wp_rizovg, Author at Christ The Rock Community Church

Free Thanksgiving Meal Serves Our Community

Volunteers from CTR and other churches, people from the Fox Valley community, and community partners all worked together to offer a free meal to our community this Thanksgiving. Altogether, more than 3,150 meals were served to those who would’ve otherwise gone without a meal or spent the day alone. We are so grateful to our volunteers, individual donors and community partners for making the Free Community Thanksgiving Meal at The Grand Meridian possible!

This year:

• 600 volunteers helped for 5-6 months leading up to Thanksgiving, and on the day itself.

• 1,000 pounds of turkey were cooked and served!

• 2,600 volunteer drivers delivered meals to homes, apartments and workplaces, with hundreds more dining in person

Each year, the Free Community Thanksgiving Meal also fills an important need: on the holiday, many county programs and Meals on Wheels are closed. We are glad to serve and to provide meal delivery on Thanksgiving Day for their clients.

One story from the day: A woman who received meal delivery sent a message thanking us, and mentioned that many years ago, she and her mother had volunteered together for multiple years at the Free Thanksgiving Meal. Now she is living with a disability, and her husband is having some health issues — so they called to receive meals this year. It was a “full circle” experience for her to have volunteered in the past, and now be blessed by receiving a meal.

It is a blessing to offer this meal as a gift of love to our community, and live out Jesus’ commands to help those who are hungry and spend time with those who are lonely. And we couldn’t do it without every person who volunteered, donated food or finances, and prayed for every detail.

We also thank our community partners, Fox Communities Credit Union, Hupy & Abraham, N & M Transfer, and The Grand Meridian. And we are grateful to WHBY, WIXX, The Family Radio Network, WBAY-Channel 2, FOX 11, and WFRV-Channel 5 for helping get the word out to the community!

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; His love endures forever. ~Psalm 136:1

CTR Students Serve Refugee Families

June 30, 2022
by wp_rizovg

In June, teens from CTR’s Student Ministries traveled south to work with Envision Atlanta. For a week, they served refugee families who have been resettled here in the USA. These families come from hard stories, and face many challenges as they learn to navigate a totally new language, culture, and details about daily life.

For our student trip participants, it was an opportunity to be part of cross-cultural missions within our own borders. Over the years, Clarkston, Georgia has received over 40,000 refugees. Within just a few square miles, about 90 unreached people groups are represented.

During the trip, the CTR team helped lead a Vacation Bible School for children of refugees. They led worship, taught Bible stories, helped children with craft projects, prepared and served lunch for the children, and had countless opportunities to make God’s love tangible for these children. Our students also helped at the Envision Acres Farm. Along with the fun of seeing animals, our students helped with practical needs, such as painting a barn.

We are so proud of the way these students stepped into an unfamiliar environment, gave up a week of their summer vacation, and served each other and the residents of Clarkston with selfless love. Please join us in praying that this experience fuels a lifelong passion to bring the Gospel of Jesus into every area of their lives, to everyone they meet, to make disciples of Jesus Christ.

Peru Construction Team Builds Home for Pastors-in-Training

June 8, 2022
by wp_rizovg

Our Peru team is back stateside! This trip was a construction trip focused on building a home in a very hard-to-reach area of Peru’s Amazon River basin. The team from CTR traveled by plane and boat to meet up with volunteers and staff from RiverWind Inc., our ministry partners in Peru.

The CTR team transported tools and materials, and had to anticipate needs they might have. When you’re working in such a remote location, there is no Home Depot or Lowe’s to run to! The project location was in the wilderness near Nueva Italia, where they were building a house for pastors who are receiving training by RiverWind.

RiverWind Inc., is run by Richard and Ruth Hidalgo de Robinson. RiverWind’s mission is to equip and educate indigenous pastors to share the Gospel and establish churches in remote locations, reaching out to people groups who may never have heard the name of Jesus previously.

We are so thankful to this team for bringing their creativity, problem-solving skills, and construction knowledge to serve others. We are also grateful to everyone at Christ The Rock — your generosity and love for people you may never meet made this trip possible. Please keep Dick, Ruth and the pastors they’re equipping in your prayers as they carry the Good News of Jesus Christ to remote places, and please also pray for people who may be hearing about Him for the first time.

Help for the Homeless

March 9, 2022
by wp_rizovg

Each February, The Family Radio (91.9 FM) organizes a community-wide collection of hygiene supplies to help emergency shelters, domestic violence shelters, school districts and other crisis agencies. And Christ The Rock is so grateful to be part of this effort — and all of us together are providing basic items like shampoo, laundry detergent, diapers, toothbrushes, and more to people experiencing homelessness in the Fox Valley.

And you showed up, CTR! Each week, you filled the cardboard bins, and the table in the lobby overflowed onto the floor. Over and above your tithing and usual generosity, you helped provide items that crisis agencies often lack the budget to purchase.

Here’s one story from last year about the impact your giving has for our Fox Valley neighbors who are in a housing crisis:

After losing her job due to COVID, she’d been sick for a month and was still suffering acute sinus pain and hearing loss. Her eyes lit up when she saw the laundry detergent, saying “Thank you! I’ve been using dish soap to clean our clothes since I haven’t been able afford laundry soap.” She also was thrilled to get deodorant for herself and her teen daughter because they’d been scraping the inside of their tube to make it last. In spite of her poor health, she’ll start a new job this week, “Because it’s what I have to do.” – June Sawall, The Salvation Army

Thank you for loving people in Jesus’ name right here in our community.

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