Grace Fellowship of Pickerington, Ohio, a Grace Brethren congregation pastored by Keith Minier, showered their community with love this Valentine’s Week. They distributed close to 400 dozen cookies to schools and fire and police stations in their area.
“This was a really exciting event that our church really stepped up and owned,” reports Nicole Waggoner, leader of the Impact Team. “We had originally planned on getting 300 dozen cookies but we got closer to 400 dozen. In each bag was one dozen cookies. We sent them to four different local schools and we had enough to take to the fire and police station.”
The team selected schools where the teaching staff includes individuals who are part of the congregation, to provide them with a platform to talk to people and invite them to the church.
“The point of this event was to let teachers know that we appreciate them and all of their hard work,” stressed Nicole. ” Our hope is that if they are ‘seeking’ that they would come visit us and we know they will be exposed to the truth of Jesus in our services.”
“People brought the cookies to church this weekend and we packaged them up and delivered them yesterday (February 13),” says Nicole. “We’ve already heard some great reports about how appreciative people were.”
Nicole goes on to explain that the Impact Team creates events for the church to have a large scale presence in the community, which is located on the eastern edge of metropolitan Columbus. “Our hope is to provide a platform of credibility in the community as a church that loves them,” she says. “We hope that if a person finds them self wondering about God, that they will remember the church that gave them the cookies, the free wrapping paper, and provided them with an awesome Easter Egg event with a helicopter and that they will come to a service and hear about Jesus.”