Faith In Action: a do-it-yourself story

This October we’ll focus as a church on loving the people around us through service. Instead of having one Faith In Action Sunday, we’ll have projects to jump into all month long. You’ll hear all the specifics in church this Sunday morning, and it’s our hope that everyone will find a place to help out. Many groups will choose to come up with their own “do-it-yourself” projects; here’s a story from last October of a group that did just that.

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This Sunday our church “Left the Building.”  We had no church and everyone was to go out and be the church.  Our community group, the Smiths, the Emmerlings, and the Stuffs, served a family of 3 adults and 9 children with one on the way in Rose City.  Sam Emmerling came to know the oldest child, Reggie, through his son, Evan.  The boys go to school together.  When our group met to discuss what we wanted to do, Sam told us about this family.  He had dropped Reggie off at the house once and saw that they had very little in the home.  Our group decided we would like to help them.  We asked Sam to find out what they needed, and we decided we would deliver everything on Sunday the 18th and have a party.

Sam went by and asked them if they could use our help, and the woman was shocked.  She said they needed beds, clothes for the kids, dressers for the clothes, and a couch.  The house is a 2 bedroom house, with no furniture or beds.  everyone slept on the floor on pillows.  the adults all work, but at low wages.

With our $500 budget we were able to get:
2 twin beds
1 full bed
new sheets and pillows
2 dressers
clothes and coats for all 9 children
items for the baby on the way
a couch
a recliner
a tv
4 bikes
toys and balls

Our 3 families with children, loaded everything up and took it to them today at 11am.  When we arrived everyone gathered outside before we unloaded.  Sam explained who we where, how God directed us to them through Reggie, and that we were there to show them the love of Christ as part of CityFest and Fellowship North.  The men then unloaded and assembled the beds while the women set up card tables and started our “party.”  We had 50 hot dogs, chips, drinks, and a giant cake!

Our children played with their children.  The women all talked.  All the food was eaten.  Children and adults up and down the street came over to “see what was going on,” and we fed them too while explaining why we were there.  We even taught one of their kids and one of our kids how to ride a bike.  The day was a smashing success!  Our families and children experienced the joy of serving in Christ, and they all received the love of Christ.

Throughout this process our group prayed that God was leading us to the right family, that they would receive it well, that the weather would be nice, and that everyone would have a good time.  God answered all of our prayers!!!

Jeff Smith