This weekend at Epic Church was breath-taking. It was one of those times, as a pastor, when you feel the church step up and BE the Church that God has called us to be. It was amazing.
We have taken part in a Advent teaching series called The Advent Conspiracy (adventconspiracy.org). The four weeks leading up to Christmas the topics we spoke about were Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give Presence & Love All.
This weekend Epic chose to live out this call to Love All by adopting families of those in recovery homes this Christmas. As the parents have dedicated months to rebuilding their lives and recovering from what substance abuse had done to them, we realized their children and families were left home without them this holiday season. So we partnered with a few recovery homes throughout Baltimore and adopted the families, almost 70 children, that were without a recovering parent or grandparent.
This Sunday morning at our 11am Gathering those from the recovery homes joined us for worship and teaching as well as our annual Christmas party. Then directly after our party we began helping them wrap their families gifts for Christmas. It was a beautiful thing to see. Even though they were unable to contribute financially to their families’ presents, they all wrapped the gifts, giving each of them a part in Christmas this year.
It was beautiful to see them retain some dignity and be appreciative of people helping and giving them a chance to help too. It was great to see Epic step up and give beyond measure. But most importantly it was breath-taking to see most of our guests from recovery raise their hands to receive the gift of Jesus in their hearts this year!
A great big ‘thank you’ to all who gave. Thanks to everyone who shopped and made someone else’s Christmas memorable for almost 70 children! Thanks for expressing grace, unearned favor and blessing to those you don’t know and may never meet. Believe me, it blessed them. And a special ‘thanks’ to Lori Lockemy and Kate Fahey for putting in countless hours to organize and coordinate this year’s adoption. It was awesome.
Merry Christmas!
