Event adds fun to providing dinner for ministry’s residents
By Vicky Wedig
Staff Writer
Girls at the Agape House in Walworth will get treated to dinner Feb. 25 and will get the chance to be an authority on area pizza joints.
Jim Phillips, of Lake Geneva and Princeton, Ill., discovered the Agape House at an event at Faith Baptist Church where area charities were invited to set up booths in the church’s gymnasium detailing their needs.
Phillips, who says he has always had “a heart for giving,” had been introduced to action teams offered to members of Thrivent Financial and was looking for a project beneficiary. He asked the Agape House, a home for girls suffering emotional pain, what he could do for it.
“They said we encourage people to buy lunch or dinner for the girls or staff,” Phillips said.
That sounded too easy, so Phillips thought he would not only buy the girls and staff dinner but add a little good-natured competition and some fun into the event.
The girls will be treated to pizza Saturday from up to four area pizza places and will get to vote on which is their favorite.
“It’s not just dinner, it’s like a whole fun thing,” Phillips said.
Phillips first approached JoJo’s Pizza in Delavan.
“They were very quick to say we’ll donate the pizzas,” he said.
JoJo’s was also up for the friendly competition as was Nayeli’s Pizza in Walworth, which also offered to donate pies for the event.
Phillips said the simple event illustrates how easy it is to live generously as Thrivent encourages. Thrivent members are allowed to do two action-team projects each year and receive $250 per event to promote their effort and get others on board – much like the pizza places did for Phillips’ event.
“The goal is to get other people involved as volunteers so they live generously themselves,” he said. “It doesn’t take much. It’s less of an effort than you think.”
Thrivent’s Delavan office has 500 members who conduct 239 events last year. At two events per person, those members could have conducted 1,000 charitable events, Phillips said. He hopes to show other Thrivent members how easy it is to give and encourage them to utilize their events.
