Church prepares gifts for children and elderly
TEXARKANA, Texas — In a large meeting room inside Church on the Rock on Wednesday, a group of people are wrapping gifts, stuffing stockings and decorating festively festooned bags.
It is all part of the church’s annual Christmas community outreach, an extension of its Sidewalk Sunday School/Boombox Blast ministry.
Managed by the Rev. Mike Ulmer, the Boombox Blast ministry brings encouragement and the word of God to apartments here. Because of the pandemic, the ministry has had
had to shorten its customary reach, but not the Christmas effort.
“We have been doing this for many years,” said Sharon Ulmer, Mike Ulmer’s wife and part of the pastoral staff at Church on the Rock. “When we go to these apartment complexes, some of them living there have a lean Christmas. We try to help out a bit in that regard. We bring gifts and while we are there, we share a bit of the Gospel, along with other positive messages for the kids, like listen to your parents and such. The idea is to plant seeds that will stay with them and help them out as they get older.”
The Boombox Blast has been going on long enough to see some of these youngsters get older, even reach adulthood.
“We have had ones who were ministered to as children come to us, remembering what we said to them” she said. “The good Word sticks with them in later years. They tell people, ‘I go to church, I go to the Boom Box.’”
The group is also preparing to minister holiday cheer to local nursing homes, giving gifts to that audience.
“This year, we have to do that one a little different as well,” said Sharon Ulmer. “We will be delivering the gifts, but the nursing home staffs will be delivering the gifts to the people there. We will do some parking lot caroling while there as well.”
Church on the Rock has other Christmas outreach efforts, including support the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree project, helping with foster children, diaper drives, a coat drive, help for the homeless, the needy and more.