Spirit of the holiday: After toys were stolen from Milwaukee church, Wauwatosa church members step up



MILWAUKEE -- A Milwaukee church is targeted by thieves. But members of a Wauwatosa church did something about it -- in the spirit of the holiday.

St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church



The congregation at St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church collected on Wednesday, December 21st dozens of items donated for a sister church in Milwaukee.

Some 150 toys were stolen from that Milwaukee church just days after being delivered to the church in need. But with fewer than 48 hours to gather replacement gifts, there was not any time for questions -- just answers.

"It was the immediate response of, you know, getting it up on Facebook and social media and sharing it and, and rallying everyone to, as you can see, we got three cars versus one now," said Jacob Kimps from St. Matthew's.



Kimps said he hopes this display of generosity sends a special holiday message to all -- even the thieves themselves.

"You gotta beat fear and anger -- and by beating these things, you have to be the change that you want to see in this world," Kimps said.

You may have noticed we are not identifying the church which was victimized. The people associated with it asked that we avoid doing so out of concern it may be targeted again. That is understandable since that place of worship was burglarized earlier this year.

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Meanwhile, there is still time to make a Christmas contribution to the unnamed church through St. Matthew's website.