Serve others in the community this holiday season.
11/07/2018 ..
There are so many ways for you to serve your local community during the holiday season. We want to share three opportunities that Saddleback Women are committing to serve this season. these are all ministries in our local church that are reaching out to the community. Read below to see how you can get involved and then sign up alone or with your small group!
1. Saddleback Peace Center Food Pantry
Our amazing Joanne Williamson, manager of the PEACE Center Food Pantry at Saddleback Church has created a sign up genius specifically for our women and their families to volunteer this holiday season. ALL AGES ARE WELCOME. They are in need of volunteers to serve the hundreds of families coming through every month. We would like help as we head into November. Joanne shared that the holidays have started for them in the PEACE food pantry because families can only come once a month - some are shopping for Thanksgiving this week! Thank you all so much for your wilingness in supporting this incredible ministry we have at our Lake Forest campus - serving our church family and reaching out into our community!
Click the link to sign up:
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0f4baeab2ca3f58-food
Did you know?
• Since Saddleback’s Food Pantry launched at Easter 2009, our volunteers have served:
- 308,932 people
- 91,174 families
- At least 80% of them include children or grandchildren
• They have also facilitated:
- 2,266 salvations
- 802 recommitments
• Our volunteers serve, on average, 700-800 families each month! We expect to serve 1000+ families in November and again in December - so we need your help! Volunteers typically share 3 to 6 hours each week to love on them and help them to grow spiritually. Is God calling you to join us? He will equip you to do so!!!
2. Angel Tree Christmas
Saddleback Church wants to share Christ’s love with 450 children in Orange County who have an incarcerated parent. Angel Tree Christmas connects parents in prison with their children through the delivery of Christmas gifts given on the parent’s behalf. Each Year Saddleback Church’s Celebrate Recovery program hosts a Christmas party for these children and their caregivers as a way to offer lasting connection to their local church community. These parties feature a catered meal, games, and a variety of performances such as live music, dance groups, and encouraging speakers.
The following is a link to the 2018 Angel Tree Christmas party: https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=d42ALGv4nY0
This year we will be hosting this party on December 7th and the Saddleback Anaheim Campus. You are invited to volunteer on the night of the party or to help with the necessary items that will make this event impactful and full of love for these families. For volunteer information please contact Jo Willems: joann.willems@gmail.com
Please see the attached flyer for an idea of the items needed, such as stocking stuffers, and journal notebooks.
Your participation in this event will help to bring the message of Hope to these families, and help connect them to a supportive community at Christmas and throughout the year.
God Bless you during the 2018 Christmas Season.
3. Local Peace GRIP
We have serving opportunities with this year’s GRIP Thanksgiving Incentive! It’s amazing how 855 students have earned complete Thanksgiving dinners for their families!! The improved grades, attendance, and attitudes they achieve through the Gang Reduction Intervention Partnership does much more than gain them a turkey dinner. It helps them understand they have considerably better options for their futures than life in a gang.
At Saddleback, we have the opportunity to help celebrate with these families. And you can play a very significant role in this year’s event! If you have not yet participated in the Thanksgiving Incentive, here is a video that will give you a glimpse into the joy these families experience: https://youtu.be/nWMLpDa_QLE
As you can imagine, there are many different ways you can help make this an amazing event.
Here are some of the serving options for Wednesday, November 14th:
• You can pick up meals from the Lake Forest or Anaheim campuses, then deliver them to an elementary school.
- If you do this, you can stay at the school to watch the celebration!
- Meals need to be picked up between 1-2:00 pm, then delivered to the school by 2:45 pm.
• You can help at the Lake Forest or Anaheim campus with meal pick-ups. This could be any of the following:
- Helping to set-up each meal station.
- Check-in: we need people who will greet drivers as they arrive and direct them to the correct meal station.
- Getting the correct amount of meals to each driver is critical! You can be a part of helping to load vehicles with everything they need.
- Runners: each meal station will need to have meals brought to them and we’d love to have you help keep the food flow moving!
If you are willing and able to participate we are in need of about 30 drivers to pick up meals at the Lake Forest and Anaheim campuses on Wednesday, November 14th.
Please email for sign up information:
Woody Smith
Community Outreach Coordinator