Local Outreach July 2025 Newsletter
Hey oh!!!
What a wonderful summer we have had so far with the Good Neighbor Challenge! It has been encouraging to see committed volunteers regularly serving their neighbors. We have also seen new faces stepping out in faith and trusting God to learn more about what it means to Love God and Love Others. It has been great to see our O’Fallon campus crews come together through serving our neighbors! August will continue to be jampacked, but before we jump there, let’s take a look back on what God did through all of us in July.
July ReCap
We started the month with daily Good Neighbor Challenges. If you signed up, you know these came as daily texts with a scripture and prayer to help us focus on the art of neighboring. It also included a basic Love Your Neighbor challenge. Some of mine included dropping a note at a neighbor’s house and letting them know how much I appreciated the effort they put into their yard and garden. Another one was dropping off some produce from my garden, and a recipe for the zucchini. I also went on several prayer walks to different places around St Charles County where I regularly spend time.
Then we jumped right into Good Neighbor Serving Opportunities with Pack A Pack, Boys and Girls Club Back to School Bashes. To date HCC has provided over 600 backpacks to the Boys and Girls Club and shared 40 more with our Troy campus. Shoutout to Gina and David Aubuchon serving for the first time as Event Crew Leaders at the O’Fallon Unit, and Ronda Grigg serving again as the Event Crew Leader for the St Charles Unit. We had a new serving opportunity this year of card-making. Local Outreach writes and sends out hundreds of cards every year to our local school teachers and ministry partners. It was a blast to see HCC members using their spiritual gifts of creativity, encouragement, and hospitality. Nancy Picker and her bible study regularly make cards and we didn’t know it. They didn’t know that we write and send cards. It was a blessing to come together, make new friends and connections, all to glory God to our neighbors.
In addition to many more Good Neighbor Serving Opportunities in July, such as serving our community and ministry partners of REACH St Charles, the Child Advocacy Center, Love the Lou, we are also providing a worship service for the first time to the Boulevards Memory Care on July 30. We are also hosting a Blood Drive on Thursday, July 31 from 1-5 p.m. Donors are still needed. You can register to donate here or just walk in. Check below for more Good Neighbor Serving Opportunities coming up in August.
HCC Cooling Center
In the middle of all these serving opportunities, HCC Local Outreach was activated as a Cooling Center as part of the county-wide Emergency Weather Response Team. HCC is on call this summer July 27-August 2 and August 17-30. When the temperature is forecasted as a heat advisory of 100 degrees for two plus days we will open the Annex Lobby for our unhoused guests. We provide snacks, water, and Gatorade. But the biggest thing I have seen our volunteers provide this week is just conversation. Our guests have enjoyed just normal human interactions rather than crisis interactions. We have prayed every day to be a place of peace and to be people of peace. The Holy Spirit’s presence has been so evident. If you would like to learn more of serving with our Emergency Weather Response Team either during the day this summer or overnight this winter, just send me an email at cfiggins@harvester.cc.
Our Spiritual Gifts to Guide Our Serving
Pastor Nick mentioned the opportunity to take a Spiritual Gifts Assessment in a recent sermon. The S.H.A.P.E. test helps pull out what your spiritual gifts, heart abilities, personality, and experiences are. I am a sucker for any type of personality test, leadership test, or what shade of nail polish test, so I was really looking forward to seeing the results of this spiritual gifts assessment. I knew my gifts were centered in pastoring, equipping and empowering others, visioning, and empathy. What surprised me with the S.H.A.P.E. test was the names of the spiritual gifts. I realized I had been leaning more on the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) rather than my actual gifting. My top gift was Mercy. In general, this gift is the ability to empathize with and compassionately respond to those who are suffering, whether physically, mentally, or emotionally, and then move to practical acts of service and support. I knew this area is my happy spot- the place I feel the closest reliance on God and the place where I find the most fulfillment. But the term mercy caught me up. That took me on a deeper dive into scripture that mentions mercy. I loved the reminders of receiving God’s mercy, and freely giving out mercy were lovely. I encourage you to sign in to the S.H.A.P.E. test with your Harvester account so your results are linked to your profile. Then you always have access to it, but it’s also incredibly helpful for all ministries to search for certain gifts and experiences to guide you towards serving opportunities that honor the Holy Spirit’s gifts in your life. You can find the link to S.H.A.P.E. here.
Upcoming Serving Opportunities– Just a note: it’s very important to sign up for events and not just show up. In many situations, there is a specific number of roles available, but in some situations, serving opportunities have to change location, time, or date. When you register for a serving event, we have everyone’s contact information in one spot, and we can effectively communicate to you serving opportunity details. If you need help accessing groups, schedules, or sign-ups, let me know, and we can sit down, and I can walk you through that either on your laptop or your phone.
Good Neighbor Serving Opportunities– Click here to see the Good Neighbor landing page. Complete the top part of the form to be able to scroll through serving opportunities on pages 2 and 3. Below are the remaining Good Neighbor Serving Opportunities. Italized opportunities need the most volunteers.
Thursday July 31, 1 p.m.-5 p.m. Donate blood in HCC Worship Lobby
Friday August 1, 5 pm. – 7 p.m. The Sparrow’s Nest Children’s Center
Saturday August 2, 9 a.m.- 11 a.m. Faith Haven House
Sunday August 3, 7 p.m. St Charles Campus Prayer Walk
Monday August 4, 4:30 p.m.-6:30 p.m. Barnwell Middle School Spruce Up
Tuesday August 5, 4:30 pm.-6:30 pm. Harvest Ridge Elementary Spruce Up
Wednesday August 6, Harvest Ridge Elementary Back to School Bash
Thursday, August 7, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Love the Lou Tornado Relief
Friday August 8, 6:30 p.m.-8:30 pm. Good Neighbor Market
Saturday, August 9, 6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Welcome Jasper Apartment Residents to the Neighborhood
Sunday, August 10, REACH St Charles Pop Up
Monday, August 11, 7:30 a.m.- 9:00 a.m. Harvest Ridge Elementary Back to School Breakfast for Teachers
Tuesday August 12, 3- 6 p.m. Francis Howell North High School Immunization Clinic
Upcoming School Outreach Serving Opportunities- If you have expressed interest in or have served at a school event, you are in the School Outreach group. You can access the calendar and sign up for that group. If you are interested in serving at a school event, please email jhohensee@harvester.cc, and she can add you to that group.
Monday August 11 6:30 p.m.- 8:00 p.m. Pray & Prep, card making and card writing for schools
Friday August 15 7:30 a.m.-9:00 a.m. Becky David Back to School Breakfast for Teachers– FULL
Friday August 15 11:30 a.m. Barnwell Back to School Lunch for Teachers
Saturday August 16 9 am. -11 am. The Sharing Shed
Sunday August 17- Saturday August 30 HCC on call as Cooling Center, shifts 12:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Sunday August 24 1 p.m.Local Outreach/Guest Service Potluck Lunch in lower level of offices – more information coming
My name is Mike Coumerilh. My family found HCC in the summer of 2021 while Nikomas and the rest of the leadership were laying out the vision for us to encounter Jesus, become like Jesus, and unleash the hope of Jesus – something that resonates with us so much. Hearing this from the leaders confirmed to us that we belong right here, right now. And while we have plugged ourselves into multiple places here at HCC, I most recently volunteered to help with EWR, the Emergency Weather Response Team when Harvester was a warming center this winter for our unhoused neighbors. I believe we need to have a love of the Word (theologically sound preaching), a love for the Church (serve the local body), and a love for the world (reach and evangelize the lost). HCC clearly and intentionally makes room for each one of these. My focus for these last few years has been to do more to love the world. And volunteering for EWR does exactly that. Even though HCC has offered to be a ‘host’ church these last three years for EWR to shelter the homeless overnight, it had yet to be cold enough during our week to activate. This year was different. We activated four of the seven nights, including the first three consecutive! For my part, I volunteered to be available to stay overnight to ensure things went smoothly, to provide some sense of consistency each night, and hope the peace was kept. Given that I also have a full-time day job to report to each day, it was nothing short of supernatural to be able to go those more than 72 hours with less than 6 hours of sleep in total and still function at a normal level! There were some difficult moments, for sure. But God has promised to provide for ALL our needs (Philippians 4:19), especially where we are weak and lacking – and He truly did during that week. I may not have formal training in conflict resolution, but in Mark 13:11 Jesus instructs us in a slightly different context to “not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit” (ESV). I experienced exactly that multiple times throughout the week. There were also so many enjoyable and lighthearted moments all week long! The feeling you get when those whom you have been serving are walking out the door, pause to turn around, look you in the eyes and thank you with a gratitude from deep within their heart is incomparable! THAT is a warming center I want to be a part of!
Literally. For about a week before we activated, I hadn’t shaved (but even that wasn’t THAT significant, LOL). And while I was there, I tried to avoid wearing anything that made me look like I never wear the same shirt twice. I dressed down and left my clean clothes at home. If I’m going to have a chance to listen to someone’s story or talk with someone about the LORD, I don’t want them to be distracted with thinking about the “good life” I must be living!