Operation: Blessing

Over the past couple of months, we've had many on the Blessing Bag Ministry Team donate their time & resources into making and/or purchasing several items this year. Their generosity allowed us to prepare a total of 65 bags for our local homeless - 15 of which went to the Stepping Stones Women's Shelter, along with 25 Christmas stockings for the children in their care.

What a blessing it is that we did not have to raise funds last year, even though we adjusted the cost of bags from $15 (when this ministry began in 2019) to $20 per bag. God has truly blessed CCPV in this endeavor, and we do not take that for granted – especially since He is the One we are working for (and alongside!) as we carry out His Great Commission.

Being that the Blessing Bags have become so popular with our congregation (not to mention the overwhelming gratitude of the recipients!) most of our collected supplies have been depleted - which resulted in us starting from "square one" and purchase almost every item necessary to assemble another batch of bags. Again, many items were donated, but the majority of what we include in each tote had to be freshly-researched (to acquire items at the best-possible price, at the soonest availability, for the highest-possible quality), and we did our best to avoid shipping charges. 

Christmas stockings for the kids at Stepping Stone's shelter are filled with age-appropriate snacks, activity/prayer books, and Christ-themed Christmas crafts. This year, 25 stockings will be delivered before Christmas, when we drop off the 15 totes for the women 

The remaining bags are distributed to those in our community without a warm home - especially at this time of year. We like to take care of our local homeless (Prescott Valley-specific), so we have teamed-up with a relatively new homeless street ministry named “A Safe Place” - who also serve other towns in the Quad-City area.

We would also like to have 10 bags available each week for those in our congregation to take, beginning Sunday, December 20th (which must be distributed within the week, at their own discretion, and keeping in mind the obvious safety precautions). Any bags remaining after that Sunday will be delivered to “A Safe Place” street ministry by one of our Team Members.

Our entire Blessing Bags Ministry Team was excited and energized with taking on this challenge and we look forward to providing many more Blessing Bags every year from now on. Thank you for your donations and/or participation in this outreach as we work together to bring joy to others in our community this holiday season.

Monetary donations will be accepted here on our website, and a special offering will be collected during December church services. A sample tote is available each Sunday for anyone curious to see exactly what goes into each bag.

As we have been blessed, we will bless others.