Oh What a Night.... God had His hand on the outreach event.

Our last few posts have been preparing for the Christmas Outreach event. This outreach event was last night at West Ridge Church. Wow! We had over 1500 families show up in the blistery cold (estimates are 5000+ people).

Here is a snapshot of the event:
***The event started with an incredible Christmas pageant by the West Ridge Christmas Kids. This was a good old fashioned Christmas pageant with an angel choir of 130 kids. It was precious!!!!!!!!
***Toys for Tots handed out toys for Paulding County children. Toys For Tots was assisted by the ROTC. It was an amazing thing to see the kids in uniforms working so hard.
***CAYA handed out over 1500 food bags. They received an incredible blessing and were able to purchase a hen for each bag. Every family at this event received their dinner to cook on Christmas day. CAYA will tirelessly be delivering and handing out 700 more food bags over the next 2 days.
***Santa was in present with little elves. Santa's room was decorated in a manner which challenged Lenox Mall. The kids loved it. Santa and Mrs. Clause donated their time.
***FUN! We had to set up our outdoor carnival area inside due to the wind. We weren't able to use some of the inflatables or have the fire for marshmallows. We set up 3 of the moonwalks inside the worship center. We moved John Z (DJ) inside. He donated his time. We had popcorn, coffee, and cookies inside. We had face painting too. The GRINCH even came.
***We were able to raffle off about 10 nice bikes and scooters for kids. We were also able to raffle off 9 live Christmas trees, tree stands, lights and decorations.
***A Fresh Hope had a shopping store room. This room was filled with thousands of new items. The kids were escorted through the store by a teenager. The teenager helped the child select a gift for his/her parents and wrap the gift. It was neat to see teenagers helping the kids.

This event involved 5 churches (Church at the Ridge, Cedarcrest Church, West Ridge Church, Hope Church and Pumpkinvine Baptist). We had over 70 kids from Harrison High Beta Club. South Paulding FCA brought some volunteers. MUST Ministries had some volunteers. ROTC helped Toys For Tots. We had a Boy Scout Troop helping also... All with 1 purpose, 1 mission, 1 message.

It was a huge crowded mess. We saw many sad stories. It was a sign of how so many are hurting. These folks stood in line for 2 hours to go to the shopping store or to get a food bag. The night was a blessing for all those involved. We pray that someone was filled with HOPE from this outreach event.

God is at work!!!!!!

The Christmas Party is going to be amazing! It is such a reminder of faith to watch how this party has come together.

We have 5 churches working together as 1: Cedarcrest Church, West Ridge Church, Pumpkinvine Church, Church at the Ridge and Hope Church. All churches have collected food, toys and store items for the party. All churches are sending volunteers to the party.

Liberty Mutual in Norcross, GA collected a car load of supplies for the party. They provided gift cards to accompany the food boxes.

BJ's wholesale provided $100 in hot cocoa!!!!

O'Charley's in Hiram has been incredible. They are donating over 120 cases of bottled water as well as other items for the coffee.

Publix sold us 5000 cups for coffee/hot cocoa as wholesale price which saved us over $150.

Pam Duryea of Crystal Creations is donating over 100 pieces of fine crystal for the store. Alice Thornton donated a car load of purses, wallets, jewelry, etc. for the store.

Logan Weber, high schooler at Mt Paran, is going to be the Grinch at the party.

John Z is donating his DJ services.

West Ridge Clubhouse kids are putting on a wonderful Christmas Pageant!

Santa is making a special appearance.....

Please pray for this event.

Christmas Outreach update

Wow.. the Christmas Outreach party is coming together! We are expecting 1000 families with over 2000 children.

We are going to roast marshmallows, have moonwalks, face painting, a craft and even a DJ. A wonderful man, John Z, is donating his DJing services. How awesome! We will have a store where the kids can select a gift. Santa and Mrs. Clause are going to stop by as well as a 'grumpy green guest'. The Clubhouse Kids at West Ridge Church are putting on a wonderful Christmas pagent at 4:00 on 12/21 to kick off the party.

Tiki Tan is hosting a collection site. Liberty Mutual is also hosting a collection site. It is great to see Outreach reaching so many in so many different ways. Hope MEthodist, Church as the Ridge and Cedarcrest Church are all partnering with A Fresh Hope, CAYA, Toys For Tots and West Ridge to host this event. It is a community coming together to share Jesus' love. What a clear picture!

We are still collecting dontaions. This event will not be possible without the support of a lot of folks. Items we still need:
*** New Toys
*** Items for the Shopping Store. These can be new items you have around you house that would make a great gift for someone- all ages.
*** $20 gift cards for the Food Boxes. Our prayer is that we deliver 1 food box to each household to serve as their Christmas Dinner.
*** Items for the Food Boxes: 2 cans of green beans, 2 cans of corn, 2 cans of yams, 2 boxdes of stuffing, 2 boxes of Mac & Cheese, 1 jar of gravy and 1 jar of cranberry sauce.
*** Large Marshmallows, Coffee Creamers, Coffee sweetners
*** Bottled Water and other single serving drinks/snacks
*** Paper goods such as cups for coffe/Hot Cocoa, napkins

Consider Sponsoring a Food Box or Two as a Family. Maybe your small group or a group at work would want to put together a couple of food boxes. Food Box donations can be dropped off at West Ridge Church.

Please e-mail us if you have any questions or would like to make a donation:
waverly@afreshhope.com
404-201-0319