Dear Edgeboro Family & Friends,

This newsletter was printed on Giving Tuesday, and so I thought it was a fitting opportunity to include this list, serving as a year-in-review of all the community outreach events, collections, and offerings that Edgeboro did in 2023:

Offering: 12 Monthly Joyful Noise offerings (Recipients include Essentials Café, Shannon Swingle’s mission trip to You Belong, Andrew Miller’s travels on the Moravian Youth Convo, the Moravian Unity Disaster Relief Fund, Edgeboro’s VBS program, Camp Hope, Mercy World Organization (Tanzania), Edgeboro’s Sunday School program, the International Student Care Committee, Tricklebee Café, Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering, and Moravian Open Door.)

Collection: Trex Plastic Recycling (Since the program began among the Bethlehem Moravian Churches in 2020, over seven tons of plastic has been recycled, resulting in four benches, or soon-to-be four benches, that each of the churches has received.)

Collection: Chips for Esperanza (At least 500 snack-sized bags of chips have been donated this year for after-school children’s snacks.)

Collection: Candy for Northeast Community Center (They hosted their 2nd annual Easter Egg Hunt attended by 100+ kids in the community.)

Collection: Children’s books for Calvary Moravian Church (To help supply Calvary’s book ministry.)

Event: Ice Cream Festival on August 21st (Hundreds of people attended and $3,100 was raised for the church, more than any previous Ice Cream Festival.)

Offering: Debt Jubilee Project (An interprovincial offering that raised $100,000 to eliminate $10 million in medical debt. Many Edgeboro members contributed to this cause. Edgeboro made a contribution in memory of Craig Borst from memorial funds.)

Event: 5th Annual Moravian Day of Service on September 17th (On that day, we organized a Sunday School classroom, wrote cards to church members and ministry partners, and assembled 150 water filters for the Board of World Mission that have since been distributed to families in Honduras. $875 was also raised and sent to the Board of World Mission for that cause.)

Event: Halloween Open House on October 27th (Over 200 people spent time with their family and friends in the fellowship hall.)

Event: 4th Annual Christmas Extravaganza on November 4th (The event raised over $2,600 for the church, more than any previous Christmas Extravaganza.)

Collection: Northeast Community Center Thanksgiving Food Drive 2023 (We collected over 200 boxes of mashed potatoes and over 200 bags of white rice that were included in Thanksgiving meals.)

Event: The Christmas Putz (Now in it’s fourth decade, this continues to bring people into the building to share the good news of Christ’s birth.)

Collection: Northeast Community Center Christmas Gifts 2023 (Asked to provide gifts for 40 individuals. With your help, this will be completed by Dec. 10.)

A lot of time, plans, and people went into making all this happen! In this season of giving we’re now in, I thank God for your generosity. The impacts are felt all over this congregation, Bethlehem, the Lehigh Valley, and the world! Another year will soon be before us, full of more opportunities to be generous. Be a part of what’s going on here and let’s respond to God’s future callings together!

With gratitude,
Pastor Dan