Happy Thanksgiving! The Great Day of Service goes on!
I am so thankful for this church and the power of the Holy Spirit as He moves us to love our city! The following is an email I got from a Home Group that worked together at the GDS this last fall. You will be BLESSED, INSPIRED and EXCITED ABOUT WHAT GOD IS DOING AND WILL DO!
Love and Prayer,
Jay
"Good morning gentlemen (and ladies)!
I just wanted to give a “shout out” to the members of the Allen/Tash Home Group at CHCC!
As you may or may not know, the house that the Allens and Tashes were assigned to for Great Day of Service was a bit more work than 4 hours could handle. When we arrived, the grass was almost three feet high (which had to be conquered before any painting could take place - - and took a good portion of the 4 hours allotted) and the house was a nasty brown color (which had to be scraped before any painting could take place) and the paint we were given was a bit watery (which had to be replaced before any real painting could take place). The group assigned to our task did what we could, but the very old siding was literally drinking in the paint and we ended up only getting about three-fourths of the house primered - - not painted.
Through the efforts of Linda Coop, Amanda Thompson, and John Giles we were able to secure the paint and supplies needed, and our home group went there yesterday after church to finish the task. Our team consisted of 14 adults and 7 children (only 6/3 of which were in the original group). Donny Allen and Mike Tash spent several hours there on Saturday doing the prep work - - caulking, taping, etc. Our team then arrived about 2:00 Sunday afternoon and I’m proud to say finished painting the entire house by sundown. (The underneath of the eaves are still unfinished, but Donny and Mike will finish those at a later date.) It looks great and the homeowner was so pleased. She said “I hope I don’t drive on by my house tomorrow because it looks so good I won’t know it’s mine.”
One thing that struck me yesterday - - no one tried to be “chief”, no one complained, no one argued, no one wanted to “do it their way” - - EVERYONE worked together and had a good time in the process. In fact, once the lower part of the house was done, a lot of us had to stand around and watch because there were only 3 ladders that would reach the upper part of the home - - but no one wanted to leave the project.
I am so pleased and proud to be a part of this group! It is a new home group, and one that has jelled together in an unexplainable way - - well I guess it is explainable - - it’s a God thing!
One more thing bears mentioning: It came to our attention that the family living in the home probably had not had much to eat, including an 18-month-old baby. We took up a collection amongst our group, and we were able to buy them $20 in groceries to get them by (they won’t have electricity until today) and gave them a $150 gift card to Dillons. Not only were we able to serve them by painting the home, but we were able to feed them as well! One of our group members said “You know, if we had finished the project the first time we wouldn’t have come back - - and we wouldn’t have known they were hungry”. The discouragement of not finishing the task the first time melted away with those words!
One final note: Several of our members were able to talk to the family about the Lord throughout the day and the homeowner wants to come to church! If you know of someone who drives people to church from the God’s Resort area, please let us know so we can hook them up. Otherwise we’ll try to coordinate something ourselves.
TRUTH (sharing God’s word with her), RELATIONSHIP (working together as a great team), and SERVICE (a great paint job) - - what a great way to start the holiday season!
May your holidays be as truly blessed as ours!"
Sherri Tash for the Allen/Tash Home Group