Christmas & Season of Giving 2024

Delivering gifts to Morton Elementary, for Angel Tree students.

Jake Rizy (librarian at Morton Elementary) hand-delivered gifts to some Angel Tree students.

Season of Giving Recap

What a phenomenal Season of Giving we had! This was such a generous event that many of you made possible. We had 21 students adopted from our Angel Tree from local schools and they were each deeply blessed by the gifts that were purchased on their behalf. Our ESL/AAWC ministries collected over 55 Walmart gift cards, for a total of $1,375 to be distributed as they encounter the needs with their students each semester. What a great way to support one of our own ministries here at Grace! Our canned food drive was a huge success too! There were hundreds of pounds of canned goods donated. Because we had so much, we were able to give to the Rush Creek food pantry and Mission Arlington. It’s great to see their shelves fully stocked! Our Toys for Mexico trailer delivered a trailer full of toys and shoes again this year to the children in Mexico. Thank you Grace Community Church for making this one of our most generous holiday seasons! It truly is more blessed to give than receive!

-Lea Ann Hirth

Mission Arlington

So many youth in America are focused on what they hope to get this Christmas. In December, we were so proud of the Grace Youth who focused heavily on giving this Christmas. On December 14th, Jennifer Mejia and Karen Wynn took high school students to serve at the local Mission Arlington store, where children in our community can find presents to give to those they love for free.

Caroling at Brookdale

On December 17th, Pastor Jonathan took some of the youth to Brookdale Senior Living, to the Memory Care unit, where the students sang Christmas songs for the residents. Singing songs of hope brought smiles to the residents and was the highlight of their day.

Youth Christmas Party

Then, on December 18th, we had our annual Christmas party and Pastor Jonathan shared how Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12) and how He wants us to be lights in our world too (Matthew 5:16). We asked the students that night to not just give more of their time, but to give from their own pockets to help bring some joy to children in need. In response, our students generously brought in $787.25! They all went shopping together, wrapped presents together, and delivered them in plenty of time for Jesus’ birthday!

Toys for Mexico

Just before Christmas, our Grace students delivered more than 1,400 presents and shoes to children in Mexico. This project was made possible by the generous donations by our larger Grace Family—thank you! We loaded the trailer to the top and traveled to eight villages to give toys to the children.

One of the earlier churches we visited consisted of four chairs, a sheetrock roof, a broken microphone, and a pulpit. We were reminded that it doesn’t take nice buildings and amenities to learn about Jesus!

Despite some poor conditions, those children were elated when we came. Pastor José encouraged the people to put their hope in God, the One who sees and loves them deeply and unconditionally. We hope to make a trip this year to this church to help them build a more structurally-sound meeting place.

Stop after stop, our students jumped to action with energy and joy, picking out the toys for each child, and working into the night to gift a toy to each child.

We ended our day in La Maralla, our host church for many of our Mexico trips. We stayed in the pastor’s house and reconnected with Denise, a woman we met on a previous trip, who we learned, struggled with infertility. She shared with us that as a result of our prayers over her on a previous trip, she and her husband were able to conceive and give birth to a healthy baby girl! It was beautiful to rejoice with her as the Lord answered our prayers.

We praise God for all the ways His light was shone this Christmas season!

-Jonathan Scheffrahn