For the past couple months, Thomas has been walking us through all the times when Jesus met people at tables and the importance of what he accomplished over food. Although we have been focusing on who we can invite to our table, sometimes instead we might be invited to their table.
In September, we launched a ministry called CarePortal. Since that time, over 60 people from Pulpit Rock have signed up to receive emails with needs of people in El Paso County.
In less than two months, we have responded to 26 of them!
One of our people took a mother who recently took on three more kids (in addition to her two) shopping at Costco. She said “we ended up hugging and crying at the end.” They bonded over one person buying food for another person’s table. After fulfilling this request, she said she was “feeling so blessed to be a blessing [to others].” I always find it amazing how God can use us to showcase His love and care for His people.
Another person on our email list bought bunkbeds and bedding for a family that has five kids under the age of six. Can you imagine? This family did not need to meet in the dining room to be served by God, they needed a safe place for their children to sleep at night.
We have another person who is a part of our church family who uses her business to help others. Every time she sells a home, she puts away a large chunk of her profit to donate to non-profits. She contacted me about using some of those funds for CarePortal. She picked two needs that came through her inbox. She and I went shopping and bought diapers, wipes, baby clothes, child/adult clothes and many winter coats. Some of these items were delivered to the needy client by the case worker, but one of the requests had asked to have the items delivered straight to the person requesting them. So we dropped off all the stuff for a woman who was a single mom and was taking on the adoption of her one-year-old niece. She was so sweet and receptive to us and welcomed us into her home. In addition to meeting the requested need, we bought a small gift for the mom and for her daughter.
One of my favorite stories coming out of our CarePortal responses is this one. One of our ladies invited her co-workers to join her in fulfilling a request. There was a Grandma with a special needs grandson needing some immediate groceries and clothes and then a little more help and follow-up. So this person asked her team at work if they would help her meet this need and invited other people to the table to help put food on someone else’s table. They all contributed money and bought food, clothes, wipes, and night time pull ups for this family. They took those items to the case worker immediately, and then took the Grandma shopping for additional food the next week. Shortly after that, she received this sweet thank-you note.
CarePortal is one way to connect what God is teaching us through the Table sermon series to our everyday lives. In every situation, we are learning to ask “What does love require?”
Yesterday…love required this sweet young mom to take on the care of her family member through adoption.
Last week … love required shopping with a stranger to meet the basic needs of a fellow El Paso County resident.
Today … love is requiring us to use the gifts God gave us to bless others.
As Scott Custer preached so eloquently a couple weeks ago, sometimes God pushes us to do something so we then can enable someone else to do what God is asking of them.
CarePortal is creating a community connection for our church body to provide care for our county’s children.
If you would like to receive the CarePortal emails, contact Kristina.
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