Bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth

“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’”

Every year Resurrection collects Christmas gifts to bless the kids of families in Belair-Edison, a neighborhood in Baltimore. This year an emphasis was put on creating deeper relationships with those families. Each family was assigned someone from Resurrection to get in touch with them specifically and not only ask them what toys and clothes they wanted, but ask them if there was something they needed prayer for and to pray with them if they felt comfortable.

Jack Grubbs is the staff member liaison to the volunteer-led Faithworks team which heads up the Christmas gift drive and the other ministry partnerships in Baltimore. “Faithworks is a catalyst at Resurrection to help members of our church family meet and build relationships with people, particularly in Baltimore city. In addition to giving help and support where needed, we want to become friends and walk together as we discover the immense love Jesus has for all of us,” he explains.

Tara Boucher agreed to contact a family for the Christmas gift drive and sent a text to Eve*, a single mother of two children.  Eve texted back that she would like to talk on the phone and two hours later Tara and Eve hung up, having shared a lifetime of stories between them. “I kept trying to guide the conversation back to what kinds of toys her kids wanted, but an hour into the conversation I realized that Eve wanted someone to talk to. I realized God was doing something and I better quiet down and get out of the way.”

“I didn’t expect a stranger to open up about such personal things. I hung up and said ‘Oof, she will be on my heart for a very long time.’”  

One thing that Eve shared with Tara was that her son Michael* needed a bed. “I just couldn’t stop thinking that getting a bed is something that could be done immediately,” Tara said.

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