Latter-day Saints church members in Seguin in the midst of doing God’s work, changing lives

Seguin community invited to assist in furnishing modern day nativity for Afghan refugees

(Seguin) — Refugees from Afghanistan can now “see” the hope that’s before them thanks to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints who are working tirelessly to “Light the World with Love.”

The impact of the much talked about “The Seguin Stable Project” was experienced over the weekend as church members with your help outfitted the first of what will hopefully be dozens of apartments for the refugees who are relocating to the San Antonio area.

Explaining the Seguin Stable Project as an extension of the church’s Light the World with Love initiative is Bishop Tim Bird. Bird says they are challenging the community to Light the World this Christmas season — one household item at a time.

“The Light the World initiative is a program that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints does every December. So, everyday in December, there is a calendar that we have random acts of kindness that we do through the month to get us into the Christmas spirit, turn our hearts toward the Savior and really focus in on family and doing things for your neighbor. So, that’s where the Light the World part of this comes from. This year, in the promotion of Light the World, they portray a modern nativity and what that is these random acts of kindness and different symbols of the nativity as you will and the stable portion of that nativity, it depicts a family that is a refugee family that is moving into an apartment that’s been out furnished by some families,” said Bird.

Bird says over 1,000 refugees relocating to the San Antonio area are needing help. He says this project will outfit apartments for them to live in.
“The need that we identified here is that there are over 1,000 Afghanistan refugees coming into the area. It’s a whole world initiative for all of our church members throughout the world. Here, in the area, that was a big project. I don’t know if you remember earlier in the year, when we were dealing with a lot of the youth that were coming across the border and that they were housed in downtown San Antonio. We were helping get toys and books and things like that for them. So, this project, we are in partnership with the Catholic Charities. So, they really are the big umbrella that we are supporting in this initiative. This isn’t just our church. This is open up to everybody. We partner with all religious groups and civic organizations to Light the World so as you can see, we can provide manpower and roll up our sleeves and get stuff done. We just love to serve,” said Bird.
Bird says when international campaigns are launched in the church, they often include what is called the Giving Machine – similar to a vending machine, it allows individuals to electronically purchase an item for charity there on the spot.
But because Texas affiliates did not receive an electronic Giving Machine, Bird says a group of local youth stepped up to the plate to build one from scratch. There at this custom-made Giving Machine, individuals are be able to see the available items needed and can pull off the tag that contains the item that they wish to purchase.

He says the Seguin Ward Giving Machine which has already been featured at a variety of public events including at Seguin’s Holiday Stroll Parade and Holiday Sip N’ Stroll, is currently located in the First United Bank lobby at 200 N. Austin St.

“This portrays the Giving Machine and that’s another program that we have through the holidays and what the real Giving Machine is basically a vending machine. Instead of buying a bag of chip or a candy bar or a can of soda, you would buy a soccer ball, or a jump rope or 20 textbooks to send to a school in a third world country or a goat. That was a popular one last year that would go to a family that would provide milk for their family. Chickens that would provide eggs – all sorts of these other things that would just go to serve and help somebody else in need. So, we combined those two to help us acquire all these items that are for these apartments. So, what we are doing is gathering slightly used or new items for an apartment – basic home necessities basically and on our Giving Machine board here, we have 72 items that are there that people can come up and physically grab an item and then donate that later up at the church or just make arrangements for us to pick it up,” said Bird.

Just as they’ve shown by building the Giving Machine, Bird says it really has been the church youth who are leading this effort. He says their drive is to become “part of the greatest story ever told” as echoed in this international humanitarian campaign.

Among those who led the charge to physically build The Giving Machine is Jordan Johnson, a 16-year-old sophomore at Seguin High School.

“We were with it from the very beginning. It was presented to us by our Bishop. I know the Ward needed help and we came to the call, but we wanted to kind of take it on by ourselves and we started with Giving Machine. We’ve been finding different ways to implement it. We’ve been on YouTube. We brought it to the parade and now this Sip N’ Stroll. We built it. The seed was planted in my driveway, so we got all the materials and I’d rush home afterschool – eat some pizza and work the late hours of night painting and screwing that box and getting it ready to go,” said Johnson.

Also rolling up his sleeves to help is 18-year-old home schooled student Anthony Buchanan.

“I kind of learned how it felt a long time ago to kind of not have anything. I know a lot of those families are coming from a real bad place in their lives and they are coming here and it’s really bad for them because they have nothing. They have no one here to rely on. They don’t have anything pretty much and it sucks and what drives me to want to do it all is because I want to make people happy and make them more comfortable in a life that is not so great for them right now. I think it’s a really good thing to help all these people out and do whatever we can for them. That’s my encouragement. That’s my drive. I like helping people and this is a great way to do it,” said Buchanan.

Also doing their part to invest in the lives of others is 15-year-old Wyatt Hargraves.

“They should donate because there are somewhere about like 1,000 plus families moving from Afghanistan to the U.S. and some of them, about 500 moving to the San Antonio area and we need people to donate so they’ll have something and we are getting people to donate so we can build them an apartment with everything inside of it that you would normally have so that they’ll have stuff because they are coming from Afghanistan with nothing,” said Hargraves.

Bird says the entire project including the custom-made Giving Machine have been so successful, that it’s been hard to keep up with all the items that have been promised.

“It’s been phenomenal! It’s been absolutely phenomenal! We have stuff rolling in right now. We actually had to scale it. Instead of having a card, we created an Amazon registry for the items so that people that are catching wind of this all across the country are supporting this project. My front porch has been inundated with packages every day. You have to sort them through to get to the front door. It has been overwhelming and it’s such a great project. Everyone’s got something this time of the year that they want to do for somebody else and it’s really easy to go into your closets and grab an extra blanket, grab an old set of knives or silver wear or a plastic mixing bowl – anything that we can gather for a household necessity is being put to use for these people that have come here really with nothing. A lot of them don’t even speak English yet,” said Bird.

Bird and the local church have been so busy with the project that they are encouraging folks to follow them on this journey via social media. Throughout these past few days of juggling Christmas programs, holiday parties and Christmas shopping, this group in the community has been working non-stop for others.

On its “The Seguin Stable Project” Facebook page, Bird post “Last Friday night was very emotional for me as we were introduced to more Afghanistan refugee families and learned of their stories! We had the privilege of helping Jamila, a recent widow with 7 children whose husband was killed in battle protecting our troops in Afghanistan from a suicide bomber 3 weeks before the fall of Kandahar. Her family was living in an entirely empty 1- bedroom apartment with only the clothes on their backs, all 8 of them. It was such a blessing being able to see her kids overcome with joy as our youth moved in beds, blankets, kitchenware, and other household items that we have gathered and received from all over the country. One request that she had was to get a sewing machine so she can begin making children’s clothes to support herself and her family. Our youth have been working nonstop for the last 4 weeks building a system that will provide help for these families and I was so proud watching them finally be able to deliver the donations.”

In between collecting items and outfitting apartments, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Seguin will be continuing its promotion of the humanitarian effort by hosting a free Christmas drive-in movie. The Christ Child is a 20-minute depiction of The Nativity. During that time, guests will also get the chance to drop off a donation for the congregation’s Giving Machine and learn more about the campaign which is changing lives one apartment at a time.

Opportunities to catch the film and to donate will be this Friday and Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m. and again on Thursday, Dec. 23. The church is located at 1111 E. College St. For more info, visit #TheSeguinStableProject Facebook page or email theseguinwardstableproject@gmail.com.