Serve Day 2013

Senior Exercise Class

We had a great time with the seniors at Ashlee Manor. We had about 9 men and women that joined us for our exercise class. They really enjoyed my special therapy stretches and then our 50’s music aerobics. We ended with laughter and hugs, it was encouraging to all of us. I believe God’s love was shared and good things happened (one lady was able to use her leg better than in years, One man was able to walk his usual lap faster with less leg pain,  2 ladies committed to exercising together regularly, I was able to have a long friendly conversation with a lady who was described as feeling down lately).

Pilar Hanes

Genesis Physical Therapy

Cornerstone Moorpark

Westminster Presbyterian Church goes to The Light House

On Serve Day 2013 9 volunteers from the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Westlake Village came out to Oxnard to serve the women and children at the Light House.

The Light House is a facility for women and children that accomplishes three things: refuge; including food, shelter, and clothing for those in need.
Recovery; biblically based programs to minister to the whole person; body, mind, and spirit. And, restoration; equipping people to lead productive and independent lives.

When the Saturday of Serve Day came up, the Westminster Presbyterian Church was ready and raring to go paint at the Light House.  They brought their small but mighty group of 9 to paint the office/meeting building on the Light House campus.  With a joyful attitude they spent the morning lovingly painting all of the walls, doors and ceilings in the building completely transforming the inside of the old building into a clean and fresh environment for the ladies of the Light House.  All the while chatting with the ladies who came by to curiously ask where they were from and thanking them for painting a building that they spend alot of time in.  Building relationships and sharing fellowship is certainly a Saturday well spent!

The Kingdom Center Oxnard and Conejo Church

On Serve Day, Saturday June 1st over 40 volunteers from Conejo Church came out to the Oxnard Kingdom Center to do a major outdoor project including pulling weeds, putting in a garden and walkway, planting flowers and building a gazebo. All of this accomplished with $2700 in very generous inkind donations.

The Kingdom Center Oxnard, also known as Gabriel’s House, is a Women and Children’s home with two unique programs designed to help eradicate homelessness.
The first is a transitional living program, where guests are helped on their journey towards reentry into society. The Transitional Living will houses 4 families at a time for up to 2 years, while helping them with schooling and employment opportunities, eventually leading to housing and a permanent solution to their homelessness. The second program is a Transitional Emergency Shelter, which houses 24 women and women with children at a time for up to 90 days. This program is designed to help connect them with resources that will lead to their healing, such as recovery, counseling, parenting and life-skills classes, along with housing and employment opportunities.

And, over the years Conejo Church has built a relationship with the women and children that reside there.  Conejo Church’s women’s ministry holds a weekly ladies bible study at the Kingdom Center and each summer the church comes out to do a Serve Day project, as well as projects throughout the year.  And, this year as a special gift the church came out the next day to do a “spa day” for the ladies at the Kingdom Center.

It’s clear to see that Conejo Church loves to lend a hand, but more importantly they are building relationships and showing a lot of love to the women and children of the Kingdom Center.

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”  Matthew 25:40

Welcome Georgia Students!

On Thursday, June 30th 34 students from The Wheeler High School Young Leaders Club of Marietta, Georgia came to Simi Valley to do a serve project as part of their culmination trip.

John Crooks, the leader of the club found StoneBridge Community Church online while looking for service projects in the area.  Once he contacted the church they contacted ACTION for a project, and we had just the one for them.

Joe, a 25 year old Simi Valley man who has CP had acquired a home after both of his parents passed away.  He needed some help with clearing out the  garage and A LOT of yard work.

When the students arrived right off their plane they were ready to work.  Within an hour an a half they filled a dumpster and transformed his backyard.  After they finished, Joe shared his story and expressed his immense gratitude for what this group of students had done for him.

Coupled with the tools and cookies StoneBridge provided and the amazing student volunteers from Georgia, Joe now has a fresh start on his home.

Answering God’s Call

I have to be honest.  Sometimes when God calls, I kind of secretly wish that He would go into voice mail.  I wasn’t feeling ready to serve on Saturday, June 1st.  It seemed like the last few weekends I had served at church in some capacity and I was feeling kind of spiritually “burned out”.  I thought about signing up for the Ashlee Manor project, as it would be something different than the food bank collection duty I am usually assigned. I also flirted with the idea of just taking the weekend off from serving altogether. Then God called.  The shelves at the Shepherd of the Valley’s food bank were getting bare and He needed someone to collect donated food to remedy this problem.  I saw the urgent request asking for volunteers, and just couldn’t say no.  After all, food bank collection is my “thing”.  I’m a people person and asking shoppers to buy a little something extra for the cause comes pretty easily to me.  I asked a friend of mine to assist me and we took up our positions in front of both of the doors at the Simi Valley Albertsons on Cochran & Sycamore.  I would be working the West door by myself, and my friend and her family would cover the East door.  The ACTION sign was secured on the outside of the empty shopping cart so that it would be visible to those walking up to the store’s entrance to do their shopping.  I was armed with flyers about ACTION and the shopping list of needed items. I was ready.  The problem was that the shoppers weren’t.  I saw so many hands go up in a rejective manner, and heard so many “no thanks”, that I seriously thought I had lost my spiritual mojo. I decided some divine intervention was most definitely needed. I prayed, “Father, I’m discouraged.  If you want me here and you want me to collect food for this need, please send them to me. I can’t do this on my own. Please send me those with giving spirits and loving, caring hearts.”  No sooner had I finished praying, a teenage boy approached. It didn’t look like he was there to do any serious shopping, so I let him pass me.  He saw the sign and stopped dead in his tracks.  He pivoted around and asked me “aren’t you supposed to give me a flyer or something?”  Wow, well played.  God had answered my prayer and sent someone I didn’t even give a second glance to.  I handed him a flyer, gave him my quick “what we are doing here” spiel and off he went into the store.  He came out with the first bag of groceries.  More importantly, he was the first of many shoppers who shared his giving mindset.  We were blessed that day.  Two and half hours and four very full shopping carts later, we were able to fill the back of the truck from Ray of Shepherd of the Valley, when he came to collect the food.  The shelves would no longer be bare.  God is good all of the time, and it’s always best to answer the call.

Kelly Mako

A nonprofit organization that seeks to foster partnerships between churches in Ventura County in the service of those in need has hired a full-time executive director to spearhead a new phase in its growth.

Jill Upson, of Simi Valley, took the helm of the ACTION Foundation two months ago and oversaw its move from a leased building in an industrial park on Constitution Avenue in Camarillo to space in the new Ventura County Community Foundation building at 4001 Mission Oaks Blvd.

ACTION — Area Christians Taking Initiative on Needs — focuses primarily on serving the elderly and disabled, at-risk youths, low-income families and the homeless.

Upson is a member of StoneBridge Community Church in Simi Valley, where she oversees all its community services and mission projects. She also, for the past several years, has organized the ACTION Christmas Shoppe in Simi Valley, which lets low-income parents pick out toys for their children.

As executive director for ACTION, Upson will be responsible for guiding the organization in all areas, including strategic planning programs, finance, volunteer development and outreach training.

The executive director says she’s thrilled with this new opportunity.

“What I see is ACTION being a catalyst to bring churches, volunteers and the community together to meet the needs of the community and in that way we can transform the community together,” she said. “If each church adopted a school or seniors complex and really met the needs of these people, imagine what we could do to transform our community.”

Upson said it is good to put faith into action by providing clothes, food and other services people need.

“God loves us, and we want to be able to share that love with others by meeting their practical needs and through random acts of kindness,” she said.

One of Upson’s first tasks is to oversee the nonprofit’s annual Serve Day on June 1 when hundreds of volunteers help seniors, low-income families and others in need with practical projects.

Kirk Dewitt, lead pastor at Conejo Church in Newbury Park, is president of ACTION’s board and said Upson was a natural choice.

“One thing that’s really neat about Jill is that she’s already doing the job,” Dewitt said. “She’s been great at getting churches and volunteers together in really neat programs that help people, and she already knows how to organize people.”

Dewitt said the move to the nonprofit center, which is home to other nonprofit service organizations, including United Way of Ventura County and Interface Children and Family Services, will enable ACTION to do more.

“It’s time for us to stop being the little organization in the corner and have a little more influence in the county so we can partner better and help more people,” he said. “I think Jill will be really good at networking and empowering more volunteers.”

ACTION will host an open house from 4:30-7 p.m. Thursday at its offices, and Upson said everyone is welcome.

“We just want to thank people who have been supportive and let others know what we’re about,” she said.

For more information, visit www.actionvc.org or call 987-0300.

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