One
One.
It all started with one.
One adolescent girl.
A few months ago, Pastor Gary Dolan brought a DVD to my office that a middle school girl had brought to his office. This girl had talked her middle school language arts teacher and eighth grade class into adopting the Massillon Homeless Shelter and creating a DVD to send to ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover show. ABC decided not to renovate the Massillon Homeless Shelter. But because of one girl’s persistance and passion, RiverTree Christian Church did decide to help renovate the shelter during the iServe weekend. It only takes one person.
What does God want to accomplish through you?
Dick’s story
A year ago, May of 2006, I had a life changing experience of taking a mission trip to Peru. The fact that I went was due to God acting in my life.
I had been working on the Compassion team with Terry Hunka from the time I first joined RiverTree in 2004. I had invited Terry to speak to my Rotary Club in January of 2005. The members were touched by his information about Hogar de Ninos in Peru and the needs of the orphanage. They presented him with the money needed to replace a water pump for a well that had not worked to supply water to the orphanage for more than two years.
At that point, Peru and Hogar de Ninos became a part of my mission at that of my Rotary Club’s. Because of my interest, I was appointed chairman of International projects for the Rotary Club of North Canton.
We did not know what we would be able to do for Hogar or the work of ChildReach in Peru at that point, but we did know that in order to be able to get matching funds from Rotary International, we would need a partner club from that country. We began inquiring with Rotary International for such a club.
In December of 2005, the Club decided to indicate our involvement with Hogar de Ninos by sending the orphanage several hundred dollars to provide Christmas for the children and staff of the orphanage. It was at that point that God told me that I needed to visit Peru.
After discussing the trip with my wife, we decided that the fall would be the best time to go for me because of business activities during the summer. But as the year progressed, the trip dates changed and in April, it appeared that it was going to be impossible for me to make the trip. On April 20, I was at church telling Terry Hunka that I was concerned about the dates and it appeared that I wouldn’t be going to Peru.
He said, “We have a trip going on the 21st of May, why don’t you come with us on that one?” I said that I thought it was too quick and that I probably had appointments for then anyway because it was a period of time when we are photographing High School Senior Ambassadors for our studio. My wife, Aletha was standing with me and said that we should at least check. I said that I thought we wouldn’t have the money at this time of year (a slow time for our business). I thought that was the end of it.
When we got home from church, Aletha checked our calendar and found that the entire time of the mission trip had no appointments. The weeks before and after were filled with appointments — but that week was empty. She told me that there was just enough money for the trip in a fund that she had found (it turned out that she had been saving it for an anniversary trip that she decided she would give up).
It seemed that God was at work to get me to Peru in May.
My mission to Peru was to record the children and environment of the orphanage and it was also hoped that we could make contact with a Rotary Club in Peru. But the prospect of finding a club seemed remote since was had not made contact through Rotary International.
On May 2, I got on the internet and started researching international projects in the Rotary International data base. I found the name of a man in Peru who had been involved in several international projects. I obtained his e-mail address and sent him an email about the project.
It turned out this man had coordinated more that 60 international projects and that his Rotary Club was the only English speaking Rotary Club in Latin America.
As you can tell, it was God’s will that I go to Peru at this particular time. It goes without saying that the trip was a success. I was able to see the new property that would become Hannah’s Home (it was purchased three days before my arrival with money raised on the weekend before I left for Peru). During my trip I made over 2,400 images and had experiences that were nothing short of miraculous.
The Church Is Leaving the Building
On September 22-23, the RiverTree church is LEAVING THE BUILDING to serve others in the community in a variety of ways. We are going to BE THE CHURCH outside of our church walls. Some people will be serving on construction sites, painting sites, landscaping sites, and on various other projects.
Here is what we need from you:
1. Fill out the iServe card inserted in the bulletin or stop by the iServe Central at any of the RiverTree campuses to sign up.
2. Sign up now!
Please note: We are in special need of people with drywalling and carpentry skills to sign up as soon as possible.
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” ~ Ephesians 2:10
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iServe
Beginning September 8-9, RiverTree will be starting a new sermon series called iServe.
We believe that the way to tell people about Jesus is by SHOWING them His love by serving wherever you are. You can serve others in your home, at your church, in your local community, and in your global community.
Just serve….wherever you are. Be the church.
We want to hear your serve stories. Send them to us at serve@rivertreechristian.com
Dave’s story
God has changed my life through serving by…..
I’d considered coming to church for some time before I actually attended my first service at RiverTree. One of my big hesitations was this rumor that if you went to church there that they actually expected you to volunteer and do work there. I couldn’t imagine! I’m a busy dude and just taking an hour out of football Sunday was going to be challenge enough. “They should be happy that I show up,” I thought. Also, my wife had negative church experiences growing up and wasn’t “on fire” at the time either.
Well, events in our lives led us to come anyway (part of me was thinking that sometimes stories don’t circulate accurately and maybe this church really didn’t have that expectation, so we might as well give it a try).
I was pleasantly surprised that the place was so big that it would take somebody a long time to figure out that we were there and before we’d get “busted” for not doing anything.
We enjoyed the services from Day 1,and I probably softened on the whole serving thing. After a short while, having not been asked by anyone to do anything, my curiosity got the best of me and I asked a few people what kind of serving opportunities people usually got involved in. Soon after, we were greeting at the doors.
I was thrilled to be “getting off so easily” and thought this wasn’t so bad after all, but I just wasn’t loving it – it wasn’t totally for me. Nonetheless it was easy and didn’t take much more time than I was already spending at church so we kept on.
Finally, I saw a flyer at Giant Eagle advertising the need for help I some kind of Theater thing at RiverTree. The next weekend I saw a display in the church recruiting people for “RiverCity Studios.” I was interested, but was a little insecure about “auditioning” so I actually missed the meeting/audition date. Somehow though, I couldn’t stop thinking about it so I decided to call the people that were coordinating it to tell them that I probably wasn’t what they needed but that if they didn’t have enough “warm bodies” that I was at least willing to do what I could to help out.
The lady seemed excited that I called and asked if I’d come down for a very non-threatening read through. I agreed and with Steph’s encouragement I went to the meeting. The rest, as they say, is history.
I was shocked at the praise and encouragement I got from the ladies that I met with. They were complimentary to the point that I was embarrassed. They shared their vision with me. At that time they wanted to create a fun environment for kids to learn Christian values while their parents were taking Wednesday night classes. I was shocked that I, who was brand new to the church, and a pretty out of practice Christian was going to be teaching kids “the Christian way” but I was also very excited. I caused me to want to be a better Christian, to learn more about Jesus and to read the Bible.
It’s hard to articulate, by my heart got really connected to this cause really quickly. Steph was excited by it to. This church experience was unlike any either of us had had before. This was actually fun! And no one was pushing us, and no one was pointing their finger in our face to tell us what horrible human beings we were.
And then after several rehearsals, it happened – we had our first “show.” There were lots of little kids there. And they were very excited to sing worship songs with us – and they listened to what we acted out on stage. It was overwhelming. It was a JOY to serve in this way.
Steph enjoyed it and was surprised by it too and began helping out with backstage stuff too. We really did pour ourselves into it It was bigger than us just “showing up to do our part – we really wanted to make a difference and we saw that we actually could.
Then, at some point, because of our involvement in RiverCity Studios, we were asked to consider going to Atlanta for a week to attend a Children’s Pastors Conference. What?!?!?! This was a huge step. While the Children’s ministry would buy our tickets, we’d have to actually invest a hunk of money in airline tickets, not to mention that we’d never been away from our kids for a night let a lone a week. Plus, we felt WAY under qualified to go to such an event. Remember, we were still pretty much baby-Christians.
After much agonizing consideration, we felt that it was something that we should do. We agreed to go, and we thank God that we did.
At this conference, we saw people worshiping deeply, sincerely, and unashamedly – thousands of them. No body was embarrassed to raise their hands in worship. This was wild – I’d never seen anything like this, and if I had I would have assumed that people were doing it for show. But not only was I sure that there was no show in this worship – I got caught up in it myself – and so did Steph. It was a pivotal moment in both of our Christian walks. We came back changed. Not only did we feel the Holy Spirit in our lives, we were now turbo charged with a passion for changing the lives and eternities of kids and families – a passion we still have today.
…And “that lady” (Dinese Cramer) and her husband are now part of our Thrive group – a group that is very focused on Family ministry. We’re a very tight knit group that really is doing life, and ministry, together. While RiverCity Studios is not currently in production, we are still working ministry projects that focus on kids and families. Through that serving Thrive group, we’ve learned about and witnessed the power of prayer in ways that I would never have imagined. I’ve seen the undeniable presence of God in ways that seemed “imaginary” when I used to hear people talk about them.
Personally, I’ve gone from wanting nothing to do with serving, to crediting it for most of my spiritual development. I see it as something that I was clearly called to do and I get as much from it as anyone I serve. Never before could I say with confidence that I know that God has a specific purpose for me, but through serving He has made it clear that He does. I know that I’m here to show Christ to others and to lead them to Him. The “formula” continues to evolve, but it’s still the same effort.
Serving adds to my relationship with God. I’ve always felt so insignificant in the grand scheme, but serving reminds me that I’m very significant in God’s plan.
iServe
Ephesians 2:10 ~
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Our sermon series beginning on September 8-9 will be focused on iServe: home, church, locally, and globally. This blog is for sharing the stories of what God is doing in the lives of His people through serving.
If you have a serve story, we want to hear it!! Send your serve story to serve@rivertreechristian.com and we will post your story. Let’s make a difference!
