{"id":1084,"date":"2009-10-06T21:13:35","date_gmt":"2009-10-06T21:13:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=1084"},"modified":"2010-12-22T12:48:42","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T17:48:42","slug":"7340","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2009\/10\/06\/7340\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Size Doesn\u2019t Limit Congregation\u2019s Big Vision"},"content":{"rendered":"

DELAND, FL (October 6, 2009) \u2013 The pastor at Covenant Community Church<\/a> says he should have foreseen that members would be so prepared to repair the home of a single mother of two foster children recently.
\n
\n\u201cAs the pastor, you would think I would have known this, but I was surprised at the number of guys in our congregation who unloaded tools and materials from their cars,\u201d deadpans David Shaw. \u201cApparently they drive around with all their tools in the trunk, like they do this sort of work regularly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The enthusiasm reflected the eagerness of the church to help the foster mother, who works full-time as a special education teacher. \u201cShe\u2019s a very special person,\u201d says Shaw.<\/p>\n

\"Artist\"The woman attends a different church, but her mother attends Covenant Community. She also had accompanied members of Covenant Community on a mission trip to Romania.<\/p>\n

During the \u201clocal mission trip,\u201d workers completed numerous projects:<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Laid floor tile in a bathroom
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Installed a garage opener
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cleared two trailer loads of brush
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Patched a hole in the roof
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A professional artist in the church painted a mural on two walls of a child\u2019s bedroom
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Repaired a water leak
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Trimmed trees
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Re-screened the entire back porch
\n\u2022\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pressure washed the exterior of the house<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe see this kind of service as something we can easily do even though we\u2019re a small congregation,\u201d says Shaw. \u201cIt is a need in our community, and we have a number of folks gifted in carpentry and general home repair. We love serving someone and getting to talk about why Christians care for people in need.\u201d<\/p>\n

The work crew had several unexpected opportunities to share that message during the work day. \u201cSomething for which we were not prepared was that quite a few people stopped by thinking it was a giant garage sale,\u201d says Shaw. \u201cThe shoppers figured that with that many cars parked along the street, the people at the house must be selling some great items,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

\"Roof\"\u201cIt was fun to explain who we were and why we were helping this person,\u201d Shaw says. \u201cNext time we will be better prepared with church brochures and other information.\u201d<\/p>\n

A backyard neighbor attended the worship service the next day and signed up to be on the email contact list, Shaw says. \u201cShe had been looking for a new church home. We weren’t thinking of this as outreach, but it has that aspect to it as well as simple mercy ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was the first one-day local mission project, but the congregation has been active elsewhere. The church has sent teams to Romania for three summer projects, and a team just returned from Louisiana where they helped complete construction of three homes. Members also have done similar work for a local ethnic congregation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose experiences taught us how to organize and do a project like the last one, so we hope to continue with about one a month,\u201d Shaw says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe monthly projects will probably be done under the name \u2018Blue Thumb Ministries,\u201d says Shaw. \u201cIt will target single mothers, families with disabilities and people of advanced age, anyone who doesn’t have family or other means of assistance in repairing problems in their homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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DELAND, FL (October 6, 2009) \u2013 The pastor at Covenant Community Church says he should have foreseen that members would be so prepared to repair the home of a single mother of two foster children recently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSmall Size Doesn\u2019t Limit Congregation\u2019s Big Vision - Covenant Newswire Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2009\/10\/06\/7340\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Small Size Doesn\u2019t Limit Congregation\u2019s Big Vision - 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