Six months ago, you gave generously to Resurrection’s 2024 Christmas Eve Offering and since then, lives have been transformed here in Kansas City and around the world. One of our most meaningful traditions is giving away 100% of the offering from our Candlelight Services. We do this because we can’t help but share the light of Christ. In 2024, your gifts totaled an incredible $2,093,971 in support of local and global missions and ministries. Thank you for being part of this powerful movement of hope and generosity.
The Christmas Eve offering is essential. This fund empowers Resurrection to partner faithfully with local initiatives, step boldly into new opportunities, and meet urgent needs. Your generosity allows us to extend Christ’s love in ways beyond what we could have imagined.
OPERATION BREAKTHROUGH
Your gifts made it possible to support the construction of an additional Pre-K classroom as well as a therapeutic classroom for children at Kansas City’s Operation Breakthrough. Resurrection’s facilities team visited the location of the classroom this Spring to demo the current space and prepare it for construction. The classroom is being specifically designed to serve children who are developmentally delayed but do not qualify for federal funding support and to provide them with behavioral health services, speech and language services, child therapy, and music and occupational therapy services. Through the services provided by Operation Breakthrough, these young children are supported to reach their developmental milestones.
From Mary Esselman, Operation Breakthrough CEO: “By supporting our students, you’re giving them access to the world outside their present circumstances. That is a gift that lasts!”
SOLAR LIGHTS IN MALAWI
1,000 more households in Dowa District, Malawi —across nine villages in Senior Chief Chakhaza and Traditional Authority Mulalo—now have access to clean, reliable solar energy. This marks the third phase of our Solar Village for Quality Education project, which has reached 5,000 households and schools since 2022.
We’re especially proud that local trainees led the installation efforts, gaining valuable skills in solar technology while directly serving their own communities. Because of your support, students can now study at night, opening doors to greater educational success. We recently visited one school that opens 2 hours every night where over 100 students come to study. Education offers opportunity. Opportunity offers hope. Hope offers vision. Vision offers determination. Determination offers success.
KCKPS PRE-K LITERACY KITS:
Resurrection’s Local Missions team has been hard at work supporting early childhood education in our community. One exciting initiative has been our ongoing partnership with Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools to assemble 2,800 Pre-K Literacy Kits each semester. These kits are filled with tools to help our littlest learners build early literacy skills and arrive better prepared for kindergarten. It’s a simple but powerful way to invest in the future of our students and city.
We’ll begin assembling kits for the 2025–26 school year starting this August, and we’re excited to continue sharing hope and opportunity to the learners.
HUNGER
As hunger continues to rise in our community, Resurrection is stepping up in powerful ways to help fill the gap. Each week, our Food Pantry provides families facing crisis with groceries and household essentials, ensuring no one has to choose between food and other basic needs. So far this year, we’ve supported 1575 families, with 601 new families visiting the pantry for the first time.
Our Food Mobile has expanded its reach into food deserts across Kansas City, feeding 4377 families and increasing access to fresh produce and healthier food options. By bringing nutritious food directly into underserved neighborhoods, we’re working to break cycles of hunger and poor health.
Beyond our own pantry, we continue to support 18 partner pantries across Kansas City, not only supplying food but also connecting them with critical community resources to help individuals and families thrive. Together, we are feeding bodies, uplifting spirits, and sharing God’s love, one meal at a time.
MISSION ADELANTE
Our financial contribution went towards Mission Adelante’s Citizenship Preparation Classes and English Language Classes.
Many immigrants understand that the English language is an important factor in their flourishing, yet there are few accessible programs in our community to meet this need. Mission Adelante has developed an effective approach to meeting this need that focuses on verbal practice, individualized attention, and building relationships with native English speakers. They are on track to successfully move 35 local individuals into passing their citizenship tests.
Applicants for U.S. citizenship must pass a verbal and written exam, in English, demonstrating an understanding of United States civics, history, and government. Mission Adelante’s citizenship class prepares students for this exam in a relational context that includes help with the English language when needed. They currently have over 80 local participants enrolled into their classes.
DELLA LAMB
Our financial contribution to Della Lamb created funding for their Refugee Resettlement Services. (RRS) is a designated Local Resettlement Agency (LRA) and works to empower newly arrived refugees and immigrants in their community integration. The newly arrived enter our city without economic resources, often require English Language Learning support and cultural orientation, face long-standing health issues, and need assistance in accessing the workplace and transportation. Della Lamb’s RRS services include housing (including the identification and furnishing of housing prior to a refugee family’s arrival), employment and economic self-sufficiency, adult education including English language learning.
Our financial contribution has already assisted in supplying emergency funds to provide five families with immediate services such as funding for food access, housing, utility assistance and transportation support. These family’s children were able to be introduced to the KCMO school system, enrolled, gained vaccinations, provided school supplies, and begin to attend classes.
JEWISH VOCATIONAL SERVICES (JVS)
Our financial contribution to JVS has allowed them to provide approximately 700 hours of language interpretation for families in our local community that are navigating immigration with little or no English language skills. This designated funding made it possible to allow interpreters approximately 350 sessions, serving over 900 individuals to date. The most frequently used languages include Spanish, Arabic, Pashto/Dari and Swahili, however JVS has access to interpretation in over 40 languages.
Even when language does align, case managers are not able to provide for all the language interpretation needs for everyone on their caseload. JVS has been able to rely on professional interpreters to ensure language access for all clients.
The Candlelight Christmas Eve Offering has also made possible the following:
- Several Move-in costs for immigrant families that graduated out of assistance
- Hosting large events promoting local immigration and refugee needs
- Serve Saturday project costs at several local immigration agencies
- Costs allowing hosting collaborative gatherings of leaders from local agencies, immigration lawyers, and concerned citizens
- Support of the KC World Refugee Day
EDUCATION
While we have many classroom sponsors, the Candlelight Christmas Eve offering closes the gap between what the families can afford and what classroom sponsors currently cover. We partner with 4 global schools and a vocational training program.
Malawi:
Through Candlelight Christmas Eve giving and faithful monthly sponsorships—over 1,100 children in Malawi are receiving early education, often considered a luxury in rural African communities. Your support has made it possible for 18 preschools across rural Malawi to open their doors each day, offering a safe and joyful place where children learn, grow, and enjoy a nutritious meal—sometimes the only one they’ll have that day.
But the impact doesn’t stop there.
You are also helping some of the oldest students pursue education through a life-changing vocational training program. This year, 90 students—many of whom were previously idle and without direction—will learn a trade of their choosing, such as tailoring, welding, hairstyling, nail technology, plumbing, motorcycle mechanics, and more.
The results speak for themselves: 94% of past participants have found success by either launching their own businesses, gaining employment, or earning income through contract work.
From preschoolers to young adults, your giving is changing lives across generations. Thank you for bringing lasting transformation to communities in Malawi.
Honduras:
Lives are being changed and hope is rising in two communities in Honduras through Resurrection’s mission partnerships.
In Ciudad España, your support is opening the doors of Juan Wesley School to more than 350 students from kindergarten through 12th grade. In a community where families face significant economic hardship, these students are receiving a quality, Christian, private school education—something that would otherwise be far out of reach. Your gifts make it possible for every one of them to attend on scholarship, equipping them not only with academic knowledge but also with the love of Christ and a foundation of hope for the future.
In the rural town of El Obraje, your generosity is helping 15 young adults pursue post-graduate education in trade and professional programs. These are students who are breaking cycles of poverty, becoming skilled electricians, nurses, educators, and entrepreneurs. They are investing back into their communities and becoming leaders for the next generation.
Uganda:
Nakalama Christian Community Primary School in Uganda is no longer just a place of learning—it’s a place of hope, dignity, and transformation for children from preschool through seventh grade.
One student, Kamin Joel, a 13-year-old in Primary Six, has witnessed this transformation firsthand. He remembers the difficult days when students sat on dirt floors in papyrus-walled classrooms, or were packed into semi-permanent shelters with no desks, little air, and no protection from the rain. “When it rained, lessons would stop immediately—we would be sent home,” Joel recalls.
Today, Joel shares with gratitude about the new school environment: “We now have clean, permanent classrooms with proper desks to sit on and shelter that protects us from the rain.” The school now also boasts a spacious play field, a school hall for debates, and access to clean water—turning the once-struggling school into a thriving and safe place to learn and grow.
But the impact of your giving goes beyond infrastructure. Joel has seen his own academic performance soar, improving from 20% to 70%. He credits the improvement to dedicated teachers, smaller class sizes, and a peaceful, secure environment where students can truly thrive.
Joel’s story is one of many. Thank you for investing in these children’s education, health, and dreams.
South Africa:
Tucked alongside a large dumpsite sits Mooiplaas, an informal settlement outside of Johannesburg in South Africa. Refugees from around the continent create small shacks often from the debris in the nearby trash piles. Ditshego was created over 10 years ago in an effort to give the youngest members of this community a safe place to go during the day and recieve an education while doing so. This year, over 100 students – both preschool and older will have a quality education thanks in part from the donations given on Christmas Eve.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Community Development is an integral part of where mission funds are utilized globally. By supporting holistic development, families in rural communities are able to move from food scarcity to food abundance. They are able to upgrade their homes with cement floors or metal roofing. They are able to purchase uniforms so that their child can attend the local public school and so much more!
Permaculture:
Opulence’s permaculture program in Malawi is turning barren fields into living classrooms—and hungry homes into places of abundance.
Permaculture is more than sustainable farming; it’s “working and learning from nature, returning the land to God’s creation.” One farmer put it simply: “God gave us a green world, and we chose a brown one.”
Thanks to your generosity, local farmers are trained in these eco‑friendly methods and then mentor their neighbors, multiplying the impact across entire communities. Together they are restoring soil health, conserving water, and producing diverse crops that nourish both people and the planet.
And the results matter far beyond the fields. With reliable, lovingly grown food:
- Children learn better—education no longer competes with empty stomachs.
- Families grow healthier, easing strain on clinics and caregivers.
- Communities regain dignity, choosing nature over short‑term profit.
From all of us at Resurrection and the farmers you empower every day: thank you for helping transform brown back to green—one plot, one family, one future at a time.
The Hub:
Construction is well underway on The Hub—a bold new project in Uganda designed to empower vulnerable youth and support development in rural communities. Once complete, The Hub will serve as a vocational training center, mental health and counseling facility, and discipleship hub for young adults seeking purpose, healing, and opportunity.
But that’s not all. The Hub is being built with a self-sustaining revenue model that includes a conference center, dining services, and lodging facilities—ensuring that this mission can support not only itself, but long-term community development in rural Uganda.
As of June 30, 2025, here’s what your support has helped accomplish:
- Wing A
- Completed plastering of all ground floor rooms & roofing
- Tiling of both walls and floors is in progress
- Doors and windows are being installed
- Wing B
- Excavation, reinforcement, and casting of the bases and columns completed
- Brickwork for the foundation finished
- Ground beam installation and hardcore placement underway as well as compaction & waterproofing
This progress wouldn’t be possible without you. Every brick, beam, and tile represents more than a structure—it represents transformation, opportunity, and dignity for generations to come. Thank you for being part of this vision. Together, we are building more than a structure, we are building opportunity.
The light you shared on Christmas Eve is still shining – across neighborhoods and around the world. Thank you for making a lasting difference through your compassion and generosity. God is at work, and we’re grateful to be on this journey together.
To view the many ways Resurrection has made an impact missionally in 2024, you can view the Missions 2024 Annual Report.
