Dear Edgeboro Family & Friends,

Recently, Edgeboro was invited by Northeast Community Center (NECC), a local partner in ministry, to collect food for their Thanksgiving meal distribution. They expect to give away around 200 Thanksgiving meals to local families. Knowing that, they asked us to collect boxes of stuffing and cans of yams for all of the meals they will distribute. Over the last month, we met that goal, collecting over 200 of each! This was the second consecutive year we have met a goal like this from NECC, and both years have resulted in our best responses for food drives I’ve seen in my six-plus years at Edgeboro.

In light of this recent outreach success, I wanted to highlight the outreach ministries that Edgeboro has done in the last year. Some of you saw a list similar to this in my pastor’s report during our recent church council meeting, but I think it’s worth reprinting for more of us to see because sometimes we’re not aware of the impact we’re making until we see everything laid out in front of us. So here is a listing of the community outreach ministries that Edgeboro did from November 2021 to date:

• Event: 2^nd Annual Christmas Extravaganza (Nov. 6, 2021 – Raised over $3,000 for Edgeboro.)
• Collection: NECC’s Thanksgiving Food Drive (2021 – Collected over 200 boxes each of mashed potatoes and brownie mix.)
• Collection: NECC Christmas Gifts (2021 – Provided multiple gifts for 30 individuals.)
• Collection: Trex Plastic Recycling (Ongoing since 2020 – With the other Bethlehem Moravian churches, we have recycled over four tons of plastic. We expect to receive our third outdoor bench soon.)
• Collection: Chips for Esperanza (Ongoing since 2021 – Deliveries are made quarterly.)
• Collection: Items for Refugee Family from Afghanistan (Ongoing since 2021 – We have provided this family with diapers and baby food for a year.)
• Collection: Easter Eggs for NECC’s first annual Easter Egg Hunt (Mar. 2022 – We collected over 2,000 candy-filled Easter eggs.)
• Offering: Ukrainian Refugee Relief through the Board of World Mission (Apr. 2022 – With the help of an anonymous Edgeboro donor matching funds, over $6,000 was raised in a little over a month.)
• Offering: Held 13 Joyful Noise offerings throughout the year (Supporting Moravian Open Door, Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering [twice], Allentown Rescue Mission, Moravian Unity Offering [refugee resettlement], Valley Health Partners Street Med, Edgeboro’s VBS program, Camp Hope, the International Student Care Committee, Tricklebee Café, You Belong [twice], and Edgeboro’s sensory room.)
• Event: Ice Cream Festival (Aug. 15, 2022 – Raised over $2,500 for the church, the largest amount raised for this event to date.)
• Event: The 4^th Annual Moravian Day of Service (Sept. 18, 2022 – We picked up litter, prayed for our community, left encouraging chalk messages for our neighbors, assembled a bench, organized a Sunday School room, and wrote cards to church members and ministry partners.)
• Event: Halloween Open House (Oct. 28, 2022 – Opened our doors to over 200 individuals during public trick-or-treating hours.)
• Event: Christmas Extravaganza (Nov. 5, 2022 – Raised over $2,300 for Edgeboro.)
• Collection: Hygiene items for NECC’s Food Bank (2022 – Five large boxes of items were just delivered.)
• Collection: NECC’s Thanksgiving Food Drive (2022 – Collected over 200 each of cans of yams and boxes of stuffing.)

A lot of time, plans, and people went into making all this happen! Thank God for your generosity. The impact is felt all over this congregation, Bethlehem, the Lehigh Valley, and the world! I wonder what will be in store for next year? Join us, be a part of what’s going on here, and let’s respond to God’s future callings together!

Serving with you,
Pastor Dan