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| COTH First Saturday SERVEday volunteers |
Each month on the first Saturday of the month, red shirts marked with the word “SERVE” can be seen across Birmingham during the community-wide First Saturday SERVEday organized by our friends at Church of the Highlands. At Christian Service Mission, we get to host three different teams form the Birmingham Dream Center, which is part of the Church of the Highlands family. This month, we partnered with those teams to bundle diapers for moms in need, give groceries to families in local Birmingham communities, and provide clothes for those in need.
Bundles of Hope, a diaper resource ministry warehoused at CSM, hosted a group of volunteers who bundled diapers in packs of 25. Bundles of Hope (BOH) will then distribute diapers to ministries across the Birmingham Metro Area who will then give the diapers to moms that are in need. The hope is that the diapers will build a bridge to forge relationships with single moms across our great city. These moms usually need love and support as much as they need diapers and BOH is bringing community to these moms through local churches and ministries in Alabama.
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| Bundling diapers for Bundles of Hope |
Another team of amazing volunteers of all ages sacked groceries in our pantry here atm CSM before loading up the groceries and going door to door to pray for families and bless them with some extra groceries. Kem English, the group’s leader, has this to say about the co-laboring, “Each bag is an opportunity, a privilege even, that I get to bless someone with today. God has already appointed those blessings today. You have no idea what just a smile can do for a person and everyone can smile, right? Grocery bags are just an avenue, a catalyst, a tool if you will, to ask someone how they are today. We can’t save people, that takes Jesus. But we can listen to how they are and we can love them wherever they are.”
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| Bagging groceries to make someone's day |
The third and final group is the Boutique clothing ministry out of the Dream Center. This group is led by the amazing Alexis Gartment. Each SERVEday Saturday, her team comes in to sort the clothing donations they receive throughout the month and store at CSM. As of this April’s SERVEday, they are also setting up the Boutique for neighbors across Birmingham to come and take their turns shopping for items they need. Alexis birthed this ministry effort from the overflow of her heart several years ago. It truly brings an element of blessing to those hurting, and often neglected in communities surrounding the Church of the Highlands Birmingham Dream Center.
At CSM, we LOVE that we get to partner with our amazing and generous friends at Church of the Highlands as they love on their neighbors! And we are already looking forward to next month! This year’s National SERVEday will be Saturday, July 16, 2016! Like Highlands, CSM loves that we get to love our neighbors every single day and can’t wait to partner with them for another annual SERVEday! If you want to learn more about how you or your church organization can get plugged in, visit the Church of the Highlands website and check out SERVEday under the Outreach Ministry tab.
