TACOMA, Wash. — Tacoma’s Shiloh Baptist Church celebrated Easter Sunday with an Easter Egg Hunt.
As children searched high and low for the eggs, the Hunt brought back memories of the times before COVID for attendees, when the church was a place for the community to fellowship, which Reverend Malando Redeemer says was sorely missed.
“Church is always packed on Easter, but the hope and the prayer for all churches and places of worship is that people will come back,” Redeemer explains. “I think what this did mark is that people feel comfortable to go back out and the world is coming back to what it once was.”
The church partnered with the Toy Rescue Mission to put the event together.
The Mission’s Executive Director, Martha Davis, says it hasn’t been easy to hold these kinds of events during the pandemic, and has had to rely mostly on donations to get by.
“In the past couple of years, we’ve really struggled,” Davis recalled. “COVID hit hard and a lot of the grants that we get, just dried up.”
But Davis said a child’s smile is all she needs to keep the Mission going.
“I love it when kids smile, that’s my greatest joy, if I can see a child smile, I just say Hallelujah!”
Rev. Redeemer hopes Shiloh will be able to host more events like this in the future, because Davis’s giving spirit is part of what the Church’s ministry is built on.
“I work with the youth here, so to see someone like a Martha Davis, who gives, who loves, who is everywhere. You go anywhere in the community, you see Martha Davis, and that is what we want other people to try and be,” he says. “She shows us what our motto is at Shiloh, which is everybody is somebody and Christ is all.”
If you would like to donate to the Toy Rescue Mission, you can head to their website at toyrescuemission.org, and read their Ripples of Hope Campaign for more information.