Coming this weekend!

Micah 6:8 Weekend

 

This weekend, of April 6 and 7 on the Hudson campus, will be our second Micah 6:8 weekend celebration, in which we seek to do the acts of justice and mercy that God loves. Under the theme of Body and Soul, the weekend will feature opportunities to support both local and global ministries. Last year, Christ Community Chapel members donated $900,000 in support of local and global ministry partners, as well as adoption programs.

 

The special weekend this year will focus on, among other ministries, Faithful Servants, a local outreach partner devoted to providing urgent care services with Christ-like compassion for those without insurance and the economic means to access traditional health care, and to assist in identifying continuity of care.

 

The first donation for this year’s event has already been received by Faithful Servants. The organization needed two iPads with wi-fi and Face Time capability to enable telemedicine access to local emergency rooms, and for consults with local specialists. Recently, two refurbished iPads were donated to Faithful Servants, allowing interactive communication between the Faithful Servants facility in Tallmadge and key specialists. We already have reason to celebrate God’s provision through His people, as He has provided technology that leverages the expertise across the pool of participating doctors.

 

This year’s Micah 6:8 weekend will provide additional support for Faithful Servants on the local outreach side, with a goal of obtaining funds for medicine for the patients and equipment for the Faithful Servants facility, such as an EKG machine, an ultra-sound machine, and three flat-screen monitors for the exam rooms to share the Gospel message with clients while they are waiting. There will also be great opportunities to support global outreach ministry partners Hospital Shalom (Guatemala), Christian Hospital Tank (Pakistan), and Boys Ministry (Senegal) this weekend.

 

Would you prayerfully consider how God may be calling you to support Christ Community Chapel’s global and local ministry partners this weekend?

 

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”

 

 

If you have any questions about how you can get involved or about our justice and mercy initiatives in general, stop by the Welcome Center at your campus on April 7 or contact Michael Ammirati atmichael.ammirati@ccchapel.com To link to CCC’s online giving site, please go to:http://hudson.ccchapel.com/Micah-6-8/ 

Who is your neighbor? Haven of Rest knows!

Christ Community Chapel Local Outreach ministry partner Haven of Rest serves the homeless of Northeast Ohio with meals, shelter and clothing.  Haven seeks to provide Christ-centered programs and services that respond to the physical, spiritual and emotional needs of homeless and poor men, women and children.

With the bitter cold winter weather Ohio has recently experienced, Haven of Rest staffers became concerned about accommodations for their overflow population. As the cold drove more people to seek shelter at Haven, it became apparent some of the mats used were in not very good condition.

                                                  The Haven of Rest facility in downtown Akron

Haven of Rest staffers included in their monthly prayer requests to CCC the need for 50 new mats. Christ Community Chapel’s Local Outreach team learned that the 50 mats would cost about $3,100. with shipping and handling included. With that information, the team made CCC members aware of the need.

A CCC community group spotted the need, and soon God’s people pulled together to provide the funds to buy the mats.

In the Bible, an expert in the law of God asks Jesus, “who is my neighbor?”  As the Gospel drives deeper into our lives at Christ Community Chapel, more of us are answering, “anyone who is in need!” 

In 2013, the Local Outreach team is hoping that increased communication between our ministry partners and our congregation will result in even more God-honoring responses to the needs of our neighbors.

Speaking of needs, Haven of Rest has a special Hope Tote campaign currently underway. This is an outreach to needy and homeless men, women and children in our communities. From now until Friday, March 15, 2013, Haven is collecting the following new, regular or large size items for Hope Totes:

·      Toothbrushes and toothpaste

·      Soap

·      Shaving cream and disposable razors

·      Shampoo and conditioner

·      Deodorant

·      Lip balm

·      Socks

·      Brush and comb

·      Shoelaces

·      Hand or body lotion

·      Facial tissues

You are encouraged to get together with community group members, friends and neighbors to fill Hope Totes for thousands of needy individuals and households. You may request Hope Tote bags to fill, or receive additional information by calling Katrina Henry at Haven of Rest, at 330.535.1563.

For more information on Haven of Rest, please contact:

                                                                                                             

Barbara Ammirati @ barbara.ammirati@ccchapel.com

Michael Ammirati @ michael.ammirati@ccchapel.com

Or visit Haven’s website at:

www.havenofrest.org/  

CCC Youth Gift a Van to Rahab Ministries

Becky Moreland, founder of Christ Community Chapel ministry partner Rahab Ministries, had been praying for a need to be met.  Becky sums up the aim of the ministry like this: "The Heart of RAHAB Ministries is Compassion. We come alongside women who are trapped in the life-and-death struggle of prostitution and drugs. Then we stay. We refuse to see them as different from ourselves, then Christ's love for them can flow through us." For Rahab to come alongside these women, transportation to and from different events is a key need.

Late last year, a representative from Rahab spoke to the youth at Christ Community Chapel about the lives that have been transformed by Christ through Rahab.  During the presentation, the need for a van was mentioned. CCC youth ministries leader Todd Iannetta challenged the young people at all the church’s campuses to respond to the need.  The goal was to raise $10,000 for the van.

The youth agreed to accept the challenge, and Todd stayed in touch with Becky on the progress of the giving.  Recently, Todd and the CCC youth ministries staff had the joy of presenting the van to Becky.  Here's how they did it, according to Todd:

     "Many of them sacrificed Christmas gifts, some sold possessions, and some of them gave out of allowance or money made from a job.  We also held an open house for the Door #2 Arts Ministry, where we sold art that students made. Together, they raised $10,000 to purchase a van.  A local car dealer, who also attends our church, sold us the van for a great price, and threw in unlimited service on the vehicle."

Have a look at the very high-energy celebration of God working through His people in this video: 

http://vimeo.com/57535627

Pastor Joe has challenged all of us at Christ Community Chapel to be a bridge to our neighbors, our community and our world.  The CCC youth have clearly heard and responded to this call. As Todd said, "they get it!" As you pray and meditate on how God is calling you to be a bridge, would you also praise Him for this great example of His provision through His people?

To learn more about Rahab ministries, please click:  www.rahab-ministries.org/our-mission.aspx

For more information on the needs of Christ Community Chapel local ministry partners, please contact: 

Barbara Ammirati @ barbara.ammirati@ccchapel.com

Michael Ammirati @ michael.ammirati@ccchapel.com

Urban Vision Christmas Store: Christmas with Dignity, Kids with a Future

'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.

Matthew 25:40

The annual Urban Vision (UV) Christmas Store event took place on December 15^th. It was an opportunity for UV kids to spend the UV dollars they have earned during 2012 through successful participation in programs helping them in everything from improving their school grades to earning the right to become leaders at UV.

Urban Vision seeks to give North Akron kids a Christ-honoring alternative to life on the street. Currently, there are about 200 kids in various UV programs, and there is typically a waiting list of about 60 at-risk children hoping to be lifted up, challenged to personal growth, and rewarded for personal achievements. Urban Vision is reaching the community for Christ, one child and one family at a time.

UV’s programs, such as Set on Success, provide kids the chance to improve their grades in school through tutoring and mentoring. When the kids hit key goals, they are rewarded with UV dollars, a currency that they can save up and spend on Christmas gifts for their families. The kids also learn valuable life lessons, since the UV dollar incomes are taxed, saved in a UV bank, and budgeted against the child’s Christmas shopping list.

This year, a Christ Community Chapel Christian Leadership Concepts (CLC) men’s group decided to make their service project helping UV with the Christmas Store. The store project depends on UV staff and countless volunteers who set up a physical department store, complete with priced merchandise, sales clerks, customer shopping assistants, gift wrappers, inventory keepers and others who enable the kids to experience the real world process of earning money, budgeting for Christmas giving, buying the goods and giving them to loved ones. UV insists that providing the kids with “a hand up, not a hand out” is key to their catching a vision of a productive future for themselves, with Christ-honoring coaching and counseling along the way.

Christmas Store volunteers arrived at Urban Vision around 7:00 AM on December 15^th, and were treated to a light breakfast, a time of worship, some training and guidance encouraging them to think of the kids as their own, since they belong to our God. Gifts available for the kids to purchase ranged from snow scrapers to bicycles and televisions. It was amazing to see these inner city young people comparison shopping, weighing the merits of different items, making selections, paying money from their UV “wallets”, collecting change, and moving among the various departments. The UV Store included departments for toddlers, kids, men and women, with merchandise from deodorant to overcoats. The store alone, with its logistical requirements, is a huge testimony to the love and dedication of the UV staff and volunteers.

Christ is clearly doing a great work in preparing the Urban Vision kids for adulthood. While UV did not encourage discounting (why devalue the rewards for their achievement?), the sales people had a great time explaining the value of items at different price points. The kids spent their money very wisely, with a great sense of Christmas cheer, amazing energy and good humor.  

As is the case so often, the CLC group members came to be a blessing to others in the name of Christ.  However, the men also were greatly blessed by seeing the fruit of the Spirit in these amazing young UV shoppers.  Urban Vision is indeed reaching North Akron for Christ, one child and family at a time.

 You may wish to learn more about the UV Christmas Store as a possible opportunity to serve in the name of Christ next year.  If so, please go to their website at:

http://www.urbanvisionministry.org/home0.aspx

You may also want to prayerfully consider the current opportunity to help Urban Vision in its $70,000 December Match Challenge.  This initiative is designed to help UV pay for staffing and materials for its operating needs in 2013. For more information about Urban Vision, please contact:

Barbara Ammirati @ barbara.ammirati@ccchapel.com

Michael Ammirati @ michael.ammirati@ccchapel.com

You've Been Gifted 2.0

 Christ Community Chapel kicked off a new tradition in 2012 with "You’ve Been Gifted 2.0".  On December 2^nd, at each campus, before and after all services, there were opportunities to purchase Christmas gifts ranging from $3 to $25.  The meaning behind "2.0" is that the purchase of these gifts will be a double blessing. The first blessing is obviously the recipient of the gift;   the second blessing is that  a CCC ministry partner will receive 100% of the proceeds of the sale.

 Local Outreach partner Rahab Ministries offered T shirts for sale. The sales of  matted Bible word art will benefit Faithful Servants and Broken Chains.  Global Outreach partners like Sam Tushabe’s Action for Empowerment (AOET) and Destiny Rescue offered jewelry items. There were Christmas cards from India Gospel League.

The response of CCC worship service attenders was overwhelming, with almost all inventory at all campuses being sold out. Overall, more than 1,600 items were purchased, generating over $17,000 in funds for CCC ministry partners.

God’s family at Christ Community Chapel has once again shown its heart for the less fortunate, be it to benefit local neighbors in need served by health care volunteers at Faithful Servants, or to benefit women in Asia being rescued by Destiny Rescue from the entrapment of human trafficking. It is truly exciting to see God’s people move with such grace, power and generosity… especially to break the mold of the usual “retail Christmas” and to benefit the needy and our ministry partners at home and overseas. The Gospel is being driven down further into the lives of God’s family, with great impact for our neighbors from Akron to Asia.

To God be the glory!

 As we celebrate the generous response to “You’ve Been Gifted 2.0”, please keep in mind the ongoing opportunity for CCC members and attenders to impact Northeastern Ohio through the original You’ve Been Gifted program, in progress now!  As we seek to reflect God’s love expressed through the gift of His only begotten Son by blanketing the area with 10,000 random acts of kindness this Christmas season, please prayerfully consider how God may be calling you to creatively be a blessing to a neighbor.  For more information, please contact:

Barbara Ammirati @ barbara.ammirati@ccchapel.com

Michael Ammirati @ michael.ammirati@ccchapel.com

Thanksgiving Baskets: An Outpouring of God's Love

 The Christ Community Chapel Thanksgiving basket initiative surpassed its goal of having members donate 700 baskets of food to the needy this year. The effort, which had a goal of 40 baskets in its original year, is geared toward providing enough food in one basket to serve 10 people a substantial Thanksgiving dinner. On that basis, CCC had the ambitious goal in 2012 of feeding roughly 7,000 people in need in the name of our Savior. With each basket containing approximately $40.00-$50 worth of food, CCC members donated in excess of $28,000, showing an expression of God’s love to the less fortunate. By Sunday, November 11^th, church members had already passed the goal of donating 700 baskets.  Amazingly, the final count of baskets donated was 949!

On Monday, November 19^th, basket collection from CCC members, and redistribution to the needy through the church’s local outreach partners took place. An energetic army of 50 volunteers, which consisted primarily of youth from the church, but also included folks of all ages, set about moving baskets from donors to staging locations for pickup by Local Outreach ministry partners.  Volunteers also organized and packed contents into the baskets (actually, the containers were large storage tubs) for delivery. In line with CCC’s desire to “lead with the Gospel”, each basket contained a New Testament. 

While the major focus was on providing for neighbors through our Local Outreach ministry partners, over 100 baskets were also shipped to the East Coast. Additionally, 171 frozen turkeys were designated to be shipped to families in New Jersey suffering from the impact of super storm Sandy.

Members of our pastoral staff, including Joe Coffey and Mark Lile, watched in wonder as volunteers handled the logistical challenges of organizing, packing and moving the church’s tidal wave of donated food to neighbors in need. Others, sensing a special move of Christ’s hands and feet, snapped pictures of the work in progress.

Once again, God’s people at CCC have proven to be ordinary people engaged in an extraordinary work of God. If you were part of this move of cheerful, copious generosity, thanks for your kingdom-work!  If you missed this opportunity, please prayerfully be on the alert for opportunities for CCC members to be a blessing for others, through upcoming initiatives like “You’ve been gifted”.  

The Lord loves a cheerful giver. And it is great to see the cheerful generosity of the Lord’s family in action at the Thanksgiving basket distribution. To God be the glory!

For more information on Christ Community Chapel’s upcoming movements to impact our neighbors with God’s love, please contact:

Barbara Ammirati @ barbara.ammirati@ccchapel.com

Michael Ammirati @ michael.ammirati@ccchapel.com

Faithful Servants Care Center ~ A Vision Fulfilled

"...I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.  Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit ... "Joel 2: 28-29

Doctors Mark and Sue Meyer first had a vision for a free, Christian-based health clinic to offer urgent care services to neighbors in need about 30 years ago. The Faithful Servants Care Center opened on Monday, October 1, 2012, fulfilling that vision. Faithful Servants, a new Christ Community Chapel Local Outreach ministry partner, is now operating at 65 Community Road, Suite F, in Tallmadge. The Hudson campus’ Michael McGhee is the CCC Ministry Coordinator.

Faithful Servants’ mission is to provide urgent care services in a compassionate, Christ-like manner to those unable to access standard health care resources due to socio-economic or other reasons. Services are provided at not cost to the patient by professional, licensed physicians and clinicians. Faithful Servants works closely with other health care organizations to help identify continuity of care options for this population. The care center is an avenue for the founders and volunteers to strive to meet Christ’s command to love others and share the Gospel. Discussing faith in Jesus Christ and praying with patients as appropriate are encouraged.

At the care center’s commissioning ceremony, Dr. Mark Meyer commented that as the fabric of society tears in difficult times, it is the job of the Church to mend it. The Faithful Servants staff had expected about 30 people to attend the ceremony. However, about 100 people turned out for the event, signaling strong community support for Faithful Servants.

To date, Faithful Servants has enlisted the help of approximately 70 doctors and 90 nurses to bring healing and God’s comfort to the working poor in Summit and Portage counties. The care center’s freshly renovated facilities reflect God’s work through His people, according to Dr. Mark Meyer.  Substantial donations of materials and labor by local Christian church members have enabled Faithful Servants to offer a welcoming, professional atmosphere for showing God’s love to those in need.

Going forward, local churches supporting Faithful Servants are encouraged to identify and encourage church members in the medical field to volunteer their services at the Care Center. Likewise, churches are looking for individuals with mature faith and wise counsel to serve as on-site spiritual support team members. When necessary, professional referrals will be made. There are also opportunities to serve in providing food and custodial services at the Center, or transportation for patients.

Would you prayerfully consider if God could be calling you to support the vision for Faithful Servants Care Center? For more information, please contact:

Michael McGhee, Ministry Coordinator  at mrmichaelmcghee@yahoo.com

or go to:

http://faithfulservantscarecenter.org/