Confirmation Students from St. Paul Lutheran Church, Sheboygan Falls, Assemble “Chemo Care Bags” for Area Cancer Patients!

Submitted by Nicole Dolleveot

6^th through 8^th grade confirmation students from St. Paul Lutheran Church in Sheboygan Falls assembled over 100 bags of joy recently.

These bags were lovingly packed and each one was prayed over before it left our building and got distributed to cancer centers in Sheboygan co. We know that each cancer patient has a different journey and that some days are often long and sometimes gloomy.

We hope that the individuals that received these bags feel the love and joy that was poured into each one. It takes about 200 people and many hours to pull off this project. Members from St. Paul and the community donated all sorts of items for the bags everything from Chapstick to lotion to playing cards, hand-knit items and more.

This is the 5th year we have done this service project and we were again blown away by the generous donations that came in. We have folks that are knitting hats and creating jewelry now in anticipation of next year already! The favorite part for many of our students is writing a hand-written message to place in each of the bags. The cards include prayers, Bible passages, and messages of hope! During our night of service, we always bring in a person from our congregation who has had cancer and is willing to share their story. We hear that during this difficult time, they found hope and their faith in God was strengthened. Chris Helmer (pictured below) was our guest speaker this year and did a great job. The students learned new ways to support people in their lives that are living with cancer. It is fun to watch the students serve in a unique way that will impact their lives for a long time.

(See attached PDF version for additional photos).