from church helped at the party including Pastor Bob Dillman & his wife Linda. Most families opened their gifts at the party, but one family took theirs home to put under their tree because they didn’t have much.
Some caregivers wrote down prayers requests/needs that they have, as we make slips of paper available at every family table. We reach all kinds of families, Asian, Native American, African American, Hispanic and white.
Our church is on the east side of the city, and most of the Angle Tree families live on the opposite side of town. We always have the party in their neighborhood, so more people will be able to attend. We tried having the party at Southern Hills Baptist in the past, and attendance was low. We want the families to come so we can feed them pizza, and share the Gospel with them. This year, we rented a community room at the Center for Active Generations which turned out to be a blessing. We had the biggest attendance ever. The ladies at the Center knitted hats & scarves for the kids. It actually became a partnership with this Center which was another blessing.
This is just one more way to reach this generation and our community with the Gospel. God is good!
