When God builds community.
Last year, at a Christmas Eve service, Pastor Joe from Mosaic Church (Milford Ohio) took up an offering to help jumpstart the use of a new ministry tool. CarePortal. CarePortal.org is a technology platform that shows local churches and volunteers the vetted needs of vulnerable children in their area.He got his church excited about serving the community, vulnerable families, and kids in crisis and they GAVE.
For the past 11 months, Mosaic Church has used CarePortal to show their small groups the needs in their neighborhood. The men's group provided and moved furniture for a single dad. One small group connected with a local family over a box of gently used school clothes. And most recently, when the church network chipped together to buy a local family a new oven, Mosaic church showed up to pray for and support that family.
This church (like many others) has a heart to reach their neighbors with the love of Christ. Unfortunately, they found that they were serving in an area of town where requests were not regularly coming in. They found that more often than not, they were driving quite a distance to meet needs. And they responded to this dilemma in 2 seemingly opposing ways.
First, they expanded their definition of neighbor!
"Love your neighbor as yourself"~ Mark 12:31
In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus describes this concept of neighbor. There's a man who's hurt. He's been robbed and left for dead. A Priest and a Levite both pass by without helping (likely both of them lived close by, maybe in his "neighborhood"). But Jesus concludes that the "out of town traveler", the Samaritan, “The one who had mercy on him.” was his true neighbor. (Luke 25:37)... Mosaic church has taken on this attitude toward their neighbors! And they set an intentional goal to serve 1 family per month or 12 kids during the course of this first year working with CarePortal.
While the church was reaching out to other parts of the city, they were also leaning in to their own geographical neighborhood. Pastor Joe has an 11 year old daughter. Over the summer, she started inviting her friend to attend church with her on a pretty regular basis. By the fall, her young friend had decided to give her life to the Lord and be baptized. Her parents gave permission, wanted to attend and invite guests, and this 11 year old new believer was so excited that she invited her entire class (including both teachers) to her baptism! Both teachers attended the baptism, bringing their families along. One of the teachers continues to attend Mosaic church!
We've been praying, on the CarePortal front, for connections to the local school right there in Milford (where Mosaic Church is located). Of course, Mosaic church has been praying for deeper connections to their community. God is using BOTH their intention to be neighbors wherever they can, AND their organic relational ministry to open doors to serve even more families!
Here are a few take aways from this miracle!
Consider taking up a holiday offering to help jumpstart your CarePortal ministry and/or support your local Implementing Partner in the efforts to expand the work and serve even more kids!
Pray about setting a specific goal for this coming year and/or making an end of year push to hit that next big milestone for this year. Be a neighbor to whoever you can help!
Try giving your small groups access to the CarePortal system and allowing them to serve regularly together. Win for church unity, win for vulnerable kids!
Use CarePortal to meet your geographic neighbors, invite them in, and build community. Then invite your new friends to join you in your CarePortal mission.
As always, if you'd like to know more about serving local kids and vulnerable families
Search our open requests here: https://www.careportal.org/open-requests/
Enroll your church here:https://www.careportal.org/get-involved/church-leaders
Or email me and I can help you get involved. renae@careportal.org
May the Lord bless you with intentional connections that lead to organic friendships and vice versa. May we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit so closely and so often that the supernatural begins to feel perfectly natural. May your work with "the least of these" bring you an abundance of joy and fulfillment. ~Amen
I'm so thankful to be part of this kingdom work along side each of you!
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