Potter's House Christmas

Last night our family had the privilege to serve at Potter's House Christmas.  It is so much more than one evening ~ 
We have known the Schwartzman family for 12 years and consider them part of our family.  We've been blessed to have our paths cross through the years to do Cell Group, SNiK (Saturday Night Kids), Potter's House and the last few years to be neighbors.  Shawn & Anita are the heartbeat behind Potter's House.  

Potter’s House began 14 years ago when Shawn met a few families in South Fayetteville and started to spend time with their children. They began to read the Bible, talk about Jesus, and hang out together.  Throughout the years more children and adults came who wanted to be involved.
Many of these same families are involved in Potter’s House today.  Now there are 35 tutors, 25 wet cement leaders, 75 small group leaders, 5 leaders for womens/discipleship house mentors and 10 mentors at the Thrift Store. ~ a total of 140 over leaders! 

Over time Potter’s House has added different ministries such as The Academy, Wet Cement and Potter's House Thrift Store.  Inside each of these ministries are opportunities for Discipleship,  Job Training, Counseling,  Retreats, Camps and Mission Trips. 

It was wonderful last night to see all these different ministries come together and celebrate Christmas.  The amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to organize this night is extensive.  Anita Schwartzman and Ashley Brill are the organizing queens!!!  Their skills in gathering volunteers to put this evening together are amazing.  It takes a huge team to pull off this evening....starting with all the wonderful people who give donations of toys, money and gift cards.  There are many volunteers that give of their time to sort gifts, organize, set up tables, wrap presents, serve that evening, donate food, clean up crew and MORE!!!  
There were 540 people who came for Potter's House Christmas and 160 volunteers ~ this number does not include all the work that goes on for months beforehand.  

The Potter's House families started arriving about 5:30.  All the different people who work and serve at PH joined the other families at tables to enjoy the evening together.  Everyone was dressed up and excited to be there.  It felt like a HUGE family reunion. 

We served appetizers as people came in and mingled.  The families got to make a wreath to take home and after that there was a delicious meal served to everyone.  There were funny dancing skits,  sweet singing, videos highlighting this past year, testimonies and reading of the Christmas story during evening.
While all the festivities were going on in the gym each family was taken to a room where photographers were set up to take pictures of them.  The pictures were then edited and downloaded onto a flash drive for each family to take home.  
Then all the table servers were ushered into a room that was filled with wrapped presents that had been organized by each table. There was so much thought and care about each gift.  They know these families and what kind of toy each child would want and they tried to match the perfect gift for each person.  We all lined up outside the doors to the gym with the gifts and just like they used to do Oprah's Christmas show.....the doors opened and we all came in with the gifts for everyone.  It was really special. Every family member went home with a basket of goodies and presents. 

It was an evening filled with laughter, singing, eating, presents, crafts and more!  

Thank you Potter's House for all you do!!!