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Love God Love Others Tag

September 14, 2023
in Alleviation of Poverty, Food Backpack Program, GiveHope, HCC, Local, Outreach, School Outreach
by cefiggins
0 Comments

People Are Hungry

Food Insecurity is a hard word to describe in our presumed affluent St. Charles County culture. Food insecurity is when you don’t have enough money to buy the healthy foods you need, or if you have to skip meals because you don’t have enough money to buy more food. The reality is St. Charles County actually has the third largest percentage of people facing food insecurity in The St. Louis Area Foodbank service area. Food insecurity can be caused by many things – an accident, an unexpected illness of a family member, underemployment, or simply having children not in school during holidays, spring breaks, or the summertime.

HCC Food Backpack Ministry is another aspect of our School Outreach to meet the physical needs of our neighbors. Each week our dedicated teams of volunteers pack nondescript food backpacks to meet the physical needs of about 100 local school children in 8 different schools across St. Charles County.

“Our program sends a bag of food home with a student each week.  The bag is designed to feed the student for the weekend with simple meals and snacks.  We don’t have any qualifications to participate in this program.  The program is mostly utilized by the “Free and Reduced Meals” families.  Free and Reduced Meals is a federally funded program that provides breakfast and lunch at school for students based on financial need.  Our program has the unique ability to also help students during short-term events that don’t require a family to apply for Free and Reduced meals.  All of the students participating are selected by the counselors in the schools we serve.”

-Shelly Swart, HCC Food Backpack Crew Leader

Here are a few ways you can support this ministry.

Pray. Yep, you guessed it. I think prayer is kind of a big thing. Prayer is constantly needed to help increase all of our faith in God. Prayer is needed for all of us to understand that we can trust God in hard situations like these. Pray about how God might want you to serve in this program or how He wants you to continue serving in this program. Pray for the children and families receiving this supplemental food so that they will see how God is providing for them. Pray for volunteers serving in this ministry that God would provide divine opportunities to unleash hope to the school, families, and children.

Collect food. Consider hosting a macaroni and cheese drive, canned ravioli drive, or protein/granola bar drive. Donate these items to the HCC Food Pantry to be used in the Food Backpack Program. This is a great way to get your neighbors involved in addressing food scarcity in our community and to raise their awareness about the needs around them as well as introduce them to some of the ways HCC serves St Charles County.

Serve. Join one of the packing teams. Consider serving as a driver to deliver to the schools. One of the wonderful things about our School Outreach Teams is that a child or his family can interact with a Harvester Christian in so many instances. Perhaps a child who attends Becky David and sees Harvester Christians delivering coffee to her teacher. Then the next week that same child saw Harvester Christians dropping off a food backpack to supplement what was missing from her pantry that week. Perhaps this child utilized a scholarship in order to participate in HCC Basketball-Cheer and begins to hear the Good News from her coach and other caring adults in the league. All of a sudden the child has a network of support grounded in biblical motivation. All of this creates a trustworthy relationship and a bridge to the church. We have served out of love and obedience. God does everything else.

In a perfect world, a child would not have to depend on a food backpack to get them through the weekend or a school holiday. All of their needs would be met. But even in a lost and wounded world, we can unleash hope through cans of ravioli and boxes of mac n cheese.

Important upcoming dates:

Food Backpack Program resumes on September 11

HCC Basketball-Cheer Registration opens September 25th at 8 a.m.

Guest Services/Local Outreach Gathering- we want to celebrate all of our volunteers. Join us on October 27 for a little food, fellowship, and vision for the coming year!

See You At The Pole September 27 at 7 a.m.

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September 14, 2023
in HCC, HCC Basketball-Cheer, Outreach, School Outreach
by cefiggins
0 Comments

Does anyone have TOO much hope?

Basketball Cheer Season is coming up fast! We have been doing a TON of behind-the-scenes work to get ready for this next season. We are rolling out a new registration form for players and volunteer applications for coaches, referees, and all the other tons of volunteers needed to make the season run as smoothly as possible. We have been adding resources to this site to help coaches and referees feel as confident and supported as possible in their roles. We have been gathering bids on uniforms. We have been designing new banners and information signs to hang in the gym as another form of communication. By themselves, these tasks are not all terribly fun at all. But what IS fun is leaning in anticipation of what God will do using basketball and cheer to lead people to find and follow Jesus.

The energy in the Annex every Saturday from January through March is just incredible. We get to see kids of all ages learning the fundamentals of basketball and cheer. There will be so many applications later in their life from what they learn from being on a team and in the league. But the real difference will be HCC Basketball and Cheer Coaches planting seeds of faith and hope during devotional huddles during practice. The transformation will come from our volunteer leadership team continuously praying for people to find and follow Jesus. The Holy Spirit will move during devotionals and testimonies shared during halftime to parents, grandparents, and spectators. I don’t know anyone who has too much HOPE in their lives. HCC Basketball-Cheer is one way we get to unleash hope in our community.

Here are two simple ways you can unleash hope too.

Pray over registration. I know this sounds a little odd. But the relationship between the coaches, families, and players is powerful. Pray coaches are connected with families and players where a real difference can be made. Maybe it will be by the way the coach models themselves as a godly caring adult. Maybe it will be through the sharing of scripture or prayer as a source of hope.

Consider volunteering. HCC Basketball-Cheer League is run almost entirely by volunteers. Hundreds of volunteers are needed to coach, referee, share a devotional or testimony during half time, keep score, work in concessions, keep the gym safe and clean and so much more. If you have served in one or more of these ways in the past thank you so much! The league literally would not function without you.  If you would like more information, not to sign up I promise, just more information send me an email.

 

Important upcoming dates:

Food Backpack Program resumes on September 11

Registration opens September 25th at 8 a.m.

Guest Services/Local Outreach Gathering- we want to celebrate all of our volunteers. Join us on October 27 for a little food, fellowship, and vision for the coming year!

See You At The Pole September 27 at 7 a.m.

Parent Meeting Option #1 November 16

Parent Meeting Option #2 November 19

Coaches/Referee Clinic November 27

Practices begin the week of December 4

Games begin on January 6

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August 10, 2023
in HCC, Local
by cefiggins
0 Comments

Circle Up Ags!

I am a proud member of the Fighting Aggies Class of 1995. All you need to know about that sentence is I believe in loyalty and tradition. I am also a proud Aggies for Christ alumni. We have a 50-year tradition as a campus ministry of gathering weekly at  Academic Plaza, every Thursday night at 9 PM for at least 100 college students joined together in fellowship, hearing God’s word, and worshipping Him through acapella praise. At the end of every Thursday night, you hear someone yell in a Texas drawl “Circle Up Ags and Uncover!” That’s our cue for every single person to loop an arm over the shoulder of the people standing next to you, take off any hat in reverence, and bow in prayer together as a united community coming humbly in the presence of God.

My whole adult life this has been my image of what it means to be a member of the family of God. Circled together in unity through prayer and praise for anything that might come our way in this life. 

This is also my vision for Harvester Christian unleashing hope for children in need of foster and adoptive families.

I have a dream that starts with the question “What if we…?

  • What if we as a united church family could circle up around at least one child in our community?
  • What would God do if he saw our humble obedience to provide a safe, stable, loving environment for a child whose parents are struggling to provide for that child?
  • What could our future look like if one more HCC family decided to receive the blessing of a child in need of adoption?

Now hold up, I can almost see you pulling back. You may have just said in your head “I don’t know if I could be a foster parent and potentially have to give a child back to his or her family.” “I don’t know if I could love another child that was not my own.” I have all kinds of responses to those particular statements that will save for another day but what if we ask this question together?

  • What if we circled around families in our church who need support as their children are in Safe Families or foster care?
  • What if we circled around families in our church who have answered the call in obedience to be a foster family or Safe Family?
  • What if we circled around the families in our church who have answered the call in obedience to be an adoptive family?
  • What would our city look like if we unleashed hope together circling around these children?

I think you know that serving is not something we check off our to-do list once a year. Consistently serving others is a key part of all of our continued spiritual formation as we strive to become more and more like Jesus. But what we if are missing a straightforward, accessible, and meaningful approach for serving our community by circling around families in need of care and families providing that care through foster and adoptive commitments? 

  • What if you provided child care for a foster or adoptive family?
  • What if you brought a meal once a month to a foster or adoptive family?
  • What if you taught children living in an HCC Safe Family to bake or fish or took them on a hike on the Journey Trail?
  • What if your small group decided every March that you would collect diapers for HCC foster and adoptive families?
  • What if your small group decided to provide back-to-school clothes and school supplies for HCC foster and adoptive families?

If we as individual in the HCC church family chose to circle around Safe Families, foster families, or adoptive families it would allow us to meet people’s physical and emotional needs and would also open doors to have a critical impact on the kingdom.

You have an opportunity to learn about many aspects of Safe Families, foster and adoptive families on 8/31 during the Unleash Hope for Children: Foster/Adopt Info Meeting. I am praying 25 people are in attendance to ask the question with me “What If We…”

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From the HCC Outreach Team:

Thanks so much for stopping by the Harvester Christian Church Outreach Team’s blog! We hope you find this resource helpful, insightful and encouraging as we strive to Unleash the Hope of Jesus back into our world!

This resource belongs to Harvester Christian Church in St. Charles, Mo.