Trees of Hope

My sister, Maureen, got involved in a big pre-Christmas project to years ago in Colorado.  The project, Trees of Healing, inspired and touched her so much she encouraged her Kopczynski siblings to be a part of this ministry.  My sister, Connie, studied the materials, researched the costs of trees and decorations, bought 50 trees from Rite-Aid,  and promoted the idea to the rest of us.

Grace and Maureen, December, 2014

This year the group decorated over 400 trees that would be delivered to a local hospital.   The whole Gaeke family got involved, being included in the hourly moments of silence to pray for the volunteers and recipients!  

From Maureen's Email, November, 2014, 

"Grace and I participated in a "Healing Tree Ministries" over the weekend and it really warmed my heart so I wanted to share some photos.  Healing Tree Ministries distributes fiber optic trees decorated with scriptures

and other decorations to hospitals, nursing homes and hospices.  It was a ministry started by one single tree given to a friend with cancer.  Now they distribute thousands all over the world.  We prayed for each person who will receive the trees as well as everyone who came to decorate them.  Attached to each tree is the Christmas Story.  Here's the website to read about it Healing Tree Ministries - Spreading Hope, One Tree at a Time :: Denver, Colorado and their is a touching story about Jim and his wife.  He lost his wife to cancer as well."

healingtreeministries.org

 We Kopczynski's love Christmas and we also love projects!  We gathered at Connie's home and put the trees together in her basement - a perfect place to make a mess of glitter, ribbons, and paper.

We all had jobs - Marilyn made bows!

Don and Dena fluffed the trees

Connie added candy canes and Karen put on the decorations!

I don't have pictures of Larry and Kammryn, but they did their share of fluffing and decorating.  

We packaged the trees in clear bags and Connie tied the ribbons around each bag.  

Connie and I collaborated on the prayer and Dena agreed to make all the labels for us!

Dena's labels arrived on Tuesday and today this sweet note from Connie.  Marilyn began distributing her trees today and we found out one of our intended recipients died of cancer this morning.  Tis the season of hope, peace, and gratitude.

And the story does not end, because the project serves only as the beginning.  The rest of story comes as the trees are delivered and we hear snippets of hope from those we've prayed for!