Ash Wednesday marks the kickoff of our Annual Lenten Project. The theme this year, “Lean into Love 3.0: Love Your Neighbor,” and the objective – to raise funds to support five of our local mission partners that provide hunger or crisis relief, or a combination of both… Rumple Presbyterian/Blowing Rock Cares; Casting Bread/Travis’s Lunchbox; Hunger and Health Coalition; WeCAN (Western Crisis Assistance Network); and Hospitality House.

Two years ago, we planned a Lenten Project that focused on a foreign mission, Chiapas. Then, the pandemic hit us: schools were closed; businesses shuttered; most medical services severely curtailed; in-person worship halted; and even local travel sorely restricted. These restrictions took an enormous human toll – massive economic and social dislocation – and led to increasing hunger and housing insecurity among our neighbors in Watauga County. Amid growing concern for those local needs, “Lean into Love” was born, and the focus of our Lenten Project shifted to providing hunger and crisis assistance relief to our neighbors through our local mission partners named above. We raised just shy of $30,000 in that effort.

Last year, although signs of hope loomed on the horizon, the pandemic’s lingering effects were still with us, and our neighbors’ needs continued. Enter “Lean into Love 2.0,” and we again raised funds for the same five local mission partners, netting around $25,000.

Last year with the appearance of the COVID variants, renewed restrictions resulted in continued economic and social dislocation. And while a return to a greater degree of normalcy is apparently in the offing, our neighbors’ needs currently continue, exacerbated this time by supply chain issues, inflation, and uncertainty in financial markets. All of this raises demand for our partners’ services and significantly increases the costs of supplying them.

Enter “Lean into Love 3.0: Love your Neighbor.” This Lenten season we will again raise money to disburse equally to the same five mission partners. As in previous years, donations may be made by mailing-in a check made out to the church and earmarked for the “Disaster Relief Fund,” OR click HERE to give to the “Disaster Relief Fund”. And like previous years, we’ll be highlighting over the next five weeks the programs and services provided by each of our mission partners that help alleviate the pandemic’s effects on our neighbors.

In addition, each week during Lent this year, we will be collecting nonperishable food items to be distributed to local food pantries. Just drop your donation into the boxes in the Gathering Space.

Suggested items (NO GLASS CONTAINERS PLEASE):

Canned vegetables Rice/Dried beans
Canned fruit Soups
Canned meat Pastas
Peanut Butter Pasta Sauce
Cereals Packaged dry meals
Cookies/Crackers Nuts/Snacks

We are “family of faith called to grow in the love of Christ, share that Good News, and serve the world.” The Lord has commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves, Matthew 22: 39, and tells us that whenever we have fed or welcomed “the least of these . . . you did it to me.” Matthew 25:40.

In gratitude for all the Lord has done for us and considering the needs of our neighbors, please prayerfully consider to what extent you are able to contribute to our congregation’s Lenten Project.

The Mission Committee