Christmas Eve Offering: Light Destroys Darkness
I recently had a short, but deeply impactful conversation with two women, and I wish you had been there.
These two women—full of life and hope and joy, who know they are loved and that they matter to the people around them, who are more than what they do even though they now know they can do great things— simply said, "we saw the number. Thank you.”
These two women are currently part of the care and recovery program of Samaritan Village, an organization that provides residential recovery for women who have suffered under sexual exploitation and human trafficking. And this year Summit gave our Christmas Eve offering to them.
And I wish you had been there to see in their faces, and to hear in their voices, their gratitude.
A total of $69,784.83 was collected in one day across Summit campuses. That offering will go to increasing capacity at Samaritan Village—renovating the home in which the women receive care to support two additional women. Women just like the ones who can now say thank you because of what they have experienced through Samaritan Village.
That is what can happen when the church comes together to seek justice and give a voice to the voiceless— when the church is about what the church should be about.
Lives get changed. Eternities get altered. Light destroys darkness. And new life comes into existence.
In a very real sense, those thank you’s came from two women that didn't exist a year ago. They simply weren't who they are now and they realize that this offering will help more women experience the life-giving transformation available as this program points them toward Jesus.
They know firsthand what it means when people give to support Samaritan Village. They know it can lead to lives being changed and cycles of hurt and despair being broken because theirs have been.
So, though you weren't there to hear the women say it, let me extend their words to you. "We saw the number. Thank you."
If you are looking for more information about Samaritan Village, visit their website here.
Garry Abbott is the Herndon Campus Pastor. He would love to hear from you at gabbott@summitconnect.org.