Hope for the holidays: ‘Season of Sharing’ aids local, global missions
Stemming from a mission to serve all neighbors — however near or far away those neighbors are — Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Naperville is helping to support seven local and global missions this November through the church’s annual Season of Sharing.
Through Dec. 1, community members are invited to be part of Our Saviour’s special holiday initiative, which supports organizations such as Naperville-based Loaves & Fishes Community Services, Carol Stream-based World Relief Chicagoland and Holy Family Ministries of Chicago as well as congregant-led, health- and education-focused missions in Haiti and Mozambique.
Our Saviour’s is currently collecting packages of toilet paper for Loaves & Fishes; donations may be added to the “TP trees” at either of Our Saviour’s two campuses, located at 815 S. Washington St. (next to Edward Hospital) and 919 S. Washington St. in Naperville.
In addition, Giving Trees are up at both church campuses, and all are invited to take a paper ornament from one of the trees and purchase the gift card or children’s book requested on the ornament, returning gifts to the church by Dec. 1.
Giving Tree gifts will be distributed to Glen Ellyn-based Bridge Communities, Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, Holy Family Ministries/Little Learners Academy in Chicago and World Relief Chicagoland.
“The mission of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church is to ‘Know Jesus and Make Jesus Known,’ said Our Saviour’s members Nancy Couch and Sandy Martinich, who are coordinating the toilet-paper and gift card drives for Loaves & Fishes. “Helping Loaves & Fishes clients, and all of those served by OSLC’s mission partners, is a hands-on way for us to demonstrate a Beatitudes-based compassion for our fellow humans. Caring for neighbors is both a Gospel command and compassionate humanitarian action.”
David Novak, an Our Saviour’s member who serves as vice president of advancement at Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, echoed the sentiment. “Supporting LSSI is a way for churches to be the ‘hands of Christ,’ serving those on the margins of society,” he said.
Novak noted that LSSI is the largest provider of foster care in Illinois, with around 2,700 children in care coordinated by LSSI throughout the state. And because many families that provide foster care are themselves living below the poverty line, he said, lending extra assistance at the holidays is truly meaningful to those who have opened their doors to care for foster children.
Beyond the Giving Trees and a Season of Sharing coat drive that collected more than 160 winter coats for recently resettled refugees,
Our Saviour’s also will host a special collection drive Nov. 23-24 for Haiti Scholars, a Naperville-based nonprofit founded by Our Saviour’s member Nicole Waite that seeks to provide food, health care, education and hope to children in Haiti.
The drive will seek donations of $10, which provides breakfast for one child for one week.
Additionally, Our Saviour’s Mozambique Mission is taking Thanksgiving pie orders through Nov. 25 to support the mission’s work providing e-pap nutrition packets and school supplies to students attending a school for Zimbabwean refugees in Chimoio, Mozambique.
For information on Our Saviour’s Season of Sharing and how to participate, visit oursaviours.com/missions/season-of-sharing.