“Show Up” and be Amazed by God!
Serving and being used by God never ceases to amaze me! God can use the seemingly smallest steps of obedience for His glory! I think of all the times I have been involved in an event or bible study and was encouraged by people just “showing up.” When we “show up” we encourage those around us. When we “show up” to be by someone’s side, the love of God is conveyed.
Obeying that call to “show up” admittedly has sometimes been a struggle – especially when it means taking time away from my family and their activities to visit a woman in prison. It has, at times, brought tears to my eyes when I’ve had to miss one of my kids’ games or that infrequent call from my college student. But I know the Lord has directed me to do this and I must obey – and despite what I am missing, I am blessed each and every time I “show up.”
On one of our recent prison visits, one of the inmates asked a volunteer “why do you come here and do this?” The volunteer simply explained “I feel called by God.” Tears welled up in the inmates eyes as she recalled how her 2 children don’t come and see her, despite living close by. And only once in 3 years has she had a visit from a family member. She feels abandoned by her friends and family and yet, when someone “shows up” to visit her, it speaks volumes about how God loves her.
Community in Operation
Below is a letter of thanks and perspective from one of our Northshore School District Principals as we reflects on what was accomplished during last Saturday’s CommunitySERVE Day! Thank you for all who served! The church is being the church in the community and that is what we have been working for!
A school is a product of its community. It seems obvious on its most basic level – the students come to us from the community and are taught by members of the community. But on a more subtle, and more substantial level, the school is also a product of the collective aspirations and dreams the community has for its youngest members. It is both an embodiment of the community’s truest values, as well as an active demonstration of its collective beliefs about itself and its relationship to “others”. In short, a school represents how a community sees the world, operationalized in a single, local touchstone. When 1200 members of a community turn out, in mass, to serve the needs of 14 local schools, it makes a powerful public statement about what it values. It not only telegraphs how that community sees the world, it actively sets out to make that vision a reality.
On a very literal level, the work done on our grounds and in our classrooms this weekend was invaluable. The efforts of so many volunteers saved teachers countless hours of work cleaning, organizing, creating, alphabetizing, collating, sorting, and arranging. Teachers were able to channel the time usually spent in these activities into lesson preparation, curriculum development, and ways to welcome students the first day of school. The experience that students – and their teachers – will have on the first days and weeks of school was directly and significantly impacted by the time, energy, and efforts of our community members.
But on another level, the experiences of students at Maywood and the 14 other schools will be even more deeply impacted by the genuine love and concern demonstrated so publicly for them and for all those who care for them. What we do speaks to our children far more loudly, and sometimes more accurately, than anything we can say. Five hours scrubbing desks, weeding gardens, clearing paths, organizing books, pressure washing sidewalks, alphabetizing ID badges, or prepping emergency buckets conveys your values about education, about children, and about others in a way that a 1000 lectures could never do. (And it’s a much more fun way to say it). One particularly thoughtful teacher went around campus today taking pictures and recording the work being done for our kids. She is going to create a presentation to make sure Maywood students see, first hand, how much they mean to our community. I suspect it is harder as a kid to complain about school when you know your parents and neighbors have spent their weekend making your first day better. More importantly, I suspect it makes it easier for our students to look around and ask what they too can be doing for their school, for their peers, and for others.
Because of our overly-busy lives we often most appreciate the gift of time – time of others given to a cause or devoted to a person, or time we find and cherish for ourselves. We most often thank people for their time, but talk far less about the gift they offer of themselves. Not just their time and energy, but, as Martin Luther King described it, their “heart full of grace, a soul generated by love” that is nurtured first in their thoughts towards others, and then in actions. We were honored to be the recipients of that grace and love offered by so many of our community members. We can’t thank you enough.
CommunitySERVE Day Summary
This weekend 1200 people volunteered to help 14 elementary schools in the Northshore and Lake Washington School Districts. Each volunteer worked 4 hours. If you totaled that up it would be 4800 volunteer hours.
What if one person tried to do this by themselves? If the average person works 40 hrs a week for 52 weeks a year (2080hrs) it would take them 2.3 years to do what 1200 people did in 4 hours. How cool is it to see the power and effectiveness of people serving others to show the love of Christ! Awesome work team!
CommunitySERVE Day was a great success again and we could not do it without the help of all the volunteers, it is so fun to see the local church in action in our community and to hear the response from those we served or gratitude! Thank you to those who served, if you were not able to serve this year watch for more opportunities to get involved and bless our community!
CommunitySERVE Day
CommunitySERVE Day is this Saturday August 27th and we still need your help! CommunitySERVE Day is an opportunity for the local church to be the local church in the community. This means that we as multiple church bodies get to come together as one body under one Lord and serve and participate within our community. We have found that working with the local elementary schools and home owners has created a tremendous impact and a fun way to spend a day together.
The main projects for CommunitySERVE Day are working at Elementary schools within the Northshore and Lake Washington School District. At the schools we work with teachers to help them set up their classrooms for the school year, put together bulletin boards, copy curriculum, create nametags, etc. Many have asked why we do this and the answer is that we have found that teachers have an increased social work aspect of their job. They are dealing with kids that are coming to school hungry, parents who are relying on their student’s teacher to parent their child, etc. By doing this small job of giving a teacher 5-10 volunteers to do the easy work of putting together bulletin boards, etc we save teachers hours and hours of work that they can invest into the students and setting up a safe environment for their classroom. We also work with the principal and custodial staff to help spruce up the school. The district due to budget cuts has one landscaper for the entire district so to help the school look great for the start of a new year we provide volunteers to step in and help weed, bark, trim, etc.
The second main project we work on is with homeowners doing minor and major home repairs. This year we are in 3 mobile home parks, 2 of these parks are for elderly and we are working with individual home owners to take care of things they are unable to do themselves. It is a huge blessing to these individuals and we get to create a relationship with a community of people who we can invest in, help and bless throughout the year. The other park we are working in is for a low income mobile home park and same thing we are blessing these homeowners by doing projects they are unable to do or cannot afford to do. It is so fun to be able to spread volunteers throughout these mobile home parks and make a huge difference by helping with what seems to be small projects.
In years past we have partnered with one or more community organizations as well, this year we are working with Vision House to help them set up a thrift store that will benefit their organization as they work with homeless families. Their goal and passion is that no kids are homeless. They have an incredible success rate and we are excited to help them grow and an organization. Throughout the year we also do work projects with them as they work to build a new facility in the Shoreline area.
Our hope is to send out 1400 volunteers this year currently we are at about 900 registrations, we need your help so please head to www.communityserveday.org, sign up for a project and invite a neighbor, family member or a friend to join you. The projects run from 9am-1pm and it is incredible what a difference we can make in those 4 hours.
After the project everyone is invited to Overlake Christian Church for a celebration BBQ! At this BBQ we will have a short program that will give an overview of what was accomplished by all the volunteers! Plus you get some delicious food and time to hang out with old friends and meet some new ones. We look forward to serving with you this Saturday!
Mobile Medical Unit First Pilot
Tonight is our first clinic night! The leadership team for Community Health Ministries has been working hard for the past year to get ready to launch the mobile medical unit, we are very excited about the launch finally arriving. Please be in prayer as we see our first patients tonight and spend the month of August and September running bi weekly clinics. The volunteer team is still getting to know one another please be praying for them as they go through this process and learn how to work well with each other. Our hope is that patients will experience Christ through the encouragement and help of our volunteers and through interactions with the volunteers and as they watch volunteers interact with each other.
If you know of those in who are uninsured and low income and are in need of this service we are currently taking appointments they can call 425-216-4480 to schedule an appointment. There also are a few more volunteer positions open if you are interested in volunteering please email Jalle Gebisa at Puget Sound Christian Clinic for more information about the volunteer application process.
Local Outreach Stories
Have you been a part of a project lately that had a significant impact on your life spiritually or where you had an opportunity to minister to someone else? Please send your stories to Kate Jones, we would love to spread the word on how God is transforming us through reaching out to the community and how God is transforming our community.
Mobile Medical Unit Ready to Open
We’re off and running!
After over a year of praying and planning, we are ready to launch Northshore’s Community Health Ministries! Our first project is to provide health care to low income, uninsured and families in our community through a Mobile Medical Clinic.
Northshore is partnering with the Puget Sound Christian Clinic (formerly Haller Lake Christian Clinic) to provide this service to our community. The mobile clinic unit will be at Northshore on Wednesday evenings from 5:00-9:00 p.m. and will be staffed by both medical and spiritual care volunteers.
We will begin seeing a limited number of patients on Wednesday, August 17th and then every other week for the next month (August 31st, September 14th and September 28th). The clinic will open weekly beginning October 5th with a full roster of patients and providers.
If you, or someone you know, has no health insurance, is struggling with limited finances and needs healthcare, please encourage them to call and schedule an appointment at the Northshore Mobile Clinic. Patients are scheduled for 30 minute appointments with health care providers. They are also invited to meet with the care support team for prayer and support.
Appointments may be made after August 10th by calling 425 216-4480. More details are available Sundays at the Information Desk in the Lobby or by calling Kate Jones, Local Outreach Coordinator, at 425 216-4438 or by email at katej@nsb.org.
We are still looking for a couple of more nurses and medical providers (MD, ARNP or PA-C). If you would consider volunteering or know someone who may be a great fit in this valuable ministry, please have them contact Kate Jones.
Please pray for this ministry that all who come to the Mobile Medical Clinic will experience the healing love of Jesus Christ.
“Bringing hope and health to our neighbors in need.”
Wacky Wheelays
This last Sunday in the midst of “Seattle sunshine” many people joined us out at Bothell High School for a great 11th annual Wacky Wheelays. This event is an all inclusive field day and has provided an opportunity to reach out to many in our community who would otherwise not be invited to participate in other events. Please take a few moments and check out the article in the Bothell Reporter!
Raising the walls of Jacob’s Well
Here is a neat video that spans over the month and a half it took to raise the walls of this 19,000+ sq foot building that will house homeless women and children starting hopefully this winter. Thanks to Redmond Roofing and Northshore’s own Bob Hernacki the roof is on and work projects are scheduled to continue to work on completing this project.
Mobile Medical Unit
We’re off and running!
After over a year in praying and planning, we are ready to launch our Community Health Ministries! Our first project is to provide health care to low income, uninsured persons in our community through a Mobile Medical Unit. On Wednesday night, June 29, we conducted a “Mock” clinic complete with all of our volunteer staff and a few recruited “patients.”
While the Mock Clinic was a time to work out processes and identify areas to improve, it turned out to a lot of fun! The volunteers were divided into groups according to the positions they will be serving in during clinic hours. Our volunteer “patients” went through the entire process from scheduling to reception to seeing the medical provider, concluding with follow-up consultation and care. Our volunteers were awesome as they worked, laughed and prayed together! It’s always a blessing to see Northshore’s people in action!
The mock clinic was facilitated by the staff of Puget Sound Christian Clinic. PSCC owns the mobile medical unit and oversees all of the clinical and operational details. Northshore provides the volunteer professional and support staff for the Bothell site (Northshore’s parking lot.) It’s a great partnership! (www.pschristianclinic.org)
There are a couple of things to iron out and then we will be ready to fully launch this ministry. The Community Health Ministries leadership team is excited about the doors that God is opening to reach those in our community who are in need. Opportunities abound for us to go out into our community and do such things as health and wellness classes, health coaching, immunization clinics, blood pressure and blood glucose screenings and so much more. The scope for potential ministry is being broadened daily. God continually challenges the team to be open and ready for Him to do amazing things.
Please be in prayer as we get everything up and running for the mobile clinic and begin to prepare for potential outreach into our community.
You can still join the volunteer team! You don’t have to be medically trained to volunteer –we can use anyone with a desire to invest in the community that we live in. We do have particular need for medical providers (physicians, ARNPs, PAs) in order to launch to a weekly clinic this fall. We also need people who could provide meals for volunteers, entertain children in the waiting room, help set up and tear down…. There are many opportunities.
Contact Kate Jones if you are interested in volunteering
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