Dear Ryan,

Congrats on your first week as news editor for MTT. Welcome to Middleton, which you should know, Ryan, if you don’t already, is very generous with those in need. Hence its nickname, “The Good Neighbor City.”

This is also meant as an open letter to the community, expressing the heart-felt thanks of Middleton Outreach Ministry. MOM (as we are affectionately called) leads a community of Good Samaritans in providing extended and emergency care, social services and Christian witness. You all gave so much of yourselves to make the Light of Christmas real for so many.

Hundreds of you stepped up to the plate to serve a Christmas Day dinner at St. Bernard’s for almost 400 others (319 of you in our dining hall, plus 52 take-outs or deliveries). You enjoyed an all-you-can-eat plate of turkey or ham, complete with Clasen’s bread and all the trimmings, as well as genuine fellowship and entertainment. (For the latter, thanks, Nancy Groeneveld.)

Volunteers (178) donated, cooked, prepped and served all the turkeys (22), hams (20), and potatoes (100’s), never mind all the extras, such as room decorations and all the poinsettias. Thanks, Andrea Flickinger, for organizing all of us—her first year in that role.

My thanks, as well, to the Marriott-West and the new Hilton-Garden Inn, which sheltered dozens of homeless guests Christmas Eve, so we could then feed and fellowship with them the next day at St. Bernard’s. Many year-round residents and first-time attenders told me they’d make this their annual tradition, even with out-of-town family. Great.

Also sharing the Spirit and gifts of Christmas were you businesses, churches, school groups, and families who “adopted” a family in need. In total, we served 227 families, which included 910 family members. Around 30 families received the Christmas trees they requested (for 20 of those trees, thank you, Milo Breunig). That’s up from 191 families, with 807 family members, adopted for Christmas gifts in 2003.

We have Ellen Carlson to thank for coordinating this MOM program the last two years! One adopted family shares a word of thanks, typical of many that you all helped:

God truly blessed us this season. Just when we thought things were going to be dim, we received an abundance of gifts, food and blessings. And your gift cards, thoughts, and prayers were a part of that…. Hopefully, one day we will be in position to give to another family in need, the way you gave to us.

With MOM’s annual budget approaching $400,000, this community usually gives 40% of that in one month—December, and almost half that in the last week alone. But not in 2004. We came up about $50,000 short. A decline in 2004 giving compared to the year before is the first such setback in my 8-year tenure with MOM. No doubt the Asian tsunami crisis has diverted some year-end gifts away from MOM. So be it. I totally understand.

Which makes faithful year-round giving all the more appreciated. While people seem to volunteer and support charities in December more than at any other time of year, by and large our culture continues to miss out on the true giving spirit of Christmas. IF you want hands-on, year-round opportunities for giving, check our website, www.mompop.org.

Thank you, one and all, for letting your light shine through MOM—last month and year-round.

Gratefully yours,

Dietrich Gruen, MOM Director

© 2005 Middleton Outreach Ministry

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