At the close of the year, we want to take a moment and thank all of you who have helped financially support Woodland Hills in 2020. For most of us, this year has been more challenging than any other, but your generosity has enabled our church to help:
- Distribute 4000+ boxes of food to families in need since March
- Provide 15 “essential worker” families with daycare
- Support 32 elementary-aged children (from 12 different school programs) with onsite tutoring assistance while they navigate distance learning
- In partnership with other church communities, build 3 more tiny homes that will serve our neighbors experiencing homelessness
- Keep our children and youth engaged with weekly teachings and creative gatherings
- Engage with 200 people through online discipleship classes
- Share online lay counseling, prayer, Refuge support groups, Gathering Groups and our weekend services with folks around the world
Wow!
Reflecting on the challenges of the past 12 months, we have such deep gratitude for the financial support you’ve shown. Our offerings have remained stable during this certainly unprecedented time and because of that, we’ve been able to do some amazing things for our local and global community. For example, in March our food shelf partner had to scale back their operations and were planning to close their location in our building. But we were able to pick up the pieces and now our staff runs the food shelf, serving our neighbors who can’t afford to consistently feed their families. It’s incredible to see how much food passes through our building each week!
And of course, moving our ministries and weekend services online has meant addressing countless challenges. But it’s enabled us to connect in more meaningful ways with those of you who live all around the country and in distant corners of the world. The circumstances have been very difficult, but we’re so grateful that we have new points of connection to offer our “distributed congregation.”
Our staff has been stretched in many ways and we’ve learned a bunch of new skills. We’re proud of them for hanging in there and doing such great work despite the daunting challenges of this year! But certainly, none of it would be possible if we didn’t have people out there supporting us. It’s a blessing to be part of a church community that’s so faithful and generous!
With gratitude and prayers for a happy, safe and healthy New Year,
The leadership boards of Woodland Hills
