ECC Students THANK YOU!

You most likely saw the crowd of students standing in front of two walls with numbers and envelopes throughout the month of March. This was our Money Wall fundraiser, and I wanted to share an update and a “Thank You” for how you showed care for our ministry this past month.

“Doers of the Word” (James 1:22)

Youth ministry can sometimes look like all we want to do is have fun. And let me tell you, we do like to have fun! Sunday nights we enjoy studying God’s Word and playing a little dodgeball or trivia games. We have retreats and cookouts throughout the year where we enjoy the fellowship of one another. But one key piece of ECC Students is we’re always looking for ways and opportunities to serve – and somehow we turn that into fun as well!

Frequently you’ll see students serving in the children’s wing on evenings where childcare is needed. This school year, we’ve done work (or are planning to do work) with the H.I.T. Foundation, Junk for Jesus, Birthright of Eaton, The Homeless Shelter, and Brethren Disaster Ministries. Often you can find students serving individuals within the church to care for their needs. For us, we take seriously the command in James 1:22 to be “Doers of the Word” not just hearers. This desire to serve and shine the light of Christ will continue to be a major piece of the ministry we do as young people in the church.

Money Wall Update

That’s why it pleases me to see how the church responded to the ministry we do! Thanks to your generous giving, the money wall fundraiser was able to raise a total of $5,323! With that money raised, $623 will go as seed money for A Night in Little Italy (more on that below), and the rest ($4,700) went directly to the students to help cut costs of mission trips, events and anything we do that costs money! That eases the pockets of so many parents and students in our congregation! I can’t even begin to express the gratitude we have for your generosity! This church takes seriously our value of Generous Living.

A Night in Little Italy

As it has been mentioned, our students love to put on a Night in Little Italy. We always hear great feedback from the event; from the enjoyment of the fellowship with one another to the experience of being served by the youth in this church. We hope this event will continue for quite some time! But we are going to be making a few changes to the event, at least in part to what it’s purpose will be.

Typically, A Night in Little Italy was used as a fundraiser for our youth and the proceeds of the event went to help make events more affordable for those who served. Since we have now done the money wall, we felt it wouldn’t be necessary to ask the church for more money for the students, but rather we wanted to use that event as a way of giving back to the community.

Therefore, this year, we donated over 10% of the funds we received from the Money Wall to A Night in Little Italy as we shift to make that evening a fundraiser for the community of Eaton, rather than ECC Students. Our youth group will be selecting an organization to give all the proceeds of A Night in Little Italy to this year.

So please, mark you calendars for OCTOBER 21st! So you can join us in being a church that exemplifies generous living, not just with our money but also with our service. Thank you for always showing support for our youth in more ways than just monetarily.

Blessings,

Pastor Josh