Background
The ‘Cheerful Giving’ began when the Sunday School together with the Christian Friendship Group (CFG) started sending gifts to the children at Canaan Land Ministries (CLM) and Green Olive Tree Ministries (GOTM). Both of these Ministries are in Brazil.
The items the children would receive were; fun toys, candy, colouring books, basic things like socks and underwear etc.
Families made their gifts very personal by sending pictures and notes along with the packages. It was a special time for our church families, drawing their attention to orphans and less fortunate children. The adventure of purchasing and giving was such a blessing.
Due to increasing shipping costs the time came to reevaluate the way we were using the Lord’s bounty. We decided to spread our giving in a new way. The idea was shared that we could work together with our Sister Church’s World Relief effort. For a time we were involved with that however we faced shipping difficulties. We were made aware of an option that took away the border hassles. It was then that we partnered with the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) whose well established relief efforts matched our needs as well.
To see the article from the Kitchener Waterloo Record, click here.
Matthew 25:40 – “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me”.
We are thankful that we have had a very successful past year for the Cheerful Giver Packing events.
Earlier this year, Strasburg Rd packed (1000) Hygiene Kits and (1000) Relief Pails and with the other Ontario Churches we packed and shipped with MCC a total of 3,200 Hygiene Kits and 1000 relief pails. Which were delivered to Ukraine in March of 2023.
Earlier this year with help and direction from ACCMBC leadership, we set out to look for other options for shipping and distributing the kits in the field. We have made a connection with CAM (Christian Aid Ministries) which is a Mennonite based Christian non profit that is actively involved with providing aid and relief around the world along with sending various types of kits that are similar to the kits we packed for MCC. Leadership has visited CAM headquarters in Moorefield Ont. and were very impressed with the work they are doing and feel they are a very good fit for our group to work with. They also have a “Hygiene” Kit that is packed into a sewn bag and we all agreed to start working with them by packing the CAM version of the Hygiene Kits.
We are very thankful that already in August we had a budget in place to purchase supplies for 2500 Hygiene kits with funds collected by the Ontario Churches.
Kitchener (youth group), Windsor and Ancaster have completed their packing and CAM is planning to ship these finished kits to the country of Yemen in mid Nov.
Needs for the Cheerful Giver Program,
- Ongoing prayers for this work, and for safe travel for these kits to get into the hands of those who need them
- Pray that this will be a blessing to the needy in the country of Yemen, (considered by many to be the neediest country in the world)
- Pray that God would continue to raise the needed funds to purchase supplies.
- We are also in great need of sewn bags for shipping these kits, we are so thankful to the ladies that continue to sew bags at home.
- However, our sewing group has not been meeting since before the pandemic and we are looking for someone to lead this group and start regular sewing group gathering at church.
- We are also looking for someone to help with the finding and purchasing of supplies for all the Ontario Churches.
Please contact Bro. Dan Weinhardt if you have any questions or are willing to help.
How To Help
To discuss opportunities for this cause, please contact the chairman or the Cheerful Giver contact person at your local Apostolic Christian Church.
To donate to this cause, please visit the Donations page.
