The year is three-fourths over, but the youth at Eagle River Valley Church aren’t even halfway finished with community involvement.
The youth started with their community outreach in January as they prepared 100 sack lunches to be delivered to a local homeless shelter. The children eagerly divided into stations to spread peanut butter and jelly onto slices of bread, bag them and hand them to the next station where juice boxes, chips, nutritious dessert bars and, most importantly, Signs of the Times were added. The lunches were packaged neatly into brown paper bags, ready for delivery by Sharon Frost.
This quarter, funds are earmarked for Operation Christmas Child, an Eagle River Church tradition for the past three years. Last Christmas, the youth packaged small toys and usable items for children of various ages into 121 individual shoeboxes, sending them on their way to the Philippines, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic and other places. For more information about Operation Christmas Child, visit www.samaritanspurse.org.
Plans for the final quarter of 2015 are to use designated offering funds to supply food baskets to 10 local families in need. Recipients are obtained from a program managed by Anchorage’s parks and recreation department. Baskets are put together, along with Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, then delivered personally by the VanSandt (Caswell) family.
If you are ever in Eagle River, the church family invites you on Sabbath to come see what other great things the youth are doing in the community and join them for a warm, friendly vegetarian-style potluck lunch. More information can be found at ervsdachurch.org or by emailing the church at at pastor@ervsdachurch.org.
(Front row, from left) A.J. Monteleone, Amber VanSandt, Nathan Caswell, Kennan Monteleone, Hope Marroquin, (back row, from left) Aiden and Zachary Knox, Ana Christine and Angeline Caswell, and Faith Marroquin are Eagle River Valley Church youth who are investing in their community.
