Emma Thompson was recently named the new Chamberlain’s Children Center Birthday Celebration Coordinator. Emma will be responsible each month for coordinating all birthday celebrations. She’ll be in contact with the Center each month to verify birthdays and then coordinate with our Grace Bible Church volunteers to make sure each birthday is celebrated.  As the Coordinator Emma will spend several hours each month making phone calls, sending emails and following up with volunteer reminders. All volunteers bring a homemade birthday cake or cupcakes that will feed 12, candles, festive paper plates and napkins, a birthday card signed by themselves and their “friends at Grace Bible Church” and a $20 Target gift card.

Grace Bible Church of Hollister is privileged to serve the youth living at Chamberlain’s Children Center by providing each child a homemade birthday celebration on the day of the birthday. The children at Chamberlain’s are separated from their families for various reasons and are cared for in a group home setting. Our Grace Birthday Volunteers attempt to bring a touch of home to their lives and let them know that someone also cares for them on the outside. Our hope is that these children will remember that someone who loved Christ also loved them, and that that will have a lasting impact on their lives and futures.

One personal story from Ron and Karen Firstbrook tells of an encounter one evening when they were heading into Target when they saw a few of the pre teens and their house manager from Chamberlain’s also heading in. “We knew these young ones from other time spent at the Center and were happy to say hello. It was such a treat when one of the young gals showed us her $20 Target gift card she had received earlier that week and told us how excited she was to spend it,” said Karen. “It wasn’t just a treat to know that this young one had her own money to spend, it was also that we knew that the giver of the gift card had spent time that week preparing a birthday celebration and more importantly, praying for this young one who is in such a hard life situation.”

Grace Bible Church member and Chamberlain’s Children Center Board Member, Susie Swing, introduced Grace to the youth at Chamberlain’s many years ago and created the Birthday Celebration Ministry.  We are so grateful that Grace has persevered with this ministry for over 6 years, and we anticipate many years of fruitful ministry to these precious young ones still ahead!

To find out more about the Chamberlain’s Children Center Birthday Celebration ministry, or to become a Birthday volunteer, e-mail Emma Thompson.