If you don’t already know, we have a Special Needs foster home that we help maintain and support.  There are 11 children in the home.  These children are all fetal alcohol syndome children.  In the summer of 2007 a church member brought this family up to their small group.  Through that, the church got involved as a whole to do an Extreme Home Makeover project to their home.  We did a radical makeover, including adding a much needed therapy room to the house.

After that project, we became invested long term into these children’s lives. We formed a team called the Wies Warriors.  These volunteers spend hours and hours every week helping to maintain the home. (Can you imagine laundry for a family of 11 children, or giving them all baths or feeding them)!

From January to October of this year, our volunteers provided over 1500 volunteer hours doing anything from crafts, cleaning, laundry, cooking, errands, home repair projects, field trips, birthday party’s, bible story time…including providing over 250 meals to the family.

If you would like to get involved with this ministry, please contact me at sherryn@communityoffaith.tv and we will answer any questions you might have to get you started.  Below are pics of a couple of our precious children!

This is Stephen.  He loves Spiderman!

Marah is a very special girl!

so is Lori, she loves anything girly!

And Jerry loves anything to do with Music!

These children are precious! We love on them as if they were our own.  This is part of what the bible says to us in James 1:27 “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Well, this past weekend was a BLAST!  Every year we host a Texan Tailgate party.  This is an event that helps you, our attenders, have a safe event to bring your friends and family where they can get to know our church and the wonderful people who attend. This year was no exception, there was a lot of fun to be had!  Check out photos below, and pray for the visitors who came. Pray that their lives were touched and that they made lasting relationships with people so they would return to COF and learn more about who we are and what we are about.  Don’t miss it next year! 

The rock wall was a big hit!

and so was the mechanical bull!

One of our worship leaders: Robin (she enjoyed it too!)

There were several bouncy type things, they are always a hit

The kids had a blast riding the choo choo train

and also getting made up like clowns (grown up kids liked this one too!)

There were several tailgating teams who cooked all night for us!

Mark Shook, our pastor (far right) with a group of cookers! This event wouldn’t be possible without them!

You’ll want to take part in the Blood Drive at COF on Sunday, December 7th. 
Blood is in short supply over the holidays. This is a great way to serve the world! Sign up at the COF 290 campus at Guest Services.

Communityfor IMPACT groups are available to all our COF attenders.  The groups meet by semester.  Each week they meet together in a small group atmosphere to study material.  Then at the end of the 6 weeks they take part in a community project together.  It’s an excellent way to get involved with community service in a group setting! 

This semester the material was about telling YOUR story. The first week the groups met together and picked a community project to take part in.  At each of their gatherings they prepared for their projects.  At the end of the 6 weeks, each group took part in their project together.   I will be sharing more about the different groups and their projects later in this blog. But today I wanted to share what one group did.

This group worked with the Down Syndrome Association of Houston at their annual “Gathering of Friends” event that is held to encourage families of children with Down Syndrome.  They worked in what is called the Pink Flamingo Room.  This event has a carnival type atmosphere.  Each child got tickets for taking part in different events.  The Pink Flamingo Room was where they went to cash in their tickets for age appropriate toys. Our group got the pleasure of working in this tent.  What a fun place to be! Check out the photos below!

This is the Pink Flamingo Store

helping the children pick out their toys

The team!

The next rotation of group sign up’s begin some time in January, so be looking for it!  The material will be focused on God’s response to poverty and our projects will be focused on helping the homeless in Houston.  I’ve very excited about it and you will want to get involved!  If you don’t, you’ll certainly be missing out!

There is a wonderful organization in our Area called Cypress Assistance Ministries (CAM). We offer several volunteer/partnership opportunities with them every year.  CAM offers help to families in need by providing an assistance office, food pantry, job program and resale shop. 

Cypress Assistance Ministries’ freezers are empty! Help us fill the freezers with turkeys to be used for Thanksgiving and Christmas food baskets. Check out the CAM website for other holiday donation requests.

Hurricane Ike hit on a Saturday, and we still had church on Sunday by generator and candlelight. It was really cool. We had 2 services and about 1,000 people came. It was a really sweet time for us to come together.

Mark and Laura talked about how now was the time to serve our community. Serve it in the good times, but also in the tough times. That’s what Community of Faith is all about; to serve your community, no matter what.

We had sign up’s at two separate tables in our foyer; One table for people to list friends and neighbors of theirs that needed help. The other table was to sign up to help. I had the privilege of helping coordinate these teams. I think I took over 400 phone calls to my cell phone between Sunday and Wednesday of that week and sent and received no telling how many emails and text messages, all to/from people wanting to help. I am astounded at the kindness of people. I think that’s why I’ve been so emotional about it. I talked first hand to quite a few people who lost everything and were so amazed that people would help them without even knowing them or being a member of their church.

We moved several families completely out of their houses, we cut down trees and cleared debris, we fixed roof’s and fences, we distributed MRE’s, ice and water at the FEMA PODs (Points of Distribution), we worked for the Houston Food Bank, we delivered meals to people in the meals on wheels program that couldn’t get out of their homes, we helped at the George R. Brown Convention Center putting together care packages to those evacuated to shelters and lost everything in Galveston, we delivered hot meals to those who just needed to feel like “home,” and to be reminded that everything was gonna be ok. Our church also funded and sent out a mobile feeding unit out to the hardest hit areas, and probably countless other things that we’ll never know about.

I’m not saying this to be bragging, please don’t read that into it, I’m NOT saying that. I’m saying this to give the positive side to the devastating thing that has happened to this area. Texan’s are helping Texan’s. Churches are being what the church was meant to be…we are BEING the church. We were even privileged to run into a guy and a few of his buddies that just got in their car and drove from Georgia to cut down trees. We used them to help clear trees from several of our church member’s roofs.

I am reminded of a guy in our church who had signed up on the “needs help” list and also the “I’ll help” list. He got called up for the “I’ll help list first.” I called him up to help deliver a hot meal to someone. He never spoke at all about his needs at his own home. He delivered the meal and called me to tell me that he’d do it every day this week if I’d just give him a name, number and address. The next day, I flipped the page to my “needs help” list and saw his name there, his house had a tree on the roof, a hole in his roof, gutter damage, etc…and he never mentioned a word to me about it and was so thrilled to help out after the storm. Then we were able to turn around and serve him. It was a cool experience.

Below are some pics of the devastation Ike handed us.  Please remember to pray for those who still wake up every day in the wake of the destruction.

Houston Chronicle Photo

Houston Chronicle Photo

AIM Photo

Here’s a little taste of what Downtown Houston looks like
NYTimes Photo

Yes, that’s glass from the skyscraper windows!
NYTimes Photo

Hi Everyone! It’s great to be able to start connecting with you over this blog.  This will be the place where you can come to find out all the different ways you can get connected in our community.  I’m passionate about the international projects that Community Of Faith partners with all over the world, but I’m just as passionate about making a difference right here in our own community.  

 A while ago someone challenged me as a staff member of a church by asking a question.  The question was, “If for some reason your church was taken out of your community, what impact would that make directly on the community? Not the people who attend your church, but your community?”  That question struck me hard.  It’s a good way to evaluate the impact you are making where you are.  I want Community Of Faith to be the church that when we ask ourselves that question, we would always know the answer would be that it would devastate our community if we didn’t exsist.  It’s what Jesus calls us to be, He calls us to BE the church. 

So jump in! Get involved!  And let me know in whatever way I can help you!

Welcome to the new blog for Communityfor projects in Houston, Texas. In the near future, it will be regularly updated by Field Coordinator Sherry Naron, with occasional guest posts. It will include regular updates on how you can get involved in specific local projects, new photographs, prayer requests, and more.  Do add us to your RSS-feed, and commit to walking alongside us in this work.