On Sunday, May 23, Pastor Katie challenged her parishioners at Zion Lutheran Church in Silver Creek to celebrate their 120th anniversary in an unusual way.  She promised them that if they worked together to do 120 hours of service to the community, and each person did at least one hour, she would dye her hair bright red for the anniversary celebration and worship service, planned for October 31, Reformation Day.  Zion's anniversary committee had chosen the theme "Celebrating 120 Years of Doing God's Work with Our Hands."  What better way to live this out than by serving their neighbors?

The people of Zion did not do 120 hours of community service.  Instead, they doubled it.  All in all, they served the community for a total of 246 hours.  When you consider that Zion's average Sunday attendance is 16 people, that's a lot of service!

Their efforts were not unrewarded.  In addition to Pastor Katie's hair color change, Bishop Marie Jerge agreed to reward Zion by appearing in a bright red wig at their anniversary luncheon.  She and Pastor Jim Jerge were Zion's special guests at the worship and celebration afterwards. They had previously served Zion as co-pastors from 1983 to 1988.

The types of service varied widely.  Many volunteered on a regular basis and found they were able to count those hours towards the challenge. Some discovered they were already serving the community by participating in the Laurel Run to support disability awareness or chatting with folks at the nursing home at Lake Shore Hospital.  Some found that regular church events gave them an opportunity to help others, like working at the chicken barbeque (which benefited the local food pantry and ELCA World Hunger) or providing meals to volunteers coming into the village to continue rebuilding after last year's floods.

From the oldest to the youngest, including a set of twins that are not even two years old, everyone pitched in to make "God's work, our hands," a reality in Silver Creek.  Thanks be to God!