Peace on Earth and Good Will to Men

Monday November 26th on the “Loaves of Love 2018” Facebook page is the opportunity buy fresh homemade bread, with 100% of the donations going to help Jessica, a Valley resident with metastatic breast cancer.

Nearly six years ago on December 14th, I woke up and turned the news on while I got myself and my kids ready for the day. Within a few seconds I had learned that something terrible had happened in an elementary school in Connecticut. Someone had come into the school with a gun, opened fire, and killed 20 children and 6 adults.

I spent the morning crying--wondering who could be so far removed from feeling that they would commit such heinous acts, thinking of how scared those poor babies must have been, and feeling a fraction of the heartache that I'm sure consumed the parents of those precious little lives taken. I hugged and kissed my little girls all morning long, wishing I didn’t have to raise my children in such an evil world. The words to the song "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" came to mind:

“And in despair I bowed my head: "There is no peace on earth," I said. "For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men."

After getting ready for the morning, we spent the rest of our day baking bread with family and friends in order to raise funds for my beautiful sister, Hanna, who was battling cancer for the second time and about to undergo a stem cell transplant in the lover 48. My cousins had put together this bread sale and called it “Loaves of Love” as it was something they knew they could do to show love for Hanna from her many friends and family in Alaska. The turnout of volunteers was amazing. The work put into organizing the event was so impressive. In the end, we baked over 1100 loaves of bread and 42 pans of sticky buns in 2 days.

After the baking was done, friends spent their entire evening delivering loaves of bread in Anchorage and Eagle River. People left $100 tips. An anonymous donor gave $500 into a Paypal account set up for Loaves of Love. I saw someone leave a check for $1000 after she had baked bread for 2 days with us and picked up her own order for bread. The support and love for Hanna was amazing and I found myself fighting back tears as the next verse of that Christmas carol came to my mind:

“Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,With peace on earth, good will to men.”

As evil as this world seems to be, there still exist so many people with charity--the pure love of Christ--who jump at the chance to love and serve. My children were too young to understand the acts of love that were shown to Hanna that week, but I want them to be surrounded by experiences like these (and not just at Christmastime) so that they can see that despite all the cruelty and evil running rampant in the world, God still works through his angels on earth to give relief, comfort, and love to those in need.

The Loaves of Love fundraiser has now become a tradition every December to help show love and support to individuals in our community who are struggling. Over the years Loaves of Love has supported widows, children battling cancer, and a teacher needing a double lung transplant.

This year we are baking up some love for Jessica Channer Fish, a lifelong Valley resident, wife,

and mother of four who is battling stage 4 metastatic breast cancer. Jessica has been fighting this aggressively with chemotherapy, cyberknife radiation, and surgery.

On the 12th and 13th of December, dozens of volunteers will come together to bake over 1,000 loaves of delicious homemade bread from scratch and every penny raised will go to support Jessica and her family.

All bread is pre-sold the morning of Monday November 26th on the “Loaves of Love 2018” Facebook event page. Anyone hoping to buy bread, get involved in this year’s event, or leave a donation can find more information on the event page.

Holly Christensen is a third-generation Alaskan, living on the same land on which her grandparents settled and ran a dairy farm between the 1950s-1970s. She enjoys life with her three young children, picks up extra shifts as a nurse, and is currently building her home with her husband. She also co-founded the internationally recognized non-profit The Magic Yarn Project, which she continues to run out of her one-car garage.