Worship & Music
You can review the weekly “Offering of Thought,” that is part of our Sunday services, via our church Facebook page. The video is shared every week on the church Facebook page. To see these and other posts, "like" Holy Cross Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Operation Christmas Child message: This is the story from the Operation Christmas Child Facebook page that Michael Grube suggested reading during the Nov. 22 worship service:
Operation Christmas Child
November 12 at 9:00pm
Hi, my name is Yves and I’m in Buffalo, NY. My family is from Rwanda. As a result of the Rwandan genocide, we left our home escaping peril and lived in refugee ...camps and anywhere else we could feel safe, until we finally settled down in Togo (West Africa). There, our church struggled with the witchcraft we were surrounded by and the witchdoctors who were leaders in the community. People in the remote villages were told never to set foot in a church and as a result never heard of the Gospel. When I was 11 years old, my church received shoeboxes from Operation Christmas Child. Some of these gifts had school supplies which would allow parents to send their kids to school for the first time ever. These boxes had real toys, nothing like they’d ever seen before. Along with these gifts, people received the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Overtime, these shoeboxes led to many people turning their backs against witchcraft and voodoo and giving their lives to Christ.
My shoebox made me feel loved, cared for and not forgotten. Inside it, there was a scarf. I didn’t need the scarf because Togo is a very warm country so I just packed it away. Three years later, I moved to Buffalo, New York, one of the coldest places in the country and I had this scarf I had ignored all this time, to keep me warm. This was God’s way of showing me He knew my story. He knew everything I had been through in the past, and He even knew my future which He had prepared me for. #ipackedashoebox because I would like one more child to receive the same hope I received when I needed it the most. #ShoeboxRecipientTakeover
Operation Christmas Child
November 12 at 9:00pm
Hi, my name is Yves and I’m in Buffalo, NY. My family is from Rwanda. As a result of the Rwandan genocide, we left our home escaping peril and lived in refugee ...camps and anywhere else we could feel safe, until we finally settled down in Togo (West Africa). There, our church struggled with the witchcraft we were surrounded by and the witchdoctors who were leaders in the community. People in the remote villages were told never to set foot in a church and as a result never heard of the Gospel. When I was 11 years old, my church received shoeboxes from Operation Christmas Child. Some of these gifts had school supplies which would allow parents to send their kids to school for the first time ever. These boxes had real toys, nothing like they’d ever seen before. Along with these gifts, people received the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Overtime, these shoeboxes led to many people turning their backs against witchcraft and voodoo and giving their lives to Christ.
My shoebox made me feel loved, cared for and not forgotten. Inside it, there was a scarf. I didn’t need the scarf because Togo is a very warm country so I just packed it away. Three years later, I moved to Buffalo, New York, one of the coldest places in the country and I had this scarf I had ignored all this time, to keep me warm. This was God’s way of showing me He knew my story. He knew everything I had been through in the past, and He even knew my future which He had prepared me for. #ipackedashoebox because I would like one more child to receive the same hope I received when I needed it the most. #ShoeboxRecipientTakeover