I am thrilled with our outreach program at First Church and I know how vital it is to our community that we reach out to help people outside the church. The love that we show to these folks will help to plant the seeds of God’s love and hopefully they will, at some point, give their hearts to the Lord and begin serving Him.
I began attending First Church in 1984 as a single mom with 2 children who were 8 and 12 years old because of the youth group. I wanted my children to have a good youth group to grow into. I didn’t know many people at this church but did get involved in teaching fairly quickly. I had been fortunate to be a stay at home mom but found that circumstances dictated that I to go into the work force.
Prior to finding a job which took several months, Pastor Ken Wiedrick, the Outreach Pastor at the time let it be known to the church family that I was struggling to pay bills, buy food, etc. There was an older couple in our church who heard that I was in need of oil for heating and they had just put in a new gas furnace in their home. They had a tank of oil that they wanted to give to me. Pastor Wiedrick, along with my son and several men from the church, loaded up the oil in cans and brought it to my house, filled my oil tank and I was able to get through the remainder of the winter.
I had groceries given to me and money for my electric bill was left at the church by several anonymous donors. I could not have made it without the help of so many inside the church. I received a call from Carol Cook (Pastor Cook’s wife) that a lady from our church had dropped off a winter coat that she wanted me to have! That coat kept me warm for several years during the winter months!
Then there was a youth trip to Colorado. Several families gave my son lawn mowing jobs for several months so that he could earn the fee that was needed to make the trip. First Church was such a blessing to me in my “time of need”!
I wanted to share this because I hope that we are not forgetting that we have an “outreach need” right inside the church. We have many elderly folks and young single mothers and fathers that can use our help too! For that matter, couples who have lost their jobs also need our help. The Bible is very clear about how we are to help take care of our brothers and sisters and we need to be sure that while we are reaching to those outside the church, we not forget to take care of those inside the four walls of our church.