Jonathan Parker's Journalism Blog

Corrie Gerbatz, 25, lights a candle at SCF for the Families of Promise program.

Despite a 20% decline in monetary donations this year Sparks Christian Fellowship, a local non-profit organization, continues to provide a Christmas for the less fortunate and underprivileged. It is accomplished through four outreach programs geared towards and around the Christmas season.

“I believe that people who are more fortunate have a responsibility to use the gifts they were given to help individuals who might be hurting or struggling,” said Rich Shannon, director of youth ministries and outreach at Sparks Christian Fellowship.

Sparks Christian Fellowship has been doing their best to help families and individuals since the organization’s foundation 19 years ago. Some of the larger outreach programs that Sparks Christian Fellowship introduced to the area over the years include Operation Christmas Child, Angel Tree, The Advent Conspiracy, and Families of Promise.

“Without the help of SCF I wouldn’t have been able to give my kids the Christmas they deserve,” said Sherri Best, 24, a single mother of two.

Sparks Christian Fellowship helped Sherri through the Families of Promise program, which help women of addiction reconnect with their families, church officials said. She joined the program two years ago and although she is currently employed she needed a little help from the program to provide her children with suitable gifts. Through holiday donations SCF was able to help her out with her Christmas wish.

The Families of Promise program is geared more locally, but SCF also reaches out to the underprivileged internationally.

“This year has been a little tighter financially than the last few, but we saw how big of a difference our donations made last year so we wanted to keep contributing to a cause that showed results,” said Richard Sauceda, 29, referring to the Advent Conspiracy.

The Advent Conspiracy is a program that SCF started last year asking people to “exchange compassion for consumption”. It asks members to buy one less Christmas gift this year and donate that money to the Advent Conspiracy, church officials said. Last year they raised $60,000 and used that money to build clean-water wells in three poverty stricken villages in Africa.

This year the money raised through the Advent Conspiracy will go to the Homes for Hope foundation which builds homes for the homeless down Ensenada, Mexico.

The money donated this year to the Advent Conspiracy will not be counted until Christmas Eve, but SCF is hoping for the best.

“SCF has been such a blessing,” said Kayla… “With their father in prison I wasn’t sure what to do this Christmas, but SCF had an answer,” said Kayla Lynn, 26, referring to the Angel Tree program.

With numerous single-parent households in the area SCF tries to make Christmas a little easier for some of those families. The Angel Tree is a program that buys kids gifts from their wish list. SCF then gives the families the gifts in the name of the parent who is currently incarcerated, church directors said.

This year 300 families are currently enrolled in the Angel Tree program which is double the number of families that participated last year. All the families have already found sponsors for the holiday season, directors at SCF said.

“Operation Christmas Child is always a popular event in our congregation, it is a way for the whole family to get involved and give,” said Eugenia Moore, Director of Children Ministries at SCF.

Operation Christmas Child is a program where you fill a shoe box with necessities (i.e. toothbrush, deodorant, soap) and also toys depending on what age group and gender you decided to give to, Moore said.

The boxes are shipped to 180 countries around the world, giving gifts to children who couldn’t have experienced the holiday without SCF’s help.

“It isn’t just about Christmas; it is about giving just to give. Giving because we, as Americans, have been blessed with more wealth then most of the world, and we need to share it,” said Corrie Gerbatz, 25, and SCF volunteer.

This year SCF was the main hub in Northern Nevada for collecting Operation Christmas Child boxes. They collected 8,300 boxes this year—SCF alone donated 1,021 of those boxes.

Sparks Christian Fellowship has been plagued by the downturn in the economy, and still the amount of boxes received this year by SCF members alone increased by 200.

Members of SCF share why they volunteer: Robert Thoreson, Hannah Jones, and Joshua Berry.

[View with PicLens]

Sparks Christian fellowship offers opportunities for outreach all year long. For more information visit their website: www.scffamily.net or call them at 775-331-2303.

As President Obama took the floor at his State of the Union speech he had one goal in mind—fixing America. He understands that it is not going to be an easy task, but is prepared to put the plans into motion.

“We will rebuild, we will recover, and the U.S. will emerge stronger than before,” Obama said.

President Obama sets three critical areas of economic reform that he feels must be dealt with and fixed: cleaner sources of energy, health care, and education. The president addressed most of the problems that have been on Americans minds around the country and assured them that he could fix it with their help.

“Education is no longer a pathway to a better future but a prerequisite,” Obama said.

President Obama stressed an urgent need to expand education reminding those present that the U.S. has the highest high school dropout rates and that half of college students do not finish. The biggest problem was that students are not prepared to compete in the global economy.

“Healthcare reform cannot wait, must not wait, and will not wait another year,” Obama said.

In hopes of bringing down the deficit in years to come President Obama plans to tackle healthcare. His plan is to have quality affordable healthcare for every American.

“The day of reckoning has arrived… We will revive the economy and build a new platform for long standing prosperity,” promised Obama.

Gov. Bobby Jindal tells a story of government getting in the way of what the American people wanted to do. During Hurricane Katrina the sheriff asked everyone with a boat to help rescue people who were stranded in the flood. Bureaucrats got in the way requiring these boat owners to show registration.
The sheriff was so mad that he told them to arrest him.
“The strength of Americans is found in their compassionate hearts,” said Jindal.

Gov. Louisiana Bobby Jindal adresses the health care crisis. He opposes universal government run health care and thinks that we need to listen to the professionals… the doctors.
He does believe that we need affordable universal health care for everyone.

President Obama identifies the three critical problems that need to be fixed: energy, health care, and education.
America needs to be the leader behind clean reusable energy because the nation that leads that race becomes much too important.
“America has seen promise among peril before, and must be that country again,” said Obama.
“We don’t do what is easy but what is necessary.”