2020 Isn't So Bad After All | A Year of Westsider's Generosity
Gratitude month, 2020. Before you blow it off, thinking this has been the worst year and there’s nothing – or very little – to be thankful for, hold on just a minute. Take a step back and you might just see this has been a very good year.
It’s a year that forced us to slow down, spend more time with family, grow, and reflect. We have been faced with significant challenges and found new and creative solutions. We’ve been enlightened to existing needs and listened to perspectives unlike our own. We’ve seen how much – in “normal” years – we have taken for granted.
At Westside Family Church, we are thankful for every single person who calls our church home. You have embodied our very mission in 2020 – by wrapping God’s family around the lost, the least and the last. You’ve blessed families who attend, and our greater community this year.
“All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.”
Acts 2:42-47
So, let’s take a look back at some of the ways you’ve done that.
In 2020, Westside Family Church became the church home for one of the most unreached people groups in the world: the deaf and hearing impaired. Your generosity in giving, prayer support, and welcoming heart made Westside a place where this group can gather and raise up new leaders to reach more people. Watch the Westside Deaf Church Generosity story here!
Our first Worship and Pray night happened right before our state leaders asked us to temporarily stop gathering due to Covid-spread. But God reminded us that very night that His love does not fail! Not only did we lift praises to God with worship artist Mack Brock, but dozens received Christ and were baptized. One woman even said she experienced healing when her life-long stutter immediately left her when she came out of the baptismal water!
As the gravity of the pandemic shut down hit our homes, Westsiders stepped up to help. You blessed children aging out of the foster care system with new suitcases filled with towels, gift cards and blankets. Foster families who found simple trips to the store more challenging with all the new restrictions, received food packages, meals, toys, games, and more, delivered directly to their front porches.
Ministries around Kansas City including Avenue of Life, Mission Southside and Freedom Fire benefitted from three city-wide food drives in April, May and June. Your generous gifts helped fill empty shelves and serve families experiencing extreme food insecurity.
When the American Red Cross reached out because of a severe donor blood shortage, we opened our facility for multiple blood drives. You filled every last donation appointment.
In June, Covid again tried its hardest to cancel hope by impacting KidsGig. But you wouldn’t let that happen. Instead, you brought KidsGig to your neighborhood. You opened your backyards to neighborhood children and generously gave your time to share the love of Jesus. That love spilled over to the rest of your community through Make Your Move in the form of encouraging chalk art on your streets and sidewalks, baked goods delivered to neighbors, yard work for others, and hand written cards to lonely seniors living in assisted living care facilities.
In June, July and September, you again helped feed the hungry when you showed up with donations of money and time to help package hundreds of thousands of meals that were sent to food pantries in Kansas City and beyond.
But there’s more. Through the WFC Care Community Facebook page, your responded to countless requests and needs for help, including:
A partnership with the city of Shawnee and neighboring churches to support Shawnee Car Care - a ministry designed to help financially struggling single parents repair their cars so they can continue to work.
Needs for clothing and bicycles and even an air conditioner!
Prayer – for our teachers, covid illnesses, and city-wide racial healing via the Pray on Troost evening of prayer – a human prayer chain that lined the entire length of Troost Avenue.
Meals for families impacted by Covid
You made and gave away countless masks
And so much more…
When you look at 2020 like that, you gain a slightly different perspective. We can’t possibly list out all you did out of a heart of generosity and care for others. So, we just want to say THANK YOU for loving Jesus, sharing Jesus and becoming more and more like Jesus every single day. We see you, and we love you!
“No weapon formed against you shall prosper”
Isaiah 57:17