Dear Edgeboro Friends & Family,

On September 17th, Edgeboro participated with other Moravians around the country in the 5th annual Moravian Day of Service. Edgeboro has participated in each Moravian Day of Service by devoting our regular worship hour to engage in service projects. I wanted to take the time in this newsletter to summarize how this day went. Here’s the service that happened:

Sunday School Project: College Student Care Packages—Edgeboro’s Day of Service actually began before worship during the Sunday School hour. The younger students made and signed cards and packed gifts while the confirmands made cookies to go in the packages.

Sidewalk Chalk—Like in years past, the chalk was out so we could cover the sidewalk and parking lot with encouraging messages, but rain made us cancel this last minute.

Writing Cards to Members & Ministry Partners—With the help of a few others, Megan Weikert and Alice Durner took it upon themselves to make over two dozen hand-written cards for our homebound members, local organizations, and other partners in ministry. I know that they have already been received and appreciated by many!

Cleaning & Organizing a Sunday School Room—If you notice the calendar on the last page, Edgeboro’s building is being used by a number of different groups, which means that we needed to be ready to accommodate! The Sine family spearheaded the effort to straighten up one of the large Sunday School rooms upstairs, and now it’s in good shape for the new Girl Scout troop that’ll use it!

Assembling Water Filters for Honduras—Of all the projects Edgeboro did for this year’s Day of Service, this was a new one for all of us. This project started off with a presentation prepared by the Board of World Mission so we all could learn why the water filters are needed, how to assemble them, and where they were going after assembly. Andrew Miller and Josh Testa had previous knowledge of all this having assembled the same water filters at the Senior High camp at Camp Hope this summer, and they did a terrific job giving the presentation for us.

To summarize the presentation, the water filters needed assembly so they can be easily distributed and attached to a 5-gallon bucket. The filters work with gravity (no electricity) to produce clean, usable drinking water and have a lifespan of at least a decade. In partnership with the Reformed Church in America and the One Atta Time organization, these filters will be distributed by the Board of World Mission in Tumtum Tara, Honduras—a Moravian village. Because of severe flooding, the village well has been contaminated. It has tested for alarmingly high levels of several bacteria, especially E coli. A local health check found that 100% of the families in the village reported that at least one family member had experienced diarrhea (from contaminated water) within the last two weeks, 40% reported that someone at home had experienced waterborne disease symptoms, and 20% reported that someone at home had missed school or work because of their symptoms. These water filters can drastically improve these conditions.

For Edgeboro’s Day of Service experience, the Board of World Mission purchased 150 water filters at $50/filter (totaling $7,500) and tasked Edgeboro with assembling all 150 filters and raising $500 to go toward purchasing more water filters in the future. When it was all said and done, Edgeboro assembled all 150 water filters in 20 minutes and raised $875! (If you wish to continue giving toward this cause, this project is ongoing. Give online at moravianmission.org for “water filters.”)

Besides fundraising, all this took place in a span of two hours! Imagine what else we could do to bring Christ’s love to the world! Thank you everyone for your service!

Looking forward to serving with you,
Pastor Dan