MORAVIANS IN MISSION
A gift shop with a mission
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nspired by the ministry of Brother Rick Nelson, who in the early 1990s spent a year in Lititz while on sabbatical from his service in Honduras, a small group of mission-minded Lititz congregation members developed a plan to establish a gift shop. The shop was originally intended to provide a local market for items made in the mission fields, with all proceeds beyond that required to keep the shop open and stocked to be distributed to missions at the end of each year. With support and encouragement from the congregation, space was provided in a room attached to the west side of the Archives Museum, and the Moravian Mission Gift Shop opened its doors in mid-November 1992. Now, having just completed our 27th year, the shop continues to be a multi-faceted means of ministry at Lititz Moravian Church in Lititz, Pa. A group of about 20 volunteers 8
collectively works more than 1,000 hours in a year to staff the shop during the regular season: Fridays and Saturdays from March through September, then Thursday through Saturday for the three months leading up to the Christmas holidays. One of those volunteers, Sister Wilma Beard, has been a member of the Gift Shop team from the very beginning. Though the inventory in the early years emphasized crafts from the mission fields, the shop team very quickly discovered that what our visitors really wanted were items related to Moravian history, customs and practices. Today we carry a number of books from the Interprovincial Board of Communication, CDs from the Moravian Music Foundation and Moravian-themed items of all sorts, from earrings to dish towels. Talented congregation members provide many of our hand-crafted items. Do you want The Moravian
