Community Outreach

...LATE BREAKING NEWS...

Can you imagine?

Luanne*called the Community Outreach office about the first week of December. She and her husband have 3 teenage sons and due to some health issues and financial problems they would have no money for Christmas gifts for the boys.
Luanne was diagnosed with cervical cancer and her husband had just gone back to work after some major back problems.

After verifying their situation we were able to find a local company that wanted to purchase gifts for the family.  Sadly, with only one week left, the business backed out of their commitment.  We tried to find an agency to adopt them but their lists were full and most won’t adopt children older than 12.  We had the boy’s wish list and just couldn’t bring ourselves to call Luanne with the bad news.  We decided to use some of the funds that had been so generously given on Samaritan Sundays and adopt them. Each boy had listed socks, boxers, t-shirts.  In addition, each had asked for a pair of Van’s tennis shoes.  That’s what they wanted for Christmas – to have the same shoes the kids at school were wearing. They were typical teenagers … they didn’t want to look different from the other kids even though they were from a low income family.  I can’t imagine my kids asking only for socks, underwear and tennis shoes for Christmas! Can you imagine?  

The day after Christmas Luanne called. It was hard to hear everything she was saying on the answer machine because she was sobbing.  She was so happy the boys had gifts to open on Christmas morning.  She thanked us over and over for making her children’s Christmas so wonderful.

We gave them socks, shoes and underwear.  Can you imagine?

(*Luanne is not her real name)

Nov 2007:              58 Families / 77 Needs

44 of the 58 families served were in a homeless situation:
                                16 living in Motels
                                   2 living in Shelters
                                11 living in Cars
                                   5 living with Friends
                                   1 living with a Relative
                                   9 living on the Streets

Needs :  Auto Repair, Bus Tickets, Child Care, Employment, Food, Gasoline, Housing, Legal, Medical, Motel, Rent and Shelter.

20 Cities Served:   Anaheim, Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Cypress, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Los Angeles, La Habra, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Orange, Rancho Santa Margarita, Riverside, Santa Ana, San Clemente, Silverado Canyon, Westminster
And Yorba Linda

NOTES

Cold Weather Shelter Project
Thank you to all who participated in our project for December and I hope you all enjoyed receiving your “I Helped Community Outreach” stickers.  It was nice to see so many of them when I was in front of the congregation that morning.  We collected personal hygiene items, socks and underwear, reading and writing materials, coloring books and crayons.  A very special “Thank You” to Tracey Slead, Carleen and Craig Stewart, along with Lisa Butorovich and her young granddaughter, Meadow, who came the day before the collection to help get everything set up for the big day.  Tracey, Carleen and Lisa came back the next morning and helped everything to run smoothly.  They even stayed to help take down the tables and my wonderful husband, Jerry, helped to get the boxes over to the Youth Hall ready for delivery the next morning.  Delivery day saw Julie McCully and Lena Hahn willing to drive the boxes to the St. Vincent de Paul warehouse in downtown Orange.  Thank you so much Julie and Lena!  There the boxes were divided for delivery to the two Armories run by the County.   We collected 20 boxes What a blessing these items will be to those who are homeless – especially during this Christmas season.

New Assistant: Julie
Julie McCully has settled in to her position as my “right hand” in the office.  She has such a heart for the people who are calling for help and has been an excellent student of our intake process and the resource books we use every day.  She jumped right in on her first day in the office answering the client phone and was eager to find help for the families. She has even been willing to take things like food, bus passes and gas cards to families in need.   She has already been a tremendous asset to the ministry and I look forward to a long time working relationship with her as well as a growing friendship.  Thank you, Jesus, for sending her to the Community Outreach Ministry!  

 Church Network
We’ve been meeting now for almost one year.  Our focus for 2008 will be to expand our presence in the community.  We want to not only enlarge the number of churches joining the Network but with that expansion to enlarge our capability of helping the poor and homeless in the city of Orange.   Pastor Stan wants to assist in this growth process by hosting a “Help The Poor At Your Door” type of gathering in early 2008 where pastors from Orange will be invited to enjoy a meal and hear testimonies from current Network member churches. They will share how being a member of the network has helped them to better serve the needs of those coming to their doors as well as how we’ve been able to work together to fill immediate needs.
One of the goals for the coming year is for the churches to work together to make a connection with the owners and/or managers of the low cost motels in the city.  Our two speakers for the January meeting will be the Manager of Homeless Prevention and the Coordinator for Regional Motel Initiatives for the County of Orange.  Kelly and Marcus will be guiding us in this effort to help keep these families from ending up on the streets.

NEEDS
Prayer:
For the poor and the homeless (especially during this cold weather)  that our gifts to them will be used to open their hearts to the One True Giver of all during this Christmas season. Ask the Spirit to water the seeds.

For growth of the Network and the scope of assistance it could provide.
That God would raise up someone in each church willing to take on the leadership of an outreach ministry and that each church would make it a budget item priority.

That God would lead us, as local churches and as a Network of His servants, to find ways of helping these families that makes such an impact that they feel the love of Christ and want what we have in Him.  That we can go beyond giving “band-aids” to bringing real transformation in their lives for the Kingdom. 

MP3's bring a bit of happiness to a tragic situation

The recent fires in So Cal have brought devastation. And children feel the loss is a very deep way that is uniquely theirs.

Our community outreach team decided to give some of these kids MP3 players in hopes to lift their hearts in such a time of sorrow. We have found that such a small gift was huge to them!

It was also very special to receive this letter of thanks from them.

Our prayer is that expression of care from us will lead them to see Jesus as the reason behind our care.

Note, News, Needs

June : 15 Families Served

Needs :     Bus Tickets/Pass,  Bicycle Basket, Delivery, Dental, Elder Care, Employment, Food, Gasoline, Housing,  Legal,  Medical,  Motel,  Prescription, Rent , Shelter, Transportation and Utilities

Cities Served:   Anaheim, Chino, Costa Mesa, Foothill Ranch, Garden Grove, Las Vegas, Orange and Tustin

                          13 Community Families 

                              (Homeless: 2 in cars, 4 in motels, 1 in shelter, 1 on street)

                            2  CPC Families *

* CPC families are included in the numbers in the reports when they are looking for resources for a friend or family member who is not a member of our church.  If a CPC family contacts me in need of help for themselves, I assess the need and refer them to Helping Hands or St. Stephen’s. In the rare case that the church cannot help them I look for resources for them out in the community.

Total :                  15   Families /  37 Needs

COLLECTION ENVELOPES

It seems that some people were confused by the two different collection envelopes in the pew pockets.  The decision was made to have only one envelope for all church collections in the future. (Members will still use their colored CPC envelopes from home for their tithes and offerings.)  The new pew pocket envelopes have a large red open heart stamped on them with a scripture in the center.  Along with a place for you to put your name, there are lines where you can mark where you would like your donation to be allocated: General Fund, Community Outreach and even a space for Other where you could write CCS or St. Stephen’s. 

The first Sunday of every month will still be slated as our “Samaritan Sunday” (when we’re asking you to donate $1.00 or more) but with the new envelopes you’ll be able to donate to the fund of your choice at any time. Thank you for your past generosity to this ministry to the poor and may God continue to bless you and lead you in the future.  

NEWS

The Future of the Community Outreach Ministry

 After a review of the activity and results the Session voted at the June meeting to establish the Community Outreach as a permanent ministry of CPC.  From lessons learned in the first 6 months, some practices have been revised and will now be written into an official policies and procedures manual.  A part-time, paid Ministry Aid has been approved and a job description is being formulated for the position.  

Church Network Meeting

Our third church network meeting of churches in Orange was held on the 3rd of July.  We had a total of 9 in attendance representing 6 churches.  We provided the coffee and water but Pat Johnson and Bonnie Wilkes from St. Paul’s Lutheran were gracious to bring fresh fruit, muffins and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for our morning nourishment – thank you ladies!

Our speaker was Alison Lugo.  She is the Outreach Manager for the Mental Health Association for the county of Orange.  Alison shared a wealth of information with us, gave us brochures listing all of the available programs and answered all of our questions.  Thank you, Alison, we are all better informed now and know who to contact if certain needs arise.

I spoke about an email that was sent to me from one of the churches. It was warning about a woman who has been going to churches, asking to speak with the pastor in person. Upon leaving the church office she then files a law suit claiming sexual harassment.  As the lead church of the network, I immediately sent it to the other churches.  This was an example of how being in the network is such an asset to all.  In the future we will also be sharing pertinent client information as a way of stopping those who “make a living” just by going from church to church for assistance. (Since the meeting I’ve spoken with a lawyer about the legality of the type of information we would be sharing and was told it would be within the law so we will go forward with the logistics of putting a system in place.)

I brought up the subject of the future possibility of the network, as a whole, coming alongside a family and providing what was needed to assist them in reaching self-sufficiency.  We are just in the idea stage of having this type of program but all were open to discussing it in future meetings.

NEEDS

The OCTD bus strike will have a huge impact on the working poor.  Because of the cost of gasoline, many of those who do have a car have been taking the bus to and from work and using their gas for things like grocery shopping, doctor appointments, etc.  Most of the time when a financial crisis hits,  the first place in the budget they take from is the food or laundry money. If they don’t have those to take from they take from the rent money.  Their thinking is “I have to have gas to get to work” but what they don’t realize is that it’s much easier and cheaper for a church or agency to help with a food or gas card than to try to help with a rent or utility payment.

The Community Outreach Ministry may see an increase in calls for help with food, gasoline, rent and utilities in the coming weeks. Be assured verification of employment or a job interview is mandatory for us to help with gasoline.  We don’t ask for verification for a basic life necessity like food unless this is their 3rd time asking CPC for assistance.  (In the future that would include the 3rd time they have received any assistance from the church network, not just CPC!) If you would like to help with grocery, fast food and/or gas cards you can “kill two birds with one stone” by purchasing scrip from Covenant School.  You’ll be helping CCS at the same time you’re helping the poor!  If God leads you to help with this, please purchase grocery or gas cards in $25.00 increments or less.  You can handle this in a number of ways:

1.  Deliver them directly to the family in need!

2.  Drop them at the Outreach office in the Youth Hall

3.  Drop them at the church office (I have a mailbox there)

4. Put them in the new collection envelopes in the pews (marked for Outreach)

5.  Catch me before or after 1st service on Sunday

Be sure to put your receipt in with the cards to insure the receipt of a letter for your taxes.  We’ll make a copy of the receipt and send the original back to you.)

Outreach Development Team:

Elder Lou Harrington, Diane Ferrante (director), Eric Hafemann, Tracey Slead, and Ann Morookian

Development Team meeting: every Wednesday at 11:00 am at the Outreach Office.
Those who have schedule conflicts are still invited to serve according to their situation.

Every first Sunday of the month, the church invites the congregation to give ONE dollar each to strengthen our ability to reach out to the community. The purpose of this collection is to create a sense of congregational participation as well as to impress upon the fact that so much can be done with so little.  The Covenant Christian School also participates in this endeavor.

so little can do so much...