 
January 2009
by Steve White,
Purpose Leader Outreach
At the
beginning of 2006, C@C began a ministry of mercy, the Share Some Jar. You
may remember that Charley first mentioned the idea in a sermon describing
what they were doing in their family. So, our Elders approved the Share
Some Jar ministry and designated 2% of our monthly income to go to local
people in need and 2% to go to global needs.
You may
wonder:
“Who
decides who gets the money?” As our Outreach Purpose Leader, I lead a
committee that receives the submitted requests each month, prays over them
and then determines where the money should go.
“What
is the criterion for who gets the money?” Local money goes to a person
or family who does not attend C@C. The global money goes to meet crucial
needs around the world, a different one each month. For example, we have
used the Share Some Jar monies to purchase Sudanese children out of
slavery or to provide chickens for a poor village in Africa.
“How
can I submit request?” You can down load the
Share Some Jar Questionnaire.
The forms are also available at the info booth each Sunday or at the
office during the week. Simply fill it out with the person’s name. It is
important to answer as many of the questions listed as possible. Please
note that you can not fill out the application on line. You will need to
print the page and then fax it, scan it or mail it to the church office.
On Sundays you can also turn it in at the info booth. PLEASE MAKE THE
WORDING VERY READABLE AND PRINT IT IN BLACK INK. Blue and red ink does not
scan or photo copy well and makes distribution to the Share Some Team
members difficult.
“What
happens then?” People on the Share Some Jar committee research the
need to determine the legitimacy, the urgency and the amount needed.
Sometimes in the course of this research, other avenues of resources are
discovered as additional help! Then the committee meets, reports on their
research, prays to God for direction and decides who gets the money that
month. A check is written and usually the person submitting the
application gets the opportunity to take the money to the person in need.
In the
last months we have had some great opportunities based on the large
amounts of tithing that came in November and December. A number of the
people we were able to help were also relationally connected to some of
our C@C folks.
Our
prayer always is that we will help those assisted see God’s love for them.
Locally
we got to help about a half dozen people. We gave away well over 5
thousand dollars. We paid towards surgical medical bills for a lady with
facial cancer. We helped a mom be able to rent a house for her and her
children. We helped a mom whose child has had over 25 surgeries and with
more to come. There was a gentleman, who is a local friend of many, who
had lost his insurance and had to quit his job because of illnesses. We
were able to support him financially. We gave away 10 one-hundred dollar
bills over the holidays to people who needed something to make the
holidays better. One of them was a couple who had been helped by us years
ago when they had lost their baby in a tragic car accident.
Globally
we were able to help a number of orphans and orphanages through
relationships our people have with others who are traveling to or
ministering in foreign countries. We gave Katie Stewart a thousand dollars
to pass on to people in need in Bolivia and Amy Kimberly received fifteen
hundred dollars to help rebuild and furnish an orphanage in Swaziland. We
also paid for about half of a hospital to be built in a third world
country.
Thanks so much for
your generosity in tithing.
November 2008
by Steve White,
Purpose Leader Outreach
Last month we were able to send $5000 to
Samaritan’s purse which pays for 1/3 of a new hospital in a third world
country! Additionally we were able to send $3500 to Kathy Lechuga to go
toward her son Chris’s kidney transplant expenses, we gave an additional
$1000 to someone in dire need of cash for living expenses and we paid off
a medical bill for a young man.
This Sunday, we will be handing out $100 bills
for our people to give to someone in the community who needs money for
Thanksgiving or Christmas or some other critical need.
As a reminder to you all, we are in need of your
input of people locally who need help. Over a two month period we did not
receive any requests. So please be listening, reading about people in our
communities who have needs and remembering to contact us. You will need to
print out the request form below and fax it, mail it or scan and email it
or drop it off at the office. Thanks so much!
“C@C Share Some Jar”
Last May in a sermon Pastor Charley preached on giving,
and
challenged us that after we give our 10% tithe to the Church at
Carbondale we ought to consider putting some money aside in a jar, and
then when we see a need we are able to step in and meet it. It seems
that we as a Church could really be a blessing if we took the same
challenge.
For a long time Church at Carbondale has
been tithing 11% of all the general fund offerings, divided as follows:
-
5% is divided up
between a number local ministries in the valley (LIFT Up, Youth For
Christ, Pregnancy Resource, Garfield Prison Chaplains) and our own church
Needs Network.
-
6% is given to our Missions team, who distribute
it amongst eight different global missionaries and organizations.
Our church’s tithe currently exceeds $4,000 per
month.
We have decided by faith that we should create a
“C@C Share Some Jar” by raising our tithe by 4% to 15%. 2% will be allocated for
local/valley needs and 2% for global needs. Every month
the Outreach Purpose Team will be given the responsibility of determining
where we should share this money. The Team parameters are:
-
These are “one time” gifts for specific
causes or needs (This is not short term or long term missionary support
that will be handled by our 6 % tithe to the missions team).
-
The jar must empty every two months (This
outreach effort must be fresh from our seeking God’s heart for present
needs).
-
These funds must not be distributed to our
own C@C people to meet their needs. We already have our
Needs Network
(benevolence funds) for that.
-
The “Share Some Jar” is a part of our church
tithe and won’t be receiving specially designated gifts.
Imagine how much fun it will be to be
deployed by God to purchase malaria vaccines for villages in Africa, buy
the freedom of prostitutes in Bangkok, purchase drinking systems, or
locally to send a check to some whose house burned down or to provide the
deposit for a single mom.
The “C@C Share Some Jar” team will keep you
informed each month in our newsletter, on the website and in the bulletin
of what your giving is doing in the lives of Roaring Fork Valley people
and the World. Stepping out in faith is fun. Just imagine, this tithe may
some day be $10,000 or more a month.
Church at Carbondale is a fun
place to get serious with God.
Share Some Jar Questionnaire
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