Cookies for the Troops Christmas 2016 Effort a Huge Success
Central Texas Churches bake and deliver more than 100,000 Christmas cookies to U.S. Troops
by J. Vance Morton*As you’ll recall, toward the end of 2016, Bob Murchison, pastor of Winters First United Methodist Church, launched and spearheaded Cookies for the Troops 2016 – a mission project eagerly endorsed and supported by Bishop Lowry and the CTC Executive Leadership Team. This conference-wide effort was designed to provide a little taste of home to U. S. military women and men who couldn’t be at home with their loved ones at Christmas due to their service.
The ask was a simple one – just bake some cookies, put a dozen in a zip lock bag, add a short note of support and get them to one of the eight collection site churches throughout the conference – and the detailed instructions provided by Pastor Murchison and his team made it even easier.
“This was completely a voluntary ask for each church, no pressure, no expectations,” Pastor Murchison stated. “We just wanted to give the local churches a way to show the women and men who put their lives on the line for us every day that we support, care for and love them.”
The final numbers are in and, not surprisingly, the local churches of the Central Texas Conference responded with enough cookies to make the Keebler elves blush with pride. The final count of cookies baked and delivered was 8,575 dozen. That’s 102,900 cookies!
“The mission project was a rousing success! I would like to give you a big ‘Thank You!’ to each and every one who participated this effort of providing cookies for our troops last Christmas!” Pastor Murchison exclaimed.
Approximately 3,000 dozen of the cookies provided by the 75 participating churches across the conference were delivered to Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo. The remaining 5,500 dozen went to Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas, which were then loaded on C-130 transport planes and taken to troops around the world.
“You made a lot of women and men serving to protect our country know that we love and support them,” said Pastor Murchison. “Their Christmas holidays were a lot brighter and happier because of you and the cookies that you baked and delivered.”