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By Katherine Craddock|Published Date: June 03, 2009
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 For years, the women’s ministry at Harvest Cathedral Church had been sending boxes of toiletries and trinkets to women in prison at Christmas. But Karen Kinsler, the program manager at the 1,000-member church in Macon, Georgia, knew there was more they could do.
So last Christmas, after much prayer and deliberation, the congregation decided to take a step of faith—by participating, at practically the last minute, in Angel Tree’s Christmas outreach.
“We wanted to do more to reach families in our community for Christ,” Karen says, “and Angel Tree gave us the perfect opportunity. In fact, 100 percent of the Angel Tree names that we received were right in our zip code . . . they were literally our neighbors!”
In spite of the late sign-up, many church members responded, buying gifts for 99 prisoners’ children in the Macon area. Harvest Cathedral also managed to put together food boxes for each of the 48 caregivers—filled to the brim with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and dinner rolls. Then, on December 17, the gifts were laid on the altar of the church and prayed over by the entire congregation.
The next Saturday, December 23, more than 30 church members trooped out to deliver Christmas presents, food baskets—and the Gospel—to their neighbors.
Assigned to the “command center” in the church, Karen watched as the different groups left for their assigned houses, filled with armloads of gifts and food. And one by one, she relates, they returned with exciting experiences to share.
Dad Comes Through
The first team, Karen describes, had pulled their car up to a row of townhouses in a seedy section of town. Drug dealers stood on the corner. Broken glass shimmered in the street.
Outside, two little boys—Quantrel and Eddie*—sat on the front stoop, fully engrossed in a heated argument. “I don’t believe you,” the volunteers heard Eddie say to Quantrel. “Your dad’s a loser. He would never give you anything.”
Quantrel’s lip quivered. As he looked up in defiance at his friend, he suddenly noticed a stack of big, shiny presents—heading right to him! Quantrel ran toward the volunteers, tripping down the stairs in his haste to reach them.
“See, I told you!” Quantrel exclaimed triumphantly to his friend. “I told you my dad was going to send me something . . . here it is!”
Eagerly Quantrel ripped the paper off of a box that contained a spiffy new remote-control car. “This is awesome!” he shouted, “My daddy really does love me!”
A second team rushed back to tell Karen about their reception by a grandmother, her Angel Tree grandchildren, and several relatives visiting for the holidays. After explaining the Gospel to the entire family, the church volunteers asked if they would like to pray with them to receive Christ as their Savior and Lord. “Wait just a minute!” said the grandmother. “Let me get my friend first”—and she darted across the hall.
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