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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Last Updated on January 5, 2026