This fall Triumphant Love joined with other ELCA congregations across the country to boldly participate in God’s work in the world—restoring and reconciling communities, and pursuing peace and justice.
Our 2019 God’s Work. Our Hands. Food for ALL. emphasis focused on food insecurity. Triumphant Love already supports many food-related non-profits with prayers, volunteer hours, and donations. However, we know that we could be doing more. For example, food insecurity rates in 2017 were estimated at 14.6% (Travis County) and 12.5% (Williamson County). Our goal was to provide outreach activities for all ages and abilities within our church building and out in the Austin community.
Worship services on Sunday, September 29th, reflected our theme and included a blessing of our hands to do God’s work. Between services, our members joined together in onsite service projects:
– Bread for the World’s Offering of Letters: Wrote 40+ letters and postcards to our elected officials to encourage their support for maintaining food justice programs.
– Bread for All Food Pantry: Collected and sorted food donations. Children’s Sunday School classes assembled 100+ Hygiene Bags. A homeschool group, Northwest Austin Classical Conversations, contributed many Hygiene Bags, too. Two SUVs were required to deliver everything to the pantry.
– Meals on Wheels: Made Care Cards for the 23 clients on our two weekly Meals on Wheels routes.
Our outreach extended outside our walls to impact our community:
– Micah 6 Food Pantry: Assisted with new shopper registration, food selection, and setup/cleanup at this West Campus pantry. That day 120 shoppers each received 30+ pounds of free, healthy food.
– Urban Roots: Worked alongside teen interns at their East Austin farm. Urban Roots provides youth leadership opportunities while nourishing the community.
– Lutherhill Camp: Cleaned up camp grounds as part of the BYOG weekend retreat for our elementary students.
– Community First! Village: Cleaned out chicken coops, planted crops, and weeded at Genesis Gardens, the onsite farm at this East Austin community for chronically homeless men and women. A week later, 16 Triumphant Love members toured the Village to learn firsthand why “Housing will never solve the problem of homelessness, but community will.”
– Florence’s Comfort House: Collected and delivered food donations for children and elders in the Montopolis neighborhood.
Strengthened in God’s grace, Triumphant Love looks forward to continuing to serve as God’s hands in the world.