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Impact Christian Church Hosts 'Operation Hope' Dinner

A Moon Township church hopes to make the Christmas season brighter for local families in need.

Moon Township's Impact Christian Church will bring Christmas a few weeks early to members of the community in need at its first "Operation Hope" dinner on Saturday. "We'll have turkey, ham, stuffing, pie, sort of everything you would have for a Thanksgiving dinner," said student ministry coordinator Zach Shidemantle.  Church volunteers have spent recent weeks reaching out to area food pantries, clinics and other organizations to spread the word of the event.  Shidemantle said last Christmas season, the church worked with the nonprofit Light of Life, sponsoring a clinic for the homeless in downtown Pittsburgh. This year, the church wanted to make it's mark closer to home, he said. "There are people in Moon struggling to put a meal together…

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Raising the Walls: Impact Christian Church Builds Home

Despite damp weather, more than 100 volunteers construct a portion of a home on Thorn Run Road.

It may have been a rain-soaked morning, but Dale Lowry, director of worship at Impact Christian Church, said the project went "smooth as pie."  More than 100 volunteers from the Thorn Run Road church set out to construct the exterior and interior walls of a single-family home destined for the storm-battered town of Holden, Indiana.  The home will be transported the community and laid over a foundation. A roof will be built overhead.  Volunteers not only spent the day hammering away at the home—more than $7,000 in donations for the project were raised by members of Impact Christian Church in just a two week span.  "Everybody's just been really positive," said Lowry, who spearheaded the project. "People are happy to be here and help out. We'…

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Impact Christian Church Members Build Home for Family in Need

Members of the Moon Township church on Saturday will hammer together a church

Dale Lowry, director of worship for Impact Christian Church, said it's all about lending a helping hand. Lowry alongside more than 150 others, many of them members of the Thorn Run Road church, will meet on Saturday to construct the frame of a house, assembling interior and exterior walls for a home that will soon belong to a family in need.  "It's about being there for those who are less fortunate," Lowry said. "It's just what being a follower of Christ is all about."  The home will be taken to the tornado-hammered Holden, IN, where it will be placed on a foundation with a roof built overhead.  Church members and volunteers have few details about the family that will one day occupy the home, but they know it will go to a good cause.  "The…

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Holiday Worship: Impact Christian Church

This year members of Impact Christian Church marked the holiday season with community service.

The Christmas season is a time of giving for Impact Christian Church, said Minister Steve Hammer. "It's a very giving and generous congregation all year long, and we step that up during Christmas time," said Hammer, who is senior minister for the Thorn Run Road church. In recent weeks, Hammar said Impact's generosity has extended to a local military family grappling with the injury of a loved one. Members also pulled together to throw a Christmas celebration for an area family facing unemployment. This year the church gathered more than 1,100 pairs of shoes to be donated to the charity Soles4Souls, which recycles shoes for those in need. "That day I challenged them," he said. "We've got people around the world who are barefoot and maybe …

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Moon Public Library Brings Children's Tales to Life With Readings, Crafts

The library and volunteers from a local church hold a very special story time for children Saturday.

Maggie Normile took her cues from "Amelia Bedelia." "I picked the book because I just liked the quirkiness of it," said Normile, sporting an outfit inspired by author Peggy Parish's absent-minded protagonist.  Normile and other volunteers from Impact Christian Church on Thorn Run Road helped wrap up Moon Township Public Library's summer reading program Saturday by bringing to life a number of popular children's books.   Children and parents gathered on the library's front lawn to hear live narations of favorite stories. While some kids opted to hear about Amelia Bedelia's misadventures, others donned pirate hats or listened to retellings of Aesop's Fables.  Kids could make crafts and watch a puppet show, each inspired by the books they …

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West Hills Food Pantry Kicks Off Mile of Cans Campaign

The annual event will take place Oct. 15 at the pantry's Carnot Road location.

If you take 15,840 cans and place them end-to-end, the line will stretch one mile. The West Hills Food Pantry hopes to do just that at its annual Mile of Cans event later this year. The fund-raising campaign, now in its 15th year, provides aid to Moon-area families in need. The pantry earlier this month kicked off the campaign for the event, hoping that the community would donate enough canned food to make the line stretching one mile down Carnot Road. The event will wrap up Oct. 15, when volunteers from the food pantry and other Moon organizations come together for the can lineup outside the pantry's Carnot Road location. The event usually takes place on Thorn Run Road, said Rick Weiss, family minister at Impact Christian Church in Moon. …

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