Pastor Scott Fiege -- Adopt-a-Family

Ellie,

On Sunday November 13, I announced in our worship services that St. Matthew would be involved in a very special project. St. Matthew would be adopting a family from Village Lutheran Church, Lacombe, LA and would make Christmas special for this family. I named our project, "Blessed to be a Blessing". Our adopted family, the Patrick and Eden Matthews family would be blessed through the giving of our gifts to them this Christmas. Our Evangelism Board Director, Nancy Albers headed our project. We received the gift "wish list" from the Walmart web site and went to work. Within three weeks we had a wonderful response from the members of St. Matthew. On December 11 we brought the gifts forward and put them around our Christmas tree and by the altar rail and had a dedication and prayer during the services. Between services and after the second service, members wrapped the gifts. On December 18 we packed Kurt Schmidt's pick-up truck and he and a friend Josh VanVoorst from Rodney, IA traveled to Lacombe, LA with our precious cargo. These two wonderful young men hand delivered our gifts of blessings to the Patrick and Eden Matthews family.
They took numerous pictures and a video which they have since shared with our congregation. Patrick and Eden took Kurt and Josh on a trip around the area and showed them their home and the devastation that Hurricane Katrina caused. These images will stay with these young men for years.
One thing that Kurt shared with us was that when he opened his topper and showed the Matthews the gifts, they asked him how many more stops he had to make. Kurt told them that these gifts were all theirs. They were shocked!
It was a wonderful experience for them and us. This experience of sharing our blessings from God with those who have lost everything has caused many people in St. Matthew to grow in the love of Christ for each other and for people that we don't know, but who are now enriched in many ways.

Thank you for this project. This was a wonderful opportunity for us to reach out past our church and community. I am so grateful that we were able to do this and grateful to you for that first e-mail informing us of this project. God's richest blessings to you.

In Christ,
Pastor Scott Fiege