Random Acts of Kindness - 2011 - Mission Projects Local and International

Isaiah 61:1-3 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn, beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that God may be glorified!

If you want to do what Jesus wants you to do...then you have to care about justice and injustice in this world. There are over 2000 verses in the bible that talk about the poor and oppressed! Most people believe that poverty is an issue of charity...but it is really SO MUCH more! It's believing that everyone, no matter who they are, what class they represent or where they are located, have an opportunity to hear the life saving message of Jesus!

At East Pointe Church, we have set forth a Vision in 2011 to actually do "Random Acts of Kindness" with a Purposed Mission. What we are really saying, is "we are going to be kind on purpose!"

First of all, we will LOOK out into our city and the world at large and SEE what is truly happening.

Second, we are COMMITTED to learning what we can do to HELP.

Then third, we are just going to say YES...YES to helping some who need a hand up in life, a shoulder to lean on or just an act of kindness so they can know Jesus is real and HE LOVES them.

We know that we can't do it all and of course, we cannot on our own save everyone...but we can save and help some! We do this to make the name of JESUS Known. It's no longer acceptable to just sit around and wait for others to step up. We've challenged our church and ourselves personally to just do something - reach out and share Jesus through our acts of kindness and love.

So far this year we have done the following:

JANUARY: Hosted a family from Ghana, Baba and Clement Tiah. They came for a life saving surgery for Clement and we were blessed beyond our wildest imagination in helping this family and Wendy Nyhus (missionary and nurse) who accompanied them. We've made friends for eternity on this project. We also collected new socks and underwear for the homeless and partnered with City Rescue Mission and Trinity Rescue Mission to give those items to men and women in need. Through this small gesture of kindess, we were able to start a van ministry to City Rescue Mission on Sunday mornings providing a ride to church for those who would love to attend East Pointe and grow in their walk with God along side us. www.crmjax.org and www.trinityrescue.org

FEBRUARY: An offering was given to our missionaries in India so their baby could be born in a hospital. We partnered with the Ronald McDonald House in Jacksonville - what a great place! They were so wonderful to Baba and Clement that we wanted to do something for them in return - so we collected paper goods to stock their closets and we hosted a dinner for families there at the end of the month! www.rmhcjax.org They help so many families during some of the most critical days of their lives as their children face medical treatment at our local hospitals.

MARCH: We collected baby items for the Women's Resource Center and collected items for the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine. Both of these organizations are doing fabulous works of kindness in their field. Read all about them here: www.fsdb.k12.fl.us and www.NJWRC.com

APRIL: We brought gently used items to have a COMMUNITY GARAGE SALE. And while we thought at times we must have been crazy to take on this project, in the end, over $1700 was raised for The Hubbard House - a safe place for women and children who have suffered at the hands of abuse. Oh, did we mention...all the items were .25 cents...that was a lot of items sold for a great cause! www.hubbardhouse.org

MAY: This month, we committed to learning more about sex-trafficking and what is happening in Jacksonville and in other parts of the world. Florida ranks #3 in states with high statistics for sex trafficking. We also partnered with the Tebow Family to raise money to rescue two girls from the sex-trafficking trade in Nepal! What was so amazing it that we accomplished this goal but just taking a $1.00 offering where everyone in worship just gave one dollar...no more, no less...just one dollar! It was an amazing lesson in what can be done as a group together - we can be a powerful force for good in this world - the lives of two young women will give testimony to that for sure! We continue to support our missionary Ralph Done as he and his family minister in Asia where sex trafficking is at its height! Our prayers are with these men and their families as they reach out to the hurting of this world - we are doing something to make a difference and we desire to do even more.

JUNE: A Dollar Offering was taken again to send the kids of our missionary Suresh Sawant to school in India and also to get a water purifier for Thanglal Haopkip, also our missionary in India. We brought canned goods and food items to help stock the pantry at Arlington Food Bank - this local pantry reaches so many people in need around our area of Jacksonville.

JULY: We had a team travel to Mexico and minister in Mexico City with our missionaries Ed and Annita Hoagland.

JULY: We put together welcome gift baskets to honor the teachers and staff at the new Waterleaf Elementary School.  The city has done a beautiful job of building a new school right next door to us and we want them to know that we are a church that loves teachers.   Thanks so much for your kindness and donations!  Each basket contained purse size lotion, hand sanitizer, gum, Candy bars, cheese crackers, granola bars , trail mix, snack size items, Tide sticks, small sewing kits, pencils, pens, personal size kleenex. post it notes, fun stickers, Crystal light powder mix for a water bottle, breath mints, note pads, colored pens, gift card.   Thanks for all your help!  -Cathy

AUGUST: This is the month where we delivered our "Welcome Gifts" to the new school. We prayed for them as they started their new school year. The baskets were waiting for them on the first day to welcome them. We took another $1.00 offering early in the month to help with our gift baskets prior to delivering them.

SEPTEMBER: Partnered with the Seed Company - we helped this ministry to work towards accomplishing their goal of making sure that every people group has the word of God translated into their mother tongue! 

OCTOBER: COMMUNITY EVENT on Halloween where we had 2500 community neighbors come out for a safe and fun-filled Halloween alternative. Many from our church volunteered making it a success while meeting our neighbors.  

We collected towels for Trinity Rescue Mission and other organizations.

NOVEMBER: Prison Fellowship and the Angel Tree Project - helping families in prison to reach out to their children during the Christmas season.

DECEMBER: Celebrated all God has allowed us to do throughout 2011 and gave honor to Jesus with our JESUS AT THE TOP OFFERING totaling over $57,000!

The dictionary defines charity as the simple act of giving voluntarily to those who have need. It's taken from the work "caritas" which means....love! In Colossians 3 the bible instructs us to:

Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave you, so also do you. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also yea are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

Did you get that....put on charity? I can't even begin to understand fully what all that means, but I LOVE THE IDEA...wear charity! At EPC, we've decided as a church we'll do just that...and we are certainly a group of people on a journey together that are very thankful. So come on...join us, get out of your comfort zone and make the name of JESUS KNOWN.

Cathy McGaughey

Mission Director

"EVIL will continue to prosper if good men and women do Nothing"