Each year, toward the end of March, the congregation of Palm West Community Church, 13845 W. Stardust Blvd., gathers together in their Fellowship Hall to culminate one year’s worth of work done …
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Sun City West church finishes annual ministry
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A Sun City West church is celebrating a year's worth of work to help the homeless, abused women and children, and those fleeing from human trafficking.
Each year, toward the end of March, the congregation of Palm West Community Church, 13845 W. Stardust Blvd. in Sun City West, gathers together in their Fellowship Hall to culminate one year’s worth of work done by the dozens of volunteers who processed more than 40,000 items into 1,550 “Hope Bags."
Those bags are distributed to three local mission centers: The Phoenix Dream Center, Neighborhood Ministries and Phoenix Rescue Mission’s Changing Lives Center. Most of these individuals who come to the centers come with nothing.
That’s where the Hope Bags come in.
Made of colorful material by volunteers at PWCC, the bags contain necessities such as personal items, writing supplies and a Bible for each woman. Children receive story books, literature about Jesus, school supplies, toys, a doll for girls and a dinosaur for boys and a handmade quilt. Sewers produced 409 quilts for the children this year.
The Hope Bag Ministry began at PWCC in 2004. Over the years, the congregation has filled 14,930 bags with about 397,500 items, 9,660 Bibles and almost 97,600 pieces of children’s literature.
Other churches in the Valley have helped as well. This year, Bellevue Heights assisted by producing wooden toys for the children’s bags and 300 bags for the men at Phoenix Rescue Mission.
The chairmen of the Hope Bag project, Jimmy and Claudia Smith, welcome other churches to join in this mission.
In February and March, an army of men and women finish the inventory, complete the bags, prepare to fill them on Friday, fill the bags on Saturday (it took 85 volunteers to do this in 2023) and arrange them for the dedication service, which takes place the following Sunday. After appropriate prayer, the back door to the church is opened and men from the participating missions take it all away.
The number of people needing the hope that the missions can supply continues to increase and the church is seeking two other churches to join alongside and fill 200 to 300 bags for the coming year.
