Containers for Christ
Containers for Christ is Zion’s mission in action. This ministry started in 2002 when Zion answered a call for support by Pastor Elijah Mwitanti. Pastor Mwitanti and his father had a vision to establish Oasis Village to help the widows and orphans of AIDS victims in Zambia. The goal was for Oasis Village to become a self-sustaining community through agricultural and entrepreneurial projects. To assist the project, Zion sent a shipping container filled with clothes, bicycles, books, school supplies, beds, sporting goods, generators, tools, and equipment and sent it to Zambia. In 2003, Zion shipped another container filled with relief goods, vehicles, and tools.
Containers for Christ did not stop with the Oasis Village project. In 2005 a group
of Zion members participated in YouthWorks, a faith based organization that
uses the building and repairing of homes as a way to live out Christ’s love in
a community. So Zion loaded up a
container with washing machines, dryers, preschool furniture, toys, painting
equipment, and sporting goods and went to the Mon Valley, an economically
depressed area near Pittsburgh PA. While
there, Zion members painted houses and did yard work for local senior citizens,
helped clean and paint a church, and organized clothing at the church’s thrift
store. They also helped the Vacation
Bible School program at the Salvation Army.
The recipient of Zion’s next Container for Christ was Christus Victor Lutheran
Church in Ocean Springs Mississippi, an area devastated by the 2005 Hurricane
Katrina. Zion members collected and
donated air conditioners, fans, refrigerators, washers, dryers, ovens,
televisions, beds, clothing, linens, furniture, building supplies, paint,
tools, health care products, over the counter medications, paper products,
non-perishable food and bottled water.
Enough items were donated that a 40-foot container was filled to the
brim. Because Katrina’s destruction was so wide spread and the need for relief
aid so great, Zion made the decision to send another Container for Christ to
Christus Victor in 2007. Once again
members collected and organized enough donations to load and deliver a 40-foot
container to the Mississippi church.
In 2009, Zion’s youth participated at the National Lutheran Youth Gathering in
New Orleans. Before arriving in New
Orleans the youth of Zion spent time with the members of Peace Lutheran Church
in Slidell, Louisiana where they helped rebuild homes that were damaged during
Hurricane Katrina. Zion’s youth group
was there in Slidell to meet and unload the container that was filled with
building materials, tools and painting supplies.
Containers for Christ helped with our youth group’s “Down ‘N Dirty” in Dover
program in 2010. Zion’s youth worked on
a Habitat for Humanity house, served food in Faith Kitchen, and helped at a
Veteran’s Home in Dover New Jersey. A
Container for Christ accompanied the youth group to Faith Kitchen loaded with
coffee urns, new tables and chairs. The
Veteran’s home got a new shed and picnic tables. A local middle school received school
supplies. Cleaning and painting
materials were donated for the youth group to spruce up the Veteran’s
Home.
To
learn more about Zion’s Containers for Christ ministry please contact the
Social Ministry Committee at socialministry@zionoldwick.com.