Estero Community’s Welcoming Wednesdays

Dear Friends of Peace River Presbytery,

Our Congregation would like to thank our Presbytery for the grant that you sent us.  Your grant allowed us to begin Welcoming Wednesdays in response to the devastation of Hurricane Ian.  Our effort centered on Spring Creek Village, a community of manufactured homes, the majority of which sustained major damage from the storm surge.  Spring Creek was not a random choice.  Approximately one-fifth of our congregation live there.

We are not a congregation that would be able to do a lot of physical renovation, but we wanted to help this community know that we cared about their suffering.  We saw as our mission to provide a break from the heartbreaking work of demolishing homes and trying to put things back together. And so, for seven months on Wednesdays at 12 o’clock until the food ran out, we served a hot lunch.  This lunch break was for everyone – residents, workers, and volunteers!  We fed between 30-50 people. There isn’t a working kitchen at the village club house, and our cars became mobile food cars.  Crock pots and heavy cook pots brought warm food to our new friends.  Many of the residents still don’t have stoves and they so often told us how they looked forward to our visit on Wednesdays.  

Our Welcoming Wednesday team consisted of cooks who greeted our guests and served, bakers who delivered homemade cookies, and congregation members who came and just listened.  The guests often came is paint spattered work clothes and never failed to greet us with a grin and thank us!

During lunch we heard complaints about missing contractors or workmen, exasperation with FEMA or SBA, unavailable materials, or small victories like the electrician finally coming.  Some ate their lunch and played cards for an hour. Some sat and talked to their neighbors. Some just relaxed and enjoyed being somewhere else. After lunch was cleared, a small group of residents, volunteers and some of our members met for Bible study. But all seemed to know that we cared about them, and that after all was our goal. Our last lunch was Wednesday, but we are planning a Homecoming Lunch in October. Hopefully by October, most will be in the finishing stages of putting their lives and homes back together. That’s what we are praying for! 

Without your grant and private donations of money, time, and food, this project could not have happened.  We feel God led to do this work, and we feel so enriched by being a part of Welcoming Wednesdays.   

We ask your prayers for the residents of Spring Creek Village, and all those who are still suffering from the devastation of Ian.  Normal is still a long way away for so many!

With gratitude,

The Congregation of Estero Community Church