Vestal church has 'giving heart': How parish helps community, especially at Christmastime

Connie McKinney
·3 min read

Members of a Vestal church are helping struggling families celebrate the upcoming Christmas holiday while also supporting other people in need all year long through various ministries.

“We are blessed with a congregation that is able to give and not shy about giving,” said Rev. Jake Bellinghausen. “It’s a good group of people who really care about their town and the people that live in it.”

Bellinghausen serves as the pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Vestal, where about 55 people attend services on Sundays. While the church may be small, its generosity is large as evidenced by the many ministries it runs. Church members do everything from making chemo caps for cancer patients to supplying water for Mercy House, a home for people with terminal illnesses located in Endicott.

This time of year, the church focuses on its giving tree, which will benefit three local families in need. Their Christmas wish items are written on tags that are placed on the tree. Members of the church can take a tag or two and buy the present, Bellinghausen said.

Rev. Jake Bellinghausen, left, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Vestal, and John Holton, a church member in charge of the veterans help program, stand in front of the giving tree, one of the numerous charitable programs the church participates in.
Rev. Jake Bellinghausen, left, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Vestal, and John Holton, a church member in charge of the veterans help program, stand in front of the giving tree, one of the numerous charitable programs the church participates in.

Spring Kubeli, a church member, will wrap presents and handle the shopping if members are short on time, Bellinghausen said.

So far the response has been good with a steady stream of church members taking tags off the tree, Bellinghausen said.

“We think it’s important, especially at Christmastime when people are looking at Christians and thinking about Jesus, to show the generosity of God in as many ways as we can,” he said.

The giving spirit continues throughout the year at Grace Lutheran Church with other ministries such as the veterans help group run by John Holton, a Vietnam-era Navy veteran, and church member. Whenever he finds out about a veteran in need and asks the congregation for help, they respond in a big way, he said.    

“Our congregation has a very giving heart,” Holton said of his fellow church members. “There are a lot of generous souls in this congregation.”

Once a month, the church holds Grace’s Place, a free respite care program for senior citizens with dementia or other age-related issues.

This month, church members are also participating in the milk jug collection. Families in need who attend the Maine-Endwell Central School District receive weekly groceries from the M-EALS program. A coupon that allows them to buy milk from certain grocery stores is given away along with the groceries. Grace Lutheran chose to sponsor the program during the month of December because students will be out of school for over a week. Church member Elizabeth Spring is heading up that project.

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Church members meet once a month to make quilts for people in need with Jill Lukach serving as the point person. Church members also make chemo caps for cancer patients who have lost their hair. Carol Zevotek is the leader of the chemo cap makers.

Grace Lutheran Church also collects food donations that are given to the food pantry run by nearby Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Vestal, Bellinghausen said. The church pays for the water dispensers at Mercy House.

Church members also give away Bibles to anyone in need, Bellinghausen said.

“We give away a lot of Bibles,” he said. “We think the most important thing to give away is the word of God.”

If you're interested

Located at 709 Main St., Vestal; the church holds Sunday services at 9:30 a.m. Rev. Jake Bellinghausen serves as the church’s pastor. For more information, go online to gracelutheranchurchvestal.com or call 607-748-0840.

The church has a monthly quilting group. If you know of a charitable organization or an individual in need of quilts, please contact the church.

This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Grace Lutheran Church spreads cheer in Vestal, Broome County