One local church delivered a Christmas gift that went above and beyond with giving back to the community. It wasn't an ordinary Sunday service at the Lima Baptist Temple. On Sunday, they presented a check for four local organizations.
The money comes from a special collection the church had earlier this month. The total amount given by the church was twenty-six thousand, four hundred and eighty-five dollars. The money was divided four different ways to give to each appreciative organization.
“It encourages us to, you know, keep going and there’s a lot of misconceptions around domestic violence so some people don’t know how to support us or really understand the dynamics so anybody that does support our mission is incredible and we couldn’t do this without them,” said Christel Keller, Crossroads Crisis Center executive director.
“When they presented that check, I think we were all a bit overwhelmed,” said Hellen Douglas, the Family Promise executive director. “Nobody expected such grace.”
“It’s a great blessing,” said Chuck Ferguson, Lima Rescue Mission executive director. “So we’re very thankful. We don’t always get gifts this size So it will be a surprise really for the rest of the board.”
“It really touches my heart that they care so much that they are reaching out,” said Patti Kennedy, Heartbeat of Lima executive director. “All the organizations here help those in need and the churches reached out to help fund us which is very important.”
Al Elmore, senior pastor at Lima Baptist Temple says giving back is just what they do.
“You see the words up here ‘go. Serve. Love.’ we adopted those words a few years ago and we’re all about serving our community,” said Elmore. “And thought what a better way to do it than these four organizations and our church has been so generous. You know most churches are known for what they are against instead of what they are for and we’re really for the community.”
This is the first year that the church has made a Christmas-time donation of this size.
