Hello First Alliance family,
I hope you had a great weekend and were able to join with us online on Sunday. I am so appreciative for Pastor Paul and Heather’s pre-service video on Facebook Live (you can jump on and check that out), a wonderful service for Pentecost Sunday, and Susan did a great job facilitating our Virtual Atrium after the service. Our Sunday morning was a gift to me as I am just longing to be back together. My desire to be with my church family has only grown in the last week with all that is happening around our nation. I love to be with my brothers and sisters at First Alliance to worship, study God’s Word, and pray together.
As you heard last week, our bi-monthly drive for items will be transitioning from all food items for our two school partners to both non-perishable foods/snacks and hygiene items for our other local partner, Natalie’s Sisters. We are so grateful that we were able to partner with Wellington and Booker T elementary schools for the last 10 or so weeks and give God thanks for all that He accomplished in and through us. Just to celebrate again, here is a quick picture of what we were a part of…
- We had 5 “Drive By, Drop Off” food drives, utilizing 40+ volunteers, and provided approximately 60,000 meals to the families that our partners are working with.
- We have seen new levels of collaborative partnership with two local partners and missional momentum in our church family.
I had the pleasure to “interview” the two Family Resource Coordinators that we have specifically been working with at these two schools. SueEllen Young, at Wellington, and Monica Hall, at Booker T, are both sisters in our faith and are instrumental to loving on and getting rid of the barriers their kiddos face to learn. This interview is long but is a great picture of who they are, what they do, and how we can continue to partner and pray. You can watch it here.
We are excited to serve alongside Jani Lewis and Natalie’s Sisters for this next season and have already been able to partner through FAC folks providing meals and a generous gift from our church through your generosity. We will continue our “drive” every other Wednesday, our next one being this Wednesday, June 3rd, with a new list of items we need to collect. If you can bring the items, we will have a team set to put together our bags and deliver them. Here is a quick video from Natalie’s Sisters’ Executive Director, Jani Lewis.
The needed items for this week’s drive are:
Snack Bags
These include four non-perishable items. Please collect pre-packaged, individually wrapped items.
- Protein – peanut butter and crackers, Vienna sausages, protein bars, tuna or chicken salad packets or kits, slim jims, jerky
- Salty – chips, crackers, nuts
- Sweet – candy bar, pudding, snack cake
- Fruit – cup of fruit, applesauce, raisins
Toiletry Bags
Each includes travel size items such as…
- Deodorant
- Soap or shower gel
- Shampoo
- Conditioner
- Lotion
- Baby wipes (or washcloths)
- Razors
- Additional items like tissues, chapstick, etc.
Other Needs
- Bags to fill – lunch bags (like the brown or white paper bags) or gallon zip-locks
- Female flip-flops of any size
We are so grateful that we are continuing to move OUT towards the world in mission. Not only do we get to do this through your faithful participation in these drives but through powerful prayers for our city, nation, and globe. The Gospel needs to be proclaimed, both in word and deed, and our prayers create paths to do so. Would you join me and other FAC staff for our monthly Prayer Night tonight, at 6:45 via Facebook Live as we pray for our church, city, nation, and globe? I am looking forward to our time together to really lean in and intercede together. I have attached a prayer guide and simple devotional that we will be walking through at our prayer gathering and we hope it serves our faith family well in the coming weeks. Please take a look!
I am grateful that we get to partner with God on His redemptive mission. Thanks for journeying with us, FAC!
Love,
Zach Meerkreebs