Advent Lutheran Church, Charlotte, holds as one of our core values, the value of service. God’s work. Our hands. (GWOH) focuses our church family on this value every fall. This year’s event was particularly essential for our congregation because it also provided important ways to re-gather our church community following the pandemic.

Our big project involved packing 10 welcome kits for refugee families who were to be resettled in Charlotte. Using the ELCA advocacy action webpage, we also encouraged emails and letters in support of the Afghan Adjustment Act.

One of our teams built raised planting beds for our neighborhood school. Teams prepared a meal for our neighbors; decorated welcoming placemats for our homeless friends; mulched the preschool playground, and spruced up the church property.

Other teams registered participants in Advent’s upcoming Voter Information Drive and the CROP Walk.

People of all ages and abilities participated together. Almost all of our projects were co-led by a member of our youth groups. For those who aren’t yet ready to come back to “in person” church, we asked for drop off of canned foods and diapers, which we shared with babies living without stable housing.

Our sister ministry in Alto Cayma, Peru participated alongside us for the second year in a row with their own projects including painting, organizing, cleaning, collecting recyclable materials, and providing a recreational outing for women with intellectual disabilities. We love how this event connects our two communities in service, across the miles.

The God’s Work, Our Hands event gave us far more than we were able to give away: it regathered us, focused us on our values, introduced us to many ministry partners, highlighted new and long-term ministries of our church, and reminded us of how much our small acts can accomplish when we work together.