I feel blessed and humbled when I serve.

Thanks to "Community" for giving us the opportunity to serve and many thanks to Nancy for such great coordination of this event. I served at the Broward Outreach Homeless Shelter. I always feel blessed and humbled when I serve there. Some of us helped to sort clothes for the boutique at the shelter while some members helped to prepare and serve lunch. Because of great "team effort" everything went smoothly and I also got a chance to meet 19 members for the first time.

Sonie

Thank you!

HI Nancy,

Thank you very much for coordinating this event! I spoke to the house RA of the Independent Living Home and he said the work your team did is absolutely amazing!!! :) He said the lawn was mowed, pavers were put down to create a patio area, the yard was cleaned and even their personal belongings were stowed away in their proper places! What a blessing it is to have these young men see the community and church come together to help them have a home where they can fellowship together!

The teenagers in this home are living in a world that has been harsh on them, some coming directly out of the foster care system, and your church is giving them HOPE that the world truly does care. And most of all, that God cares. We are touched by the compassionate hearts of your church body. If you are able to forward this to those involved that would be great- if not please extend our heartfelt appreciation to your church body!
Thank you!
In His Love,
Radina

Community Impact is one of my favorite things!

Dear Nancy,
Thank you for what I can only imagine is a HUGE effort of behind the scenes work.
Community Impact is one of my very favorite things about CCC! (Acts of Service is my Love Language) It is an awesome way to show the world what the Church should look like. And it is a great way to get to know one another!
Blessings!
Wendy Locke

They reached out their hand to touch us...

Our experience:

My family has been participating in Community Impact for the past year and has always volunteered to help the homeless. This has always been a positive and rewarding experience. There was a letter read in church services 2 weeks ago about working with the elderly and after hearing it my family & I knew we wanted to break out of our routine and do something different.

We were assigned to help at the Tamarac Rehab Center. We were a little unsure of our role when we first arrived; however that quickly changed as we met Helena who took charge and proceeded to walk us around from room to room. My daughters and Friend also got involved and began visiting each and every room and talking to everyone they saw. People were sitting in wheelchairs in the hallway, no smiles, no where to go, and all alone. We approached them and their eyes lit up, a smile came across their faces, and they reached out their hand to touch us. We pushed as many as wanted to the dining room where we entertained them and had conversations with everyone. We took them outside to see the flowers, feel the sun on their faces and feel the wind blowing. We visited the rooms of the people who couldn’t get up and listened to their stories of their lives and looked at the pictures on the wall. There were 2 therapy dogs from our group there as well and as much as everyone there loved us; those dogs were the hit of the day.

My moment came when I visited a man and wife who were sitting in the hallway together. He was reading to her from a book and holding her hand. He stopped reading for a moment and reached up and combed his wife’s hair and told her that he would love to see her smile. He asked her again “Please show me a smile” and as his wife did manage a small smile; he smiled back and said “Thank You, that’s what I wanted to see”. He told her he loved her and proceeded to read.

My daughters also loved this experience and have asked to come back and visit the residents and patients alike. My youngest daughter came to me as we were leaving and said that no matter what, she would never abandon me and place me into a facility where I am all alone.

We met a lot of people and will continue to visit the rehab center as often as we can.
Thank you for the experience.

Mike Avery
Brittany Avery
Heather Blankenship
Briauna Weir

Serving Food to those in Need

Hi Nancy --

I truly enjoyed serving at the Broward Outreach Center in Pompano this past Saturday! Had a GREAT time preparing and serving food to those in need. How many blessings we individually forget we have until we witness those who have so much less and are so grateful for our help !!!

Please sign me up again on November 1st for the same service. I will probably make time on my own to go back there between now and then.

Patti Meador

The Gift of Song

My name is Bryan Murphy and today we shared the gift of song with the folks at Sunrise Rehabilitation Center. It was so good to see the faces of the happy people that joined us for music and song.

I asked one lady what she would like to have me sing for her and she just smiled an said any thing you play is just wonderful, that was her gift to me. The lord has blessed my life with the gift of song and it makes me feel good to pass that gift on to those who need it most.