“Good News of Great Joy” is our annual effort to bring the joy of God to our community during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season. The following are our 2015 projects…

• Operation Christmas Child – Cornerstone is partnering with Samaritan’s Purse to collect shoeboxes from our congregation to send to children in need worldwide. Shoeboxes are due on November 22^nd and will be collected at our building. For more information on Operation Christmas Child:  http://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/

Update: This project is completed. We collected 319 boxes!

• Volunteer at the Operation Christmas Child processing center – Millions of shoeboxes are collected during National Collection Week, but before these precious gifts can bring hope and joy to a child around the world each one has to be carefully inspected and made ready for overseas shipment.  You can help prepare shoeboxes for delivery by volunteering at the Gwinnett processing center.  Volunteers must be at least 13 years old. December 8 – 6:00-10:00 need 20 teens & their SGL’s – Contact: Josh Holt.  December 11 – 6:00-10:00 need 20 volunteers – Sign up at the OCC table.

Update: All volunteer slots are full

• Deliver and unpack donated toys to Duluth Co-op to be distributed to Duluth families in need.  On Saturday, November 14th, 8:00 – 9:00 a.m. – We need 3-4 guys and a couple of trucks to load up toys. On November 14th, 9:00 – 11:00 a.m. – We need 8-10 people to unload and unpack the toys at Duluth Co-op.

Update: We were able to deliver four truckloads of toys to Duluth Co-op. Thank you to those who donated the toys and the volunteers who helped deliver and unload.

• Help a Cornerstone family– The holidays can present special financial needs for Cornerstone families that are beyond the scope of our monthly benevolence contribution.  As these needs are made known to our staff, we match them with contributors.  If you have holiday needs OR would like to help, email Caye at ccarscallen@cornerstoneduluth.org.

• Provide Thanksgiving meals to Gwinnett Senior Citizens – We will prepare and deliver Thanksgiving meals to Gwinnett Senior Citizens on Thanksgiving Day. Volunteers will be provided with contact information for the senior citizen. For more information or to volunteer, contact Steve Gooch at stvgoo52@gmail.com

Update: 33 meals were prepared and delivered on Thanksgiving Day.

• Deliver Christmas gift bags to Gwinnett Senior Citizens. Volunteers will be provided with the packed Christmas bag and the contact information for the senior citizen. Bags can be delivered anytime in in the two weeks before Christmas. For more details or to volunteer, contact Steve Gooch at stvgoo52@gmail.com

• Bring Christmas to a local family in need – We are partnering with B.B. Harris Elementary to provide toys, clothes and food to families. Here’s how you can help:

1) Make a financial contribution by providing all or a part of the money needed for toys, clothes and food. The amount needed varies per family depending on the number of children.

2) Spanish and Korean speaking volunteers are needed to act as communicators.

3) Volunteers are needed to make contact with a family, arrange and participate in a shopping trip.

To volunteer, contact Karen Townsend at kktownsend@mac.com

Update: At this time, we have enough volunteers and financial contributions for this project. Stay tuned for updates as more needs arise.