Wilbur the Pig is back! During the month of December, Wilbur is receiving funds for Bibles that will be shared with Together for Hope, a rural development coalition in Mississippi. You may share a financial gift for them in all the ways you normally share financial gifts; just make a note of “Wilbur” on your gift. Thank you!
For those who may be unfamiliar with Wilbur the Pig, here is Wilbur’s history.
Charlotte's Web is a book by E.B. White, about a pig named Wilbur and his adventures on a farm. A spider named Charlotte saves Wilbur from being butchered by putting words in her webs.
“A miracle has happened on this farm... in the middle of the web there were the words 'Some Pig'... we have no ordinary pig." ― E.B. White, Charlotte's Web
The pig was molded in a glass factory with many other pigs in Reading, PA. He was chosen from a factory outlet store to live in a Harrisburg home for several years. Over the years, he contained flowers or ribbons or a match book collection. He and his owner eventually moved to Phoenix, AZ in April 1987.
Like many of us, he came to visit Grace Lutheran and stayed several years. That first summer he was introduced as a focal point for collecting ‘noisy’ and ‘quiet’ donations for one community project and sat in the Sanctuary. That fall, he was still at Grace, so the children of Grace’s Sunday School named him Wilbur, after the pig in Charlotte’s Web. Sometimes, Wilbur sits in the entrance of the sanctuary, near the other greeters to the second church service.
Wilbur has participated in so many collections during his years at Grace Lutheran, he even has his own financial account. The recipient of the account varies by month or by several months, but the purpose is always to collect funds to benefit others.
So when you hear that ‘Wilbur is collecting’, you know that this ‘some special pig’ is asking us to think of others with prayerful and cheerful ‘noisy’ and ‘quiet’ donations.