In February, I was introduced to my new and dear friend Kalani. Together, we took on a project that rocked our world! We were asked by one of our pastors to co-lead the Beautiful Day Project for our church. It is a collaboration of churches in our area coming together to serve our community. This is the first year that our church has been a part of this.
This year, 14 churches came together to beautify 16 different schools and many other projects throughout the bay area.
As for Kalani and I, we planned 3 different projects:
1) VINCI PARK ELEMENTARY – 600+ volunteers
We has the awesome opportunity to do a massive beautification project at Vinci Park Elementary, a school 1.5 miles from our church campus. We deep cleaned the campus, re-landscaped the outside, re-organized the library, painted where it was needed, and gave classrooms, MPR room, and teachers’ lounge a face lift.
We has the awesome opportunity to do a massive beautification project at Vinci Park Elementary, a school 1.5 miles from our church campus. We deep cleaned the campus, re-landscaped the outside, re-organized the library, painted where it was needed, and gave classrooms, MPR room, and teachers’ lounge a face lift.
2) FAMILY SERVICES BY CITYTEAM – 80 volunteers
Family Services provides resources to community members living below the poverty line. We were honored to have the chance to paint interior walls, beautify the children's area, deep clean the kitchen and other areas needed, and beautify the grounds.
3) HERITAGE HOME BY CITYTEAM – 20 volunteers
Heritage Home is a haven of hope for homeless, poor, abused, and pregnant women. We reorganized and painted the laundry room and 3 bathrooms, cleaned the kitchen and vans and blessed the women and children living there.
Heritage Home is a haven of hope for homeless, poor, abused, and pregnant women. We reorganized and painted the laundry room and 3 bathrooms, cleaned the kitchen and vans and blessed the women and children living there.
I have never worked on anything to this capacity and it really stretched my experiences and talents. Without Kalani, I feel like this would not have been possible. Where I was weak, she was strong and we were able to be a part of something bigger than I could have imagined.
As we were planning I thought to myself, I will never volunteer myself to lead something like this again. I felt like I didn't have the capacity or the knowledge to organize such a large event. But through this entire experience, I'm reminded again and again of the Lord's favor and answer to prayer.
Paul reminds us that we have to have faith that all things come together for good for those who love Him (Romans 8:28). I believe that so much!
Our desire in doing these projects is to build relationships with the people of our community and to build bridges between the city and The Church.
Through this entire experience, we were able to build an incredible relationship with the Principal and her staff as well as the staff at CityTeam International.
These locations experienced a group of people being The Church - His hands and feet in action.
For the school, their are over 600 students, their parents and families, and those that live neighborhood.
For the school, their are over 600 students, their parents and families, and those that live neighborhood.
Family Services serves the poor in the community every day of the week and we had the opportunity to serve them. Heritage Home currently has 15 women and their children living there.
This past Sunday we did not meet in a church, we were The Church in action, serving our city!
In writing about this, I am not here to boast about what I did, but boast about the lives that were impacted with the love of Christ. Christ's love is a free gift that He wants to share with ALL people. All that I know is to do my best of sharing that love with others.
What an amazing experience!
No comments:
Post a Comment