May Community Outreach Update

Posted by: Greg Demopoulos

“A Sending Church is a local community of Christ-followers who have made a covenant together to be prayerful, deliberate, and proactive in developing, commissioning, and sending their own members both locally and globally, often in partnership with other churches or agencies, and continuing to encourage, support, and advocate for them while making disciples cross-culturally, and upon their return.” (Bradley Bell, author, pastor, former missionary)

Welcome to our May edition of the Community Outreach Update… Whether you have a bunch of free time, or very little, we’ve compiled some upcoming opportunities to love our community. As we come off our recent Missions Week focus on all of us being SENT, we wanted to remind you of our teams and partners, and encourage you to sign up for a team, check in with our partners, and continue to pray for them. Check their websites, opt to get their emails, and follow their social media to know what’s going on and how you can step in to help. This is a simple example of how to be proactive and deliberate in living a life on mission! If you have any questions, please let our Community Outreach Team know…

EISENHOWER NEEDS & OPPORTUNITIES
As this school year enters it’s final month, if you’re thinking about volunteering in the future, now is a great time to check in with a local school to see if you can observe, shadow, or ask some questions about next school year. In the meantime, here are some end of school opportunities with our partner school, Eisenhower Elementary School.

Teacher Appreciation Week: Eisenhower PTO is celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week with a breakfast on May 8 and a lunch on May 10. Whether you want to provide some food for the meals, items for the snack cart, provide gift cards, or help, this is a great way to show appreciation for the teachers and staff as the year winds down. Find out more or sign up here to help.
Final Week Volunteers: Whether you only have 30 minutes or a few hours, the final week of school is always exciting, jam-packed with activities, and a bit chaotic for teachers and staff. Want to lend a hand, help with Field Day type activities, etc. Contact Eisenhower’s Secretary Alisha Eastwood, (574) 269-7440 to sign up or ask questions. NOTE: All volunteers need a current school year background check form submitted for Warsaw Community Schools (find the form here).

FAT & SKINNY TIRE BICYCLE FEST: VOLUNTEERS NEEDED – Friday, May 19 – Sunday, May 21
WCC is excited to be part of the Fat & Skinny Tire Fest in May. It is one of the largest bicycling events in the Midwest and a beneficial event for our community. The festival has a direct impact on our local bicycling and walking trails, greenways, and paths. There are all kinds of great ways to volunteer whether you have any biking experience or not, as we welcome many visitors to our community while helping to improve it. For more details on the event and a full list of volunteer opportunities, check out the festival website.

CHECK OUT THE CARE PORTAL
The CarePortal is an easy-to-use nationwide platform now being utilized in Kosciusko County by local schools, churches, and DCS to help connect vulnerable children and families to caring people wanting to serve their neighbors in crisis. WCC is now part of the coalition team utilizing CarePortal to help meet local needs. Learn more about CarePortal here. Want to sign up and be part of the WCC Team caring for hurting children and families, visit careportal.org and sign up as “an individual to meet needs,” then choose Warsaw Community Church as your local church. We’ll get you trained and plugged in. You can then get notifications of local needs through the CarePortal website, emails, or their app. This is a great tool for Growth Groups to serve together and help meet tangible needs.

REMINDER OF WCC TEAMS & LOCAL PARTNER LINKS
As highlighted at Missions Week, we’re thrilled to have a growing number of WCC teams focused on community outreach, along with several local missions partners providing hope, encouragement, and services to those in need in our community. Maybe you didn’t get to talk with the teams at Missions Week? Well, we’ve provided contacts or links below, if you would like to check them out. Remember, because we’re all SENT, we encourage you to pray, explore where you might fit, and join one of our teams or partners. Many of them have great events coming up this summer, and always can use volunteers, or donated supplies.

WCC TEAMS:

Care Portal & OVC Coalition – contact, Greg Demopoulos
Community Care Helping Hands – contact, Jeff Pfeifer
Community Care Visitation Team – contact, Jeff Pfeifer
Community Life ESL – contact, Sam Pena
WCC Eisenhower School Team – contact, Greg Demopoulos

LOCAL PARTNERS:

Also, we’ve provided a link to our teams and partners prayer cards on the WCC website. Please continue to lift them up in the work God has called them to do, and check back to the WCC blog and Serve pages of the website for updates.

NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER (KOSCIUSKO COUNTY) – Thursday, May 4, 12pm
The National Day of Prayer service for Kosciusko County will be held on May 4, 12pm at the Winona Heritage Room on 901 Park Ave in Winona Lake. Dr. Drew Flamm, President of Grace College & Seminary, will give the keynote address. The community will be led in prayer for ministry and missions, families, education, media, business, military, and government. For further details, visit the local NDOP Facebook page.

NEWS AND TEXT ALERTS
As a heads up, when we have urgent needs, we post on the WCC News Blog and often send a quick text message to our Community Outreach Response Team. You can sign up for the text message alerts by texting the word WCCRESPONSE to the number 877-329-2240.

Thank you for making an eternal difference at WCC, in our community, and around the world!