It has been an Arlington Church tradition for a long time to donate food and gifts to families in North Richmond through Neighborhood House of North Richmond (NHNR). Years ago, we used to buy groceries for the families and gifts for the children, wrap it all up, and deliver the boxes to Neighborhood House. Now, we understand that people have dignity when they can purchase gifts/food for their own families. For the past few years, we bought gift cards. This year, to reduce our exposure to shopping, we will send a check, and the staff at NHNR will buy the gift cards on our behalf.

Your Board of Missions has a budget line item of $1800 for North Richmond Christmas. That represents $800 for Christmas turkeys or chickens, and $1,000 for gift cards for groceries or gifts, all to be distributed to the families at NHNR. We will be sending that money in early December. Would you like to add to that amount? In better years (like last year), our congregation’s donations have amounted to as much as $4,000 in gift cards. We realize this has been a very difficult year for everyone, and no one knows what next year will bring.

But if you can spare a little extra for the struggling families nearby, we invite you to send a check to Arlington Community Church with “North Richmond” in the memo line. Please do this in the next couple of weeks, so that we can send the check in plenty of time for Christmas.

We have valued our association with Neighborhood House for so many years, and they deeply appreciate our support. Thank you for your generous spirit.

Sara Laferte,
The Board of Missions/Social Justice