Stories of Hope, Support, and Enduring Life Transformation

Time has a way of moving faster each year, and as the seasons speed past, it’s easy to miss emails, blogs and social posts. Whether you’ve been traveling, wrapping up a school year, or just trying to keep up with life, we hope this summer offers a respite from the busyness the rest of the year brings.

As you settle into the summer months, we’ve compiled the stories shared throughout the year for your summer reading pleasure. Each of these stories highlight the impact of hundreds of volunteers from nearly 90 churches across Lake County on the community. As you read, you may be inspired to join this growing movement of neighbors supporting neighbors. We’d love for you to join in! Keep reading to find out how.

More Than a Crib: How One Church Fills the Gaps for New Families

In a simple but powerful act of welcome, volunteers from Bethel Lutheran Church bring a mobile baby shower to new families in need.

For more than a decade, this baby shower ministry has delivered blankets, diapers, a pack-and-play, and books to new families who have reached out to Love INC for help. But the volunteers don’t just drop things off, they stay. They talk with new parents, pray together, and read to older siblings. Over the years, this ministry has helped welcome dozens of babies into the world through small acts of generosity while truly seeing the people they serve.

David Ross, a key volunteer throughout the ministry’s history says, “This has been really transformational for me. It’s helped me grow a great deal. I’ve learned how to be less judgmental, and that everyone is a child of God.”

This baby shower ministry is an incredible example of a Gap Ministry — one that Love INC identifies and the church fulfills. Read the full story.

More Than Furniture: How the Local Church is Turning Houses into Homes

That same spirit appeared in a different form in the story of the volunteers who transform and deliver donated furniture into something far more significant than tables and beds.

More than 20 churches showed up last year, with eight making furniture delivery a weekly commitment. Behind every delivered item stand people willing to lift, repair, sort, and serve — and often, to stay long enough for a real conversation. “There have been Saturdays when we leave someone’s house after delivering furniture where we are richer because of the way that person ministered the gospel to us, even when we thought we were serving them,” said Everett from Trinity Community Church.

What looks like a furniture ministry from the outside is, in reality, a ministry of restoration. Read the full story.

Homeless to Hopeful: How the Church in Lake County Showed Up

The theme of restoration runs through Madelyn’s story, too. She was a mother of three whose journey from homelessness to stability unfolded over years and through the generosity and support of eight different churches.

Progress didn’t happen overnight. It came through a volunteer who regularly encouraged her, a Faith and Finances instructor who met her where she was without judgment, and a community from Journey Church Beach Park that supported her through prayer, checking in on her children, and more. When housing finally opened up, churches she had never even visited stepped forward to cover her family’s move-in costs simply because word had gotten out about a faithful woman who had long given of her time, talents, and treasure.

“When people feel like they have no hope,” she says, “God steps in — and He often does it through His people.” Read Madelyn’s story.

The Helpers: Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things

As spring arrived, we turned attention toward the people who rarely seek recognition. These are a few of their stories.

• • Betty, who volunteers at the Loved Twice Thrift Boutique so consistently she has her own key.
  • Jerry, an intake minister who has been praying with strangers for 18 years and still calls it a stretch.
  • Sonja, who wrote financial curriculum from inside her own season of unemployment.
  • Don, a retired chemistry teacher repairing donated furniture with vintage tools inherited from his father’s garage.
  • Claudia, who once received beds from church volunteers in a moment of crisis, and now does intakes and translates for families just like hers.

Five people, five churches — and nearly every one of them will tell you the work has changed them as much as anyone they’ve served.
Read the full story.

A Door of Hope: Tackling Mental Health Conversations in Lake County

Most recently, we spent time with the leaders and volunteers at Village Church of Gurnee who stepped into a space many churches have found difficult to navigate: mental health.

Pastor Brandon Smith had been looking for a way to address the need for over a decade. Facilitator Megan, a special education teacher with her own lifelong experience with anxiety, co-led the first Grace Alliance group in Lake County — and watched participants open up with unusual depth and speed. For one of those participants, the group delivered something she hadn’t known she was missing: language and tools for understanding the people she loves.

“I used to feel so helpless,” the participant said. “Now I feel better equipped.”

The hope is that what Village Church learned will make it easier for the next church to take that step — and the one after that. Read the full story.

The settings were different. The needs were different. But the thread running through every story remained the same: people choosing to show up for one another.

Could This Be You?

Whether your gift is listening, organizing, repairing, teaching, translating, or just showing up, there’s a place for you here. Join us for an upcoming Volunteer Orientation and discover how you can help transform a life in Lake County.

For more information about how you can serve on your own, with a friend, or with your church, email us or call (847) 782-8630. We’d love to help you find a way to serve In the Name of Christ.