Advent words into Advent action Posted on December 16, 2025
United Methodists in Michigan send Advent hope to people in need around the world through action and service. Pastor Vicky Prewitt of Crystal Falls: Christ UMC, Ron Vinger, a member of Bethany Church (UMC) in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Patti Steinberg, a member of Christ UMC’s United Women in Faith, celebrate the delivery of dignity kits for Jamaican hurricane relief to Green Bay. Bethany Church is the closest drop-off location for supplies distributed by UMCOR through Midwest Mission. ~ photo courtesy Vicky Prewitt
Christ UMC in Crystal Falls is transforming an Advent worship tradition into life-changing ministry in the world beyond their local church.
GLENN M. WAGNER
Michigan Conference Communications
Advent is a word that literally means “the arrival.” For Christians, Advent is a season of preparation and anticipation that begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas and lasts until Christmas Eve. Christians have observed Advent for over 1,700 years to remember Christ’s coming to earth and to anticipate his second coming.
The Advent season marks the start of a new liturgical year. For many, weekly worship includes traditions such as lighting candles on an Advent wreath each Sunday, emphasizing themes of hope, peace, joy, and love. Sanctuary decorations often feature greenery, seasonal banners, and liturgical colors for clergy vestments and altar cloths, which are frequently purple or blue. Personally, many people use Advent calendars to count down the days to Christmas. Others begin each day with prayer, Bible reading, and reflection using special devotional books.
As a way to translate Advent hope into Advent action, members of Crystal Falls: Christ UMC assemble dignity kits for people impacted by Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica. ~ photo courtesy Vicky Prewitt
Members of the congregation at Christ United Methodist Church in Crystal Falls, Michigan, located in the western Upper Peninsula, have taken their Advent traditions further by choosing individual and group actions to go along with the weekly Advent candle theme words.
This year, to commemorate the lighting of the first Advent candle symbolizing hope, the congregation wanted to respond with hope to victims of Hurricane Melissa, a Category 5 storm that devastated Jamaica and other Caribbean nations in November. The storm caused $8 billion in damages to Jamaica alone, resulting in 32 deaths and destroying hospitals, roads, and many homes. Veterans of storm cleanup know that, after the storm and the initial news coverage that accompanies disasters, the road to full recovery can take years.
Congregation members purchased supplies for 75 dignity kits and assembled them. These kits, which include basic health and sanitation supplies, are distributed by organizations such as the United Nations and the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) in areas impacted by human and natural disasters worldwide.
Left: Deodorant, body wash, and shampoo are some of the items included in an easy-to-assemble dignity kit. Right: Boxes of assembled dignity kits for hurricane relief await transport to a Midwest Mission distribution drop-off location. ~ photos courtesy Vicky Prewitt
They then drove the assembled kits 127 miles from Crystal Falls to Green Bay, Wisconsin, the nearest drop-off point for Midwest Mission, a supply depot used by UMCOR and others. Disaster relief supplies are gathered at locations across the Midwest and transferred to distribution centers in Pawnee, Illinois, and Jefferson, Iowa, for shipment to disaster zones worldwide.
Members of Crystal Falls: Christ UMC know that when they light the candle representing Advent hope during their worship on Sunday morning, they are participating as agents of loving hope in a world that desperately needs it.
Vicky Prewitt is the dynamic pastor of Crystal Falls: Christ UMC and Amasa: Grace UMC. Prewitt, formerly Vicky Crystal, spent 30 years as a broadcast journalist and 16 years as the news anchor for WLUC-TV6 in Marquette. She experienced a call to ministry while attending Wesley UMC in Ishpeming and followed her life experience in church lay leadership and broadcast journalism with academic training at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary to become certified as a licensed local pastor. She was appointed to her full-time two-point charge in 2018 and loves the energy, community, and faithfulness of her congregations.
In 2022, during the fourth week of Advent, focusing on the theme of love, members of Crystal Falls: Christ UMC dropped off pies and pop at the Iron County Sheriff’s Office for inmates and staff to enjoy. They plan to do it again this year as part of their Action Words of Advent. ~ photo courtesy Crystal Falls: Christ UMC
Pastor Prewitt explained that each year, congregants choose how they want to live out their Action Words of Advent.
In an earlier year, they demonstrated the Advent theme of hope by collecting a special offering to support a local domestic violence shelter. They have also gathered baby supplies for Walk of Life Pregnancy Services and the Dickinson – Iron District Health Department to assist new parents in need.
Members of Crystal Falls: Christ UMC have expressed the Advent theme of joy by baking and delivering cookies, along with homemade cards from schoolchildren, to homebound congregants and to local nursing home residents.
Advent calendars and devotional literature are delivered to inmates at the county jail near Christ UMC in Crystal Falls as an expression of Advent peace. ~ photo courtesy Vicky Prewitt
Because their church is located near the jail in Iron County and Sheriff Ryan Boehmke is a church member, the congregation has also reached out with the Advent message to about 40 people who will be spending the holiday behind bars. One year, the church shared Advent calendars and devotional literature with inmates as an act of Advent peace. This year, they plan to embody the action word of love by sharing pie and pop with them on Christmas Day.
Pastor Prewitt remembers when wearing WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) bracelets was a fad that helped believers keep Jesus in mind and in their hearts. She knows that her congregation’s Action Words of Advent is helping many to remember to be the hands and heart of Jesus in a world that still needs his love.