Esperanza came through again for families and seniors in need with a generous donation of Christmas gifts via Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest.
Our church worked with LSS-SW to provide gifts for 15 underprivileged and refugee families along with 20 seniors. The seniors all received winter pajamas.
Participants in the drive were able to choose families’ information from an “angel tree” at the church and then shop for items. The gifts were brought to the church to be boxed and delivered to LSS-SW for distribution.
The effort, which began shortly before Thanksgiving, was coordinated by Tom and Susan Vega, who have been part of Esperanza for more than six years, along with Jenny Tatum of LSS-SW.
Esperanza is “familiar with LSS-SW and their work, and we’ve always had a connection with them,” Tom Vega says. “Outreach ministry is very important to our church. People respond to it.”
The 2022 campaign followed a 2021 Christmas effort that supplied new bedsheets to dozens of seniors. Earlier in 2022, Esperanza worked with Project C.U.R.E. on humanitarian aid to Ukrainians.
LSS-SW, a nonprofit organization founded in 1970, serves more than 5,000 Arizonans monthly. It is the social service arm of the wider Lutheran Church, including the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (to which Esperanza belongs) and the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.
