Each year the Lutheran Church of the Holy Spirit (LCHS) congregation holds a service project as part of the annual God’s Work Our Hands (GWOH) Day of Service.  This year’s project will bring members of all ages together to prepare hundreds of personal care bags for a variety of local organizations.  Our Outreach Team begins collecting toothpaste, toothbrushes, bars of soap, shampoo, Chapstick, pocket packs of tissues, combs, and deodorant during the two months leading up to our GWOH’s Sunday.  Our congregation donates all the items for each care bag.   Included in the bags are handmade cards by GWOH participants as well as our “Rejoicers” from our Rejoicing Spirits worship community.  This year recipient organizations include:

• Allentown Rescue Mission
• Lehigh Conference of Churches
• Lehigh Valley Foster Care and Kinship families
• Loads of Blessings (formerly known as Laundry on Linden)
• Neighborhood House
• Turning Point of the Lehigh Valley

The LCHS Outreach Team coordinates the event each year and focuses the service project on current needs in its community.  We also bless the quilts handmade by our 'Stitch and Chat' group that are distributed to local organizations.  Given the timing coinciding with the start of the school year, a collection was held for backpacks which are provided to local Child & Youth Services case workers to distribute as needed.  This year’s coordinator for God’s Work Our Hands said she never ceases to be amazed by her church families’ breadth and depth of giving of their time and talents to help others.