Open Door Mission ends up a winner in local church versus church competition

Clients of the Open Door Mission in Omaha, Neb., received an Easter boost thanks to the efforts of the Red Oak and Villisca First United Methodist churches.
The church members filled and delivered 141 Easter kits to be distributed at the Open Door Mission. Nicole Solberg, the church’s office administrator, said the churches have never done an event like this on such a large scale before.
“The churches wanted to do a project for Lent, and do something for other people, as part of Lent is something called “almsgiving,” which means doing something for other people. We decided to do something for the missions, and picked the Open Door Mission to do the event for,” Solberg said.
After deciding on a project, the next step, Solberg said, was to determine what the Open Door Mission was in need of.
“I contacted them and asked what they needed, and they said they were doing Easter kits for men and women. They emailed us the details of the items that went into the kits, and I passed the information on to our musical director Tim Marsden and Pastor Jenn Van Nostrand, and they ran with it,” commented Solberg.
Since Van Nostrand is pastor of both the Red Oak and Villisca churches, Solberg said they developed the event into a light competition.
“A theme was created, ‘Go and Do Something.’ A song was picked called ‘Do Something,’ and I had a trophy made and it was a competition between the churches of who could do more, which made it fun for everyone. Pastor loved the idea of a competition, and we then announced it to the congregation,” Solberg said.
Red Oak ended up winning the challenge, collecting enough items to fill 76 bags, while Villisca did 55. After that, there were leftover items, which were pooled to generate 10 more additional joint bags between the churches.
“All of the items were donated by our congregation. I had big tubs set out, and Villisca set out baskets, and they were dropped off in the baskets or delivered to the church office. We collected items through the month of March, and put the bags together on March 28,” stated Solberg. “The volunteers had so much fun putting the bags together, and when they saw how many there were, they were in awe that there were that many.”
The bags were filled by volunteers Carolyn Marsden, Carol Sparr, Carol Allensworth, Jane Waltz, Jan Burnison, Ellen Olsen, Jeannie Bruning, Deloris Sample, Kathy Harris, Diane Freshour, Peg Swanson, Courtney Means, Sharon Smith, and Charlotte Morris, Solberg said Van Nostrand intended to deliver the bags, but due to sickness, the bags were delivered by Jan Burnison, Sharon Smith, Jeannie Bruning, and Charlotte Morris.
Sasha White, the event and drive coordinator for the Open Door Mission, praised the donations, saying they were blessed to have the help in making this Easter a season of hope for the guests.
Solberg said now that this first event has been so successful, the churches are looking at other opportunities for the rest of the year.
“I’ve been talking with the office administrator in Villisca, Courtney Means, and we’ve already been putting our heads together. For the next one, we want to do a ‘how many new faces can you bring into church’ challenge. We’re trying to make it fun,” Solberg commented.
Van Nostrand praised the efforts of both congregations in helping the guests at the Open Door Mission have a positive Easter.
“Both churches did a tremendous job collecting the items needed and in the end, the winners were those 141 Open Door Mission recipients who received an Easter goodie bag! It was really a great outpouring of love and care for those in need. Both churches have such a compassionate heart and a drive for serving others,” Van Nostrand said.
Van Nostrand added she’ll be more than happy to continue the church versus church events in the future.
“As followers of Jesus, we are called to love and serve our community and especially those who are in need and brokenhearted. The friendly “traveling trophy” is called the “Do Something” trophy and it will be used as a tool to spur each congregation towards continuing to be Jesus’ hands and feet in our communities,” Van Nostrand commented.