Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Ponte Vedra Beach has joined the world’s largest free book sharing movement, the Little Free Library, in which organizations or individuals create mini storage units for the public to take or leave a book.
It is just the second Little Free Library in the 32082 ZIP code and the first to focus on books predominantly about faith.
“The idea started with our faith book club and having a place to share the books we’ve read with other members of the congregation,” said Sheila Kolesaire, the church council’s president. “But we are here to serve our community, so we expanded our idea to make our books accessible to all.”
At the same time the church was thinking of this, Boy Scout Landon McIntosh, 17, of Boy Scout Troop 288 approached Lord of Life about doing an Eagle Scout project there. He quickly took on this project with the help of half a dozen other Scouts to create two mirror-image libraries that look like a house and were painted white and red to match the outside of the church.
The library is mounted on the left-hand wall just inside the church. It’s been registered with the Little Free Library and has its official charter sign and number 147801. It is listed on the Little Free Library website, littlefreelibrary.org. Members of the public are invited to drop off books about faith-related topics to be included in the library and are free to take ones, too. Lord of Life Lutheran Church is located at 276 Roscoe Blvd. North in Ponte Vedra Beach.
The book club will meet at 10:30 a.m. July 21 for an hour to discuss “Called to Forgive: The Charleston Church Shooting, a Victim's Husband, and the Path to Healing and Peace” by Pastor Anthony Thompson. Ponte Vedra Beach residents are welcome to join the discussion.
Other books recently selected by its book club have included: “Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers” by Anne Lamott; “Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint” by Nadia Bolz-Weber and “Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life” by Tish Harrison-Warren.
