Welcome Home, New Americans! Community in Christ Lutheran Church (CIC), Cornelius, members of all ages joined together to collect, sort, and pack 25 complete Welcome Kits, additional extra supplies, as well as color cards—all for Lutheran Services Carolinas’ (LSC) New Americans program on God’s Work. Our Hands. Sunday.

Thanks to some great planning and preparation from a group within the Outreach Committee, it all started in August when the CIC grocery cart that lives in the narthex was designated for this project. The “items of the month” for August were tags listing needed items that would complete four different types of Welcome Kits: Dining Kit, Cooking Kit, Bathroom Kit, and Cleaning & Household Supplies Kit. A Thrivent Action Team card and a Bishop’s Challenge Seed Grant from the NC Synod helped support the purchases of 25 reusable tubs for storing the items, items for five generously-supplied Hygiene Kits, and any additional items from the original tags that were not selected or weren’t returned.

On September 10, the ELCA’s God’s Work. Our Hands. Sunday, CIC members listened to a presentation from Wyatt Dunlap, LSC’s Executive Director for the New Americans Program, and got to work sorting, packing, and loading Welcome Kits into vehicles to head to LSC’s Salisbury office. Volunteers checked the contents of each box, and children made festive welcome cards for each kit. Clean up was a breeze, too, thanks to some CIC members who put away all the tables and chairs! What a great day of doing God’s work with our hands while welcoming New Americans to their new homes with the gift of God’s love shown through pots, pans, spoons, shower curtains, bath mats, cleaning supplies, soaps, and so much more!