By Gerri VanAcker, TFG Ministry Coordinator with Grace Church in Wyoming, MN
Our elders and wives attended a virtual information session for Together for Good in April of 2020. We were immediately struck by the Gospel focus, love for people, and tangible ways to serve children and their parents well.
It was clear to everyone that this was a ministry that we had been looking for and we wanted to prayerfully move forward. Co-coordinators were chosen and we began the exciting opportunity of becoming a partnering church with Together for Good.
During the next 6 months we began to rally our church and build our team.
We announced the partnership. We cancelled our small groups and encouraged our whole church to attend an info meeting. We designated a space on the bulletin board for TFG needs and updates. We continued to pray.
As we began to understand all the ways we could serve through TFG, we started to get organized and promote volunteer opportunities. We formed a prayer team, created a supply closet, and recruited host families and support volunteers.
We quickly found that our church was eager to help and there was something for everyone to do.
God has since used TFG to ignite the hearts of our church people.
He has given us a protective framework through TFG that has offered us a bridge into the lives of others that need us. We are now able to serve and care for the most vulnerable.
We currently have 7 host families that take on the direct care and supervision of children being hosted, but the rest of the church is actively participating in support through prayer, providing meals, purchasing supplies, and responding to any need that arises. Women have sewn welcome bags, young girls have made blankets, families have donated countless supplies, and we even have teenage boys asking to be on the prayer team!
This group of ladies got together to make tie blankets for host families to give as gifts to the kids they host.
The Thompson family organizes and keeps a supply closet at their home. They enjoy the personal touches of putting together a welcome bag for each child’s first hosting.
God is so faithful! Our church is small, but our trust in God is big.
God asks us to give him what we have to use for his glory. As we added one simple thing at a time, God met us and showed us what to do next. Our pastor is preaching through the book of James right now. We are regularly challenged to live out our faith.
TFG has given us a pathway to obedience so that we can be not only hearers of the word but also doers.
We pray that God would sustain our volunteers and make them steadfast.
We ask Him to continue to show us where He is working so that we can join in that specific effort.
We pray we would follow Him wherever He leads, even to the hardest situations and hostings.
We hope for more ways to serve the needs of people in our local area.
We long for more churches to join in this great effort with Together for Good!
