|
Please note: The Safe Haven website was created in 1998 and contains valuable information for ELCA congregations. However, it has not been updated and some of the information, resources and references are out of date. For more updated resources and links we would direct you to www.elca.org/safeplace and www.elca.org/legal/congregations/safeguarding.html. |
|
|
|
|
Safe Haven Story: St. James Lutheran Church,
Crystal Minnesota.   “I JUST WANT TO SAY THANK
YOU” Seven-year-old Victor stood proudly at the microphone! His smile was bursting from ear to ear! He couldn’t wait to crawl into the family’s “brand new car,” but first he he had something he wanted to say. “I just want to thank you all for a car for my family,” Victor said proudly. “Now we don’t have to take the bus to the grocery store. Mom doesn’t have to go by cab to work. We get to ride in our car!” Victor and his family were the recipients of a 1985 Chrysler Labaron, made possible through Motorhead Ministry, a program of St. James Lutheran Church in Crystal, Minnesota, where used cars are donated to a group of volunteer mechanics in the parish. They repair the cars, shine them up, and make them available to recipient families. Victor’s family was chosen through a social service agency in the community to receive the car. Together with his younger and older sisters and their mom, Victor was the recipient not only of a car but of the efforts of St. James Lutheran Church to help the children of its community.  During the last 18 months, eight such occasions have happened at St. James. Each recipient family has been a single parent with small children. “To see the delight in the hearts of those children,” says Diane Michaelson, Children’s Ministry Coordinator, “brings tears to the eyes of the St. James members.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
