Safe Harbor Reach Day Recap

What a great day our Reach team had serving at Safe Harbor Shelter (for battered and abused women and their children) in Anderson Saturday! We met at FCC at 7:30am and were on the road by 7:40. It was a long convoy of cars but we all made it to the Jack in the Box rendezvous point in Anderson, and then headed to the shelter.

Once there, we all signed a non-disclosure form, and gathered in a big circle for prayer. For a serve day like this, a lot of prep work needed to be done weeks and days before-hand. Things had to be set up such as swing-set delivery, purchasing supplies, fence post installs, and mulch delivery. Much of this was handled by Tom Newman (our Reach Team Coach) and he did an an incredible job of prepping for the work to be done. It was wonderful to see some people who were volunteering for the first time. Let me tell you...everyone came ready to work and work hard! This was mostly tough dirty work to improve and clean up the property.  Some team members served doing yard work such as tree trimming, mowing, bush/fence trimming, and raking. Others dug up and made a garden plot outlined with railroad ties, stained a very long wheelchair access ramp, assembled picnic tables, extended a drain pipe, installed a corner siding piece on the facility, and removed-extended-installed fencing to nearly double the size of the playground. Plus - probably the entire team participated in moving and spreading THIS!:

The massive truckload of mulch was no match for the team!

The mulch was used for spreading around trees on the property and mainly as a base spread over weed barrier on the new playground area that was created. You can see it in the group photo above.

The team created a new garden area, so that the shelter can grow some of their own food. This will save a little money and provide healthy food, but it will also give these hurting moms and children a peaceful outlet as something to do during their stay with Safe Harbor.
The ground was seriously tough and rocky, so we had to break it up with pik-axes and strip away the grass and rocks to get to some better soil.  

The new garden area ready to go!

 As we were improving the Safe Harbor facility, women and children were coming out on the back screened porch watching us and asking questions. The children were just like any other kids, asking when they could go out and use the new stuff! Anxiously waiting...

Honestly, it was a little tough emotionally because you could see the track record of abuse on a few of the people that were finding safety and rest at Safe Harbor. It is so comforting to know that many who serve there are Christ followers, and that God will no doubt love on these women and their kids through the staff.

All day I was thinking about what true Christian love really looks like..and Romans 12:9-13 kept coming to my mind, as I was looking up at the folks on the porch. These verses were echoing through my brain...
⁹ "Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. ¹⁰ Love each other with genuine affection,^[a] and take delight in honoring each other. ¹¹ Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.^{[b] 12} Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. ¹³ When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality."

It occurred to me once again that we can be these scriptures in action at times just by what we do. Sometimes...not a word has to be said, but a serve has to be done. Sometimes it is both combined; such as when we share our faith, or serve in our church on a ministry team or coaching a group. The point in scripture is that we need to be real in our love, enthusiastic in our serving, and ready to help. And when more than one person joins together in unity, a ton can be accomplished in the name of Jesus.

As our team began to wrap things up and gather again for a quick prayer, the team spirit was thick in the air (along with the smell of hard sweaty work :). We said our good-byes, loaded up the cars, and headed out the gate looking forward to gathering at FCC for services. 

The new Safe Harbor playground area is complete.

Golden Corner Food Pantry Reach Day ReCap

 On Wednesday, an FCC Reach Team of over 10 people met to serve over at the Golden Corner Food Pantry. It was a great time for folks to get acquainted that had never met and serve people in need together in the name of Jesus. The pantry serves about 1150 families per month, including many Senior Citizens on Mondays, and they can always use a lot of volunteers for boxing food, deliveries, store pickups, and more. According to several team members, so much was accomplished by our Reach team that they had enough meat supplies boxed for Senior Citizens for three weeks out!


FCC will be sending Reach Teams and presenting individual serve opportunities as our partnership with Golden Corner Food Pantry continues each month. There are some great individual opportunities available currently. The Pantry Director (Richard Kulper) has let us know that he still has several needs for specific volunteer tasks.

GCFP Immediate Individual Volunteer Needs:

• People to serve as pick up substitutes for Food Lion and Bi Lo. Volunteers would arrive at store 9:15am and then head to food pantry by 10:ooam, and be finished by around 10:45am. 

• Volunteer to go to "Gifts in Kind" once a month. Can either pull the GCFP trailer or just go to help. This person would leave the food pantry at 7am or 9 am., return 11:30 or 1pm.

This is a great time helping an incredible ministry reach out and serve those in need. Our next Reach Team will be serving at Golden Corner Food Pantry on TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13th from 2-4pm. To sign up, please respond here, or check off the sign up box on your Foothills Flyer Sunday. You may also sign up on the web at: http://www.foothillscc.org/projectReach/interest.php

 

REMINDER

An FCC Local Reach Team is heading to Safe Harbor Anderson Shelter (for abused women and their children) to serve doing landscape work, trimming, cleaning, pressure washing, fence work, mulch spreading, etc. in the morning (Saturday) leaving from FCC at 7:30am. U R Invited!

WHERE: Safe Harbor Anderson
WHEN: Saturday, August 27th
TIME: 8am -12 noon (MEET at FCC at 7:30am and leave from there)

Bring your shovels, rakes, hoe, tree loppers, hedge trimmers, work gloves and wheelbarrows!

Habitat for Humanity Reach Team Update from Thursday and Saturday

Habitat for Humanity has two new home builds going up in Seneca for families in need of housing. A team of 5 men from Foothills Community Church went out this past week on Thursday and Saturday to help get the ball rolling after the foundations were poured.

Scott Hartney, who coaches our Habitat Reach Team, was impressed by the organization on site, and by the great work ethic and team spirit that he has seen each day. He joked that they even ended the work day on time (10:30am!)

The goal of these work days was to get the foundations cleaned up for inspection, and install floor joists and begin decking. As you can see in the pics, our team working with regular Habitat volunteers on the sites (including the prospective home owners) made a lot of progress. So much more can be accomplished when people come ready to serve and willing to do whatever it takes.

The thing to remember here is that the work time is only from 7:30am-10:30am; so all this work was accomplished in a few days over very few hours!

The floor joists are installed and decking is also now installed. The goal this week and weekend is to begin framing to put up walls starting on Thursday the 25th.  Before we know it, there will be two brand new homes to bring new hope and blessing to families. What an incredible thing to be a part of!

This week we had multiple men & women sign up for serving with our Reach Team at Habitat. If you would like more info or to sign up, please follow the link below, and then click on "Get Involved" to fill out the online card.

FCC Habitat Reach Team

Local Reach Mission - Aug. 27th, Safe Harbor (shelter for abused women and their children)

We have a great opportunity coming up to serve to improve the Anderson Safe Harbor facility. If you are ready to reach outside of FCC to serve others, then this is perfect! We are forming a Reach team of 20+ people to serve doing landscape work, trimming, cleaning, pressure washing, fence work, and more at Safe Harbor women's shelter in Anderson on the 27th. Here is the info -
 

WHERE: Safe Harbor Anderson (shelter for abused women/their children)
WHEN: August 27th
TIME: 8am -12 noon (meet at FCC at 7:30am and leave from there)
 

To sign up for this Reach team, please post your RSVP here in the comments section or contact FCC at 864-888-8008.

Blog from Haiti Reach Mission Trip: July 31st-August 6th, 2011

  Sometimes we see miracles in the small things in life. We stretch our faith and see a move of God in something that many others would not see as the same. We look at this or that situation and say “That was a miracle” when someone with a different perspective might simply think it was a coincidence and not a miracle.

  During our third trip to Haiti this year (on the island of Hispaniola), we saw something that we on the team were all in agreement had to simply be God intervening to have mercy on people. So many Haitians and other missionaries felt the same, and I guess you would have to have been there to really get the same perspective. The fact is that despite all the news reports hyping Tropical Storm Emily ready to pound Port-Au-Prince Haiti with 12-20 inches of rain. Threats of massive landslides, death filled flooding, and desperate worries of more Cholera and Typhoid outbreaks....Emily just never happened in Port-Au-Prince. If you saw video to the contrary stating to be from P-A-P, then it was very much dramatized.

 On our way to the new retreat property, we were called back early from about 50 miles away to the Chadasha mission house by national missionary Greg Roberts. He asked us to come back to base because of the potential threat of flooding (if it rained); and as seen in this picture from the balcony, the storm is literally just miles away over the mountains. The wall of rain can be seen off in the distance.