Christmas in Walnut '11-Craft Fair

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Christmas in Walnut-Christmas Store 2011

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Christmas in Walnut.....building capacity and community

The world's ways keep us separate, isolated, competitive, and categorized in a hierarchy of the world's values. There always seems to be an "in" group and an "out" group; somebody on top and somebody on bottom. Race, class, religion, denomination, physical features, education, job status....you name it, someone is always the "worthy" and someone the "unworthy".

God's design for Christian community is a design that draws people together in a way that breaks down divisions and helps us to see one another all as fellow unworthy neighbors...all created by God and made worthy only through Jesus Christ.

One of my favorite, favorite, favorite things about "Christmas in Walnut" is watching how God draws diverse people together in Christian community to begin breaking down divisions through this togetherness experience. See a few stories below of how God has been using the whole of our community in this effort.

-Some of our shoppers for tomorrow's Christmas Store are also leaders and volunteers helping to run the store.

-Two other churches in our community have contributed to Christmas in Walnut through donations of toys, money, and/or volunteers.

-My husband's office at UNI passed around an envelope and contributed a financial donation for the store.

-Several retail stores gave wonderful discounts to our shoppers when they learned about the Christmas Store.

-Children from Orchard Hill Cedar Falls, Orchard Hill Grundy Center, and Harvest Waterloo colored and wrote messages on the back of bookmarks. A bookmark and Bible will be handed out to each Christmas Store family who shops.

-Teenagers/young 20's from our student ministry program (which is a collective of churches) provided 350 gifts over the past week to the Christmas Store. Their joy and enthusiasm in the giving was electric. Also, several young adult small group leaders modeled sacrificial giving as they took their high school small groups out shopping. One small group leader had been saving his giving money for this event and put forth $400...their group of 4 came in with toy purchases totaling $580. What an amazing act of giving and generosity!

-One shopper from last year has started a ministry in Waterloo. She loved last year's Christmas in Walnut experience and rallied her congregation this year to contribute several gift cards for this year's Store.

-Two family support workers from local schools have done an outstanding job sharing the vision and getting tickets to families in need of assistance this Christmas.

-Over $14,000 and 2,200 gifts have come in over the past four weeks for Christmas in Walnut. A leadership team of 18 people has been stellar. Somewhere around 310 volunteers are signed up to be at the Boys n' Girls Club and Harvest Vineyard tomorrow. 500 tickets have gone out to families who could use some assistance this Christmas. aMAZING!

God's goodness is so evident through his design for relationship...community.

Ephesians 2:14 "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility..."

teenagers and toys

Teenagers got it goin' on! These teens from Big House Wednesday Night went shopping in their small groups tonight for the Christmas Store. As they generously opened their hearts and their pockets, these small groups brought in a mountain of toys that pushed us over our goal of collecting 2,000 gifts for Saturday's Christmas Store. Don't underestimate what God wants to do through the lives of teenagers to make a huge difference in our world! One thing's for sure...they made a huge difference here tonight!

gatekeeping

As I watch and listen and work around our community and around our church, I've been thinking a lot about the following notes on "gatekeeping" that I took at an Undoing Racism workshop I attended last February...

What is a gatekeeper? Someone who has access to information, opportunities, knowledge, resources. He/she tends the gate and determines what gets let in and what gets let out.

Generally, how have gatekeepers worked in our under-resourced communities? They often are the ones who define what is helpful. They tell the community what it needs. They control, analyze, write grants for, and define what the community needs. They measure, interpret, evaluate, often without getting permission or involvement of the community. They define the rules, hide the rules, define the needs so often that the community might not even know what it needs anymore or believe that they can make a difference in their own neighborhoods. Gatekeepers often make all the demands on the community, and the community often has little voice or power to make any demands on gatekeepers. Without mutuality, there's abuse. Problem solving and creativity get silenced. Healthy relationships and community does not get built.

However, an empowering, liberating gatekeeper will give tools to the community as he/she works WITH the community in defining their needs and creating solutions. The organizing piece is so critical for the gatekeeper. To create collective power...that's real power.

This is becoming an increasingly important filter for me as I consider what to get involved with, who is involved, and how I should participate.