Ministry continues spreading friendship and care with lambs

New Philadelphia Moravian Church is approaching the fifth anniversary of its Lamb Ministry. Begun in the summer of 2012, more than 700 lambs have left the New Philly pasture to travel throughout the community and beyond.

The lambs are a small token of friendship and care, reminding receivers that Jesus is the Good Shepherd and that members of the New Philadelphia congregation are thinking of them. While most of the lambs find their way into hospital rooms and the homes of men, women and children experiencing difficult situations here in the greater Winston-Salem area, others have traveled far away, to Haiti and Cuba, for example.

March 29 was the most recent “Lamb Sunday,” when 200 lambs took over the sanctuary, ready to leave New Philadelphia and get to work. One of the lambs had an especially important task, expressed this way in a note from its care receiver:

“Thank you so much for the precious lamb. He went into surgery with me, and I felt comfort from having him.”

Clyde Manning is pastoral assistant at New Philadelphia Moravian Church in Winston-Salem, N.C.

From the June/July 2017 Moravian Magazine