sustain:if:able kiwi

opawa blessings practically

There has been one more layer to our Advent blessing series. I work really hard on “layering” our mission and worship life, providing multiple ways for people to engage, see more angles. So there has been the

• Advent blessing cards
• Advent banners
• Advent prayers synced to cards
• Advent creative prayer stations

And each week there has been practical Advent Opawa blessings. Like

1. We have a missionary returning to Puerto Rico to work with the deaf community on 1st January. So one week we invited people to buy gifts for the kids she works with. We made up bookmarks that had some suggestions and some details. And during the notices, we asked if anyone wanted to give a gift to a 14 year old boy, or a 10 year old girl, etc.

2. We are holding a local community Christmas dinner, for folk in our community who would rather not eat alone. It’s more a participative, relational event than a charity dinner, in that everyone who comes is expected to sign up to do something – cook, or serve, or clean. So during the notices, we asked if anyone would like to give some new potatoes, or frozen peas, or cream, or crackers. And so those in the church who can’t come get to participate.

3. Each year on Advent 1, we make a combined church Christmas cake. At Advent 4, we cut up bits of the cake and put names and addresses of our old folk who are unable to join us for Christmas. During the notices we ask if there are people from the church who might be willing to take the cake and to pop in on Christmas Eve to say hi and remind them of Opawa’s love for them. It’s a neat, practical way of connecting the generations.

So those are Opawa blessings, that have made practical for us as a community the 4 Advent blessing cards, allowing us to participate as able and each uniquely, in our mission, home and away, inside and outside our church community.