Recently, families of Knox Presbyterian Church came to CES for their monthly evening of family service. I want to share just one glimpse: Fifth grader, Iris, climbed up into the truck that was stacked with banana boxes. The tailgate was as high as Iris was tall. She shuffled a couple of boxes down to her sister, Cecelia, who said “I can take another!” Then Iris handed one to her mother, Teena, who lifted the box onto one hip and two-yearold Calvin onto the other. Iris handed down more boxes, then everyone trudged into Augustana Lutheran Church. The project? Move one hundred banana boxes into the building, CES’s back-up storage space.

These families from Knox Church come one evening every month to serve at CES.

It is a part of their routine. Cecelia and Iris are high energy troopers. They love their evenings at CES, as does Calvin, the wiggly two year-old, who is learning that loving God means serving neighbors. They’ve discovered that service-giving of time, labor and love-is actually fun!  This family knows about God’s love and has found that serving is one way they can say thanks.

A study by SEARCH Institute shows that families who serve together are likely to create kids who will grow into mature adults who know how to live out their faith. At CES, Christian service is being deeply engraved on hearts as God shapes a living faith in the next generation. Join us, and other church families, who come to CES to serve in this way!  by Pastor Lynn Peterson, Congregational Relations.   

The mother in my office was anxious. After assuring her that we had food to share with her family, I took time to listen to her story. She lived in a small apartment just a few blocks away from CES. Her husband had a serious disability, yet had been recently discharged from a nursing home. After his release, he had many appointments at Hennepin County Medical Center which became expensive. CES helped the family with a bus pass for him to get to the hospital and back. An 18 year old son who lived with the family was not going to graduate from High School. He had been cutting classes and his mother was worried about more trouble ahead. However, the good news was that the son was involved in a boys’ club at Messiah Lutheran Church in Lutheran Social Service’s Center for Changing Lives where he had come to respect the interracial pastoral team. He began attending church with his mother and recently both were baptized. They came to CES for food. Their total income for the family was less than $800 a month from Social Security and food stamps. Due to the rules of the lease at their small apartment, three adult people could not live there. Consequently, it seemed best for the son to go into the Job Corps residential program and to delay completing high school. In prayer together, we thanked God for helping this family find the community of Christ and baptism into new life. I called the pastors at Messiah to thank them and encourage the relationship evidently formed with the local Christian community. There is much to thank God for at CES and we always encourage people to become involved in local churches.  by Pastor Don Rudrud, Congregational Relations