Mission: Charleston

M:Chuck lead team forming

2012-01-18T15:22:00.001-05:00

A great time to jump in on the planning - Mission: Charleston lead team forming http://ht.ly/8yeGy Contact Darien Gabriel if you have questions

Keep up with us on Twitter at:

@dariengabriel

@gracetwitt

@lovesummerville

Last year's Mission: Charleston Facebook Page

Kazakhstan | Operation World

2011-11-14T10:52:00.000-05:00

We're praying toward a summer trip in 2013. Join us in praying for people of central asia (especially the unreached people groups there).

A great place to quickly learn a lot about this country:

Kazakhstan | Operation World:

'via Blog this'

M:Chuck12 dates, theme

2011-11-01T16:12:00.002-04:00

Mission: Charleston 2012 Tentative Dates: June 15-22. Theme ideas so far: "Passion 2 Pass <3 On" & "By Faith" James 2:26

We'll be taking submissions for ideas for the theme for 2012.

Once our theme is chosen, we'll ask for designs to be submitted. Winner gets their design on a t-shirt and their t-shirt is free. Here's last year's winner before it was arti-fied:

Submit your theme ideas to "DarienGabriel" on Facebook, Google+ or Twitter.

Mission: Charleston 2011 Calendar

2011-05-05T14:59:00.000-04:00

Here's the calendar for Mission: Charleston 2011.

The theme is Crazy Love this year!

How will GCF respond in Haiti?

2010-01-15T16:12:00.001-05:00

P.E.A.C.E. Plan

2009-09-22T12:09:00.001-04:00

Convoy of Hope update

2009-09-04T00:37:00.000-04:00

Greater Charleston Convoy Of Hope
Gordon Cashwell
Sep 3, 2009

Hope for the hopeless...

On Saturday, Oct 10th, the Greater Charleston Convoy of Hopewill be rolling into town.

The 7^th annual Convoy of Hope event promises to be one of Charleston’s largest community outreach events to extend help to those in need in the city's history. Local churches, civic organizations, businesses, medical organizations are partnering together to serve our community. Join with us through volunteering and financial help and become a tangible expression of hope to your commun ity.

WHAT: COMMUNITY OUTREACH

A carnival-like event that includes free distribution of 1,000's of bags of food to provide meals to feed needy people throughout the Greater Charleston area. Free grocery distribution begins with free refreshments, live entertainment, children’s carnival area, medical services, job placement, haircuts, and more. The activities will continue, rain or shine, until all the food has been distributed. No identification is needed.

WHO:

Area churches, businesses, and community agencies in the Greater Charleston area; Without Walls Ministry; and Convoy of Hope, based in Springfield, Missouri, are donating time and resources to host this community outreach. This all-volunteer outreach includes a 1000+ volunteers who will be on hand to help unload the Convoy of Hope truck, distribute food, and facilitate all outreach programs.

WHY:

Convoy of Hope local outreaches are united acts of compassion designed to meet the basic physical and spiritual needs of community residents. Convoy of Hope is a non-profit organization that provides resources to organizations and churches to meet physical and spiritual needs for the purpose of making the community a better place.

WHEN: Saturday October 10th

WHERE: Noisette Parking Lot near the old Naval Base (map). At the corner of McMillan and Avenue East.

Upcoming calendar of events in preparation for Convoy of Hope (see full calendar):

- Sept. 12th from 5:30 to 7pm: Prayer and Worship Vigil at the Convoy of Hope site (Noisette Parking Lot) Michael Brown leading worship at this event. Contact Jennifer @prayerops@gmail.com.

- Sept. 19th, 26th & Oct 3rd from 9am to 1pm: Flyer Distribution to Neighborhoods (Volunteers Needed) to begin at Hope Assembly (map). Contact Meg at meg@brewerdevelopment.com.

- See After Care Training Dates/Times on the Convoy of HopeEvents Calendar.

- Oct. 8th and 9th at 9am: Site setup (Volunteer Needed) at Convoy Site (map). Contact John @ jhgoffsr@yahoo.com.

- Oct. 9th at 6:45pm: Volunteer Commissioning Rally at Faith Assemby (map)

- Oct. 10th at 7am: Volunteers report to Convoy site (Volunteer Needed) (map)

- Oct. 10th at 10am: Convoy of Hope gates open (rain or shine) - (Volunteer Information).

It's time to show the love of God in our community.

Gordon Cashwell, Charleston Convoy Coordinator

gordon@withoutwallsministry.org

Twitter feeds

2009-09-03T16:15:00.000-04:00

Check out our new twitter feeds:

www.twitter.com/gracetwitt - Latest news, thoughts and questions.

www.twitter.com/graceprays - Church-wide prayer requests.

www.twitter.com/dariengabriel - Darien's tweets (Pastor)

Facebook Group Page at www.facebook.com

Search "Grace Christian Fellowship Summerville"

Message from Josh

2009-07-22T15:43:00.000-04:00

This week has been amazing. I just want to thank everyone who has helped with mission Charleston. I hope everyone going back to Curacao has a safe trip home and will be back here as soon as possible.

If you have pics of mission Charleston please put them on this group. If you could tag people in the pics too.

On the group, I asked everyone to share something that God has done during this week. Also, put on there other stuff that happened during the week so we can remember all of what happened.

This will also be a good place to put prayer request, updates about stuff going on, and things that God is doing in our lives after mission Charleston.

hope everyone has a great week! Josh

Charleston 09 First Video

2009-07-22T14:12:00.004-04:00

Day Three part 2

2009-07-17T23:43:00.002-04:00

Okay part two of Day Three. How much do I remember.
I can remember the kids playing Over and Under, and Kickball.
Yesterday afternoon I overheated and got a migraine. I couldn't stay there fore I can't tell you much what happened. I bet it was a lot of fun. I really hate these things (the migraines), I miss out on a lot of fun stuff because of them.
Anyway after Backyard Bible group/ school the youth had a party at the beach. People got chased around by seagulls. And they had to leave when the storm popped up. The only reason I know this is my younger sister went.
Sarah

Day Three Part 1

2009-07-17T23:34:00.003-04:00

Okay, I have to apologize again. The reason this wasn't done yesterday is I left the Backyard Bible group/ school early yesterday with a migraine coming on and I went to bed early so I wasn't able to blog yesterday.

Today I worked again at the Dream Center and we had another group go to the Food Kitchen and work there. I worked in the food pantry at the dream center like I had Tuesday. Its somewhere I feel comfertable. I already know who I'm working with and I don't have to talk to them. I'm shy around people I don't know which makes it hard to meet new people untill I'm comfertable in that envirment.
Its easy to run out of things there because there are things they don't get a lot of and there are things they get a surplus of. Like canned tomatoes, they will never run out of canned tomatoes. When we ran out of all our other canned food we had to give them just canned tomatoes. I really hope they like tomatoes.
But I have a lot of fun doing this kinds of stuff.
Sarah

Day Two part Two

2009-07-17T22:46:00.006-04:00

Sorry, I typed this up Wendsday night and thought I'd hit the publish butten. Today when I came on to blog for yesterday I find that it's not on. Sorry for my delayed posts.

Today's Backyard Bible Club/ School thing was a lot of fun. We had a least ten new kids and we devided the younger ones from the older ones and the older ones play basketball to get them intrested with what we were doing.
For snack they made trains out of gramcrakers, choclate icing, choclate chips, nilla wafers and some other stuff marshmellows I think. Getting late and my brain's ready to shut down. Anyway for craft they made picture frames for the pictures that were taken the day before. Then the kids from Curacao did two diffrent mime performances. The first was called The Chair and the second The Cup. They were both really really funny and the kids enjoyed them, at least they seemed to. I know i enjoyed them. After that we broke up into small groups again to do prayer requests and the adults and some of the youth started to clean up.

After Backyard Bible Club/ School most of the youth went to a pool part at somebody's house, I can't remeber, like i said earlier my brain is shutting down. That was a lot of fun.
Guess that's all for tonight
Sarah

Schedule update

2009-07-17T07:17:00.000-04:00

Mission: Charleston schedule next 3 days

Friday Morning

Royal Oaks Nursing Home

St. George Healthcare Nursing Home

Lunch at Gahagan Park instead of Wannamaker Park

Friday Afternoon

Fun at Tanger Outlets then downtown Charleston starting at the Market

6 PM meet at will-call at The Joe for the Riverdogs Baseball game

Saturday 8-3 PM

Habitat for Humanity house

198 Challedon Dr, Summerville, SC 29485

We'll be framing in a house from the ground up

Still need help here. They'd like about 20 helpers and so far we have about 12. Lunch provided just let us know you're coming. Wear close-toed shoes and work clothes; tool belt if you have one.

Saturday 6-9 Church-wide BBQ at the Fletcher's house 109 Rookery Ct.

Sunday Morning

Setup for Worship at Sr. Center 8-9 AM

Worship service at Royal Oaks 9-9:30

Worship at Sr. Center 10:30-Noon. We'll hear stories from both mission trips and our Curacao friends will be with us again.

Ripple Effect Youth Group will meet 6 PM. Location to be announced.

3:30 Monday morning we take Curacao friends to airport in Savannah.

Mission: Charleston Calendar Mission: Charleston Map

Friday schedule

2009-07-16T22:12:00.001-04:00

We'll hit Royal Oaks and the St. George Healthcare nursing homes tomorrow morning.

We've moved lunch from Wannamaker Park to Gahagan Park in Summerville tomorrow about 12:30. Then we're off to Tanger and then downtown Charleston.

Day two part one

2009-07-15T23:03:00.003-04:00

Hello,
I'm back for Day two of Mission Charleston. Today we really split up, we went to four diffrent places, Palmetto House, Orphan Relief and two diffrent nursing homes. I went to a nursing home, the one off Trolly who's name just seems to evade me. I took pictures which will be up at a later time, more then likely tommorrow.

At the nursing home (who's name still hasn't come to me), we first sang hymns from a meeting area and had maybe five or six elderly people in there with us singing along. Then we did Arts and Crafts with them coloring pictures so that we could hand out the ones we, the youth, did to those who hadn't come and didn't get visitors often. I helped a lady who came in, pick out colors for her art, I think she really just wanted someone to talk to. Its really sad to see some of these people who have been left here at this place. For some reason their families don't want to take care of them nor see them.

As we walked around the nursing home, we met a number of people. There was one lady who was 101 and she was sitting on her recliner watching tv while she was sowing. I tell you she didn't look old enough to be ninty never the less over a hundred. And she told us that her eyesight was just starting to go. I talked to a nurse later on who was telling me about how she helped around the nursing home taking care of the other residents.

We met another woman who was doing paint by numbers, only she couldn't see the numbers so she was painting it by the box. Her room had to be the most colorful room that we saw. It was filled with paintings this lady had done and photographs of her family. She seemed content to paint and she told us she didn't go out often because she was shy.

After walking around the nursing home we headed back to the room we had done Arts and Crafts in and we led exercises for the two people who had come in for that. One was an old man who was really nice and helped us lead them as we weren't quite sure what to do at times. There was also a lady who had come in while we had been singing. Unforunately we had to leave after that for lunch and the residents were going to be having their lunch soon.

If I find out the name of that nursing home I'll post it.
Sarah

Day One pics

2009-07-15T22:07:00.004-04:00

Just some pics from yesterday that I forgot to upload.

Day One part Two Backyard Bible School

2009-07-14T23:38:00.004-04:00

Its me Sarah again, I know it's late. But I've got to get this done with before tom morrow as I won't have time in the morning.
Anyway, Backyard Bible School is something we do at Greentree North Apt. in North Charleston in the afternoons. I don't have any pictures this time as I ran out of memory on my camera. But I should be getting some tom morrow.
We started out today while we were setting up the kids played basketball out on the court that we're making our base camp around. Across the area we were setting up recreational stuff and Brad was setting up the music.
Then came time for water play and other stuff. I think the kids really enjoyed it. The alligator game we played was a little wild by the end but they seemed to have enjoyed it. Also the youth running the games knew what they were doing. Brad had the music going while we went and set up snacks which was a sheep made from marsh mellow, a rice cake, choc late chips, Oreos and junior mints. It looked good.
Mrs. Martha then started with the bible story about John the Baptist and the disciples following Jesus. They played a really funny game with cotton balls and then it was time for some free time when we did tie dye and face painting.
After that we broke up into small groups and did prayer requests and closed up the bible part. Then the water balloons were released and it was a mess. That ended our bible school and the kids just played basketball or on the hill or swings after that. And were doing so when I left.
If anyone else has anything more they wish to add on to either of my posts they may do so. Don't mind, really.

Mission Charleston Day One part one Dream Center

2009-07-14T22:42:00.008-04:00

Hello,

I'm Sarah and I'm going to be giving you a summery of what I did and saw today as I worked in Mission Charleston.

The first thing I want to say, is that I had a lot of fun doing this today as I went around the Dream Center taking pictures. I ended up working in their food pantry though. But we also had people working inside this place just listening to people and helping them pray.

As I worked in this pantry, kitchen place. People would come to it because this was what they'd live on for the whole week as they couldn't afford food for themselves and their family because of the economy. Some of the families sounded like more then one family living together. Maybe a mother her daughter and the daughter's children.

Also I learned that some of the people who I worked with had once had to use this food pantry and others like it to get food for themselves in their families as they couldn't afford food from a store. Now they help out here as they have a somewhat stable job and want to give back to the others who are less fortunate then they are. But we would run out of things, like frozen meat. We ran out of that first and had to resort to can meat after that. Then the fresh vegetables. But there were plenty of can foods there and soy milk, we had plenty of soy milk.

Inside they just talked about whatever was on their minds and we would pray with them.

Here we would pass out clothes to those who couldn't afford it.

There was a very long line waiting to get into this place. Its only open for a certain amount of time but they can get food, clothes, a medical check up and a lawyer on certain days.

We provided a jump castle as entertainment for the children as their mothers and fathers tried to get help.

Generous church family!

2009-07-14T16:49:00.001-04:00

Note from Martha, director of our Backyard Bible Club at Greentree N Apts.,

Wow Darien, We have been given everything on our list! the generosity of everyone is amazing. Thanks to all---now we need prayers more than ever that
God will be pleased with our behavior and that our love for Jesus will be felt. thanks again, Martha

Last minute helps

2009-07-10T14:55:00.001-04:00

Last minute things I need help with:

* We need to create a nice balloon bouquet to tie to our sign at the Sr. center for Sun. morning so that when guests arrive and we're not there there is an explanation. (see flyer below) I have the sign, need balloons and someone to put out early Sun. morning.

* We need to create a nice flyer / sign for people who show up at the Sr. Center Sun. morning so they know where we are, why we are there, and how to get there if they want to come late. (they can still eat)

* Put together a Nursing Home Kit that youth could use to engage/bless nursing home residents. (we need 2 kits) Things like simple games, cards, candy, new testaments, soft gifts, balloons, flowers, anything to make a resident smile.

If you can help, call me at 832-3775.

Darien

Sign-ups continue--and now online!

2009-07-01T18:36:00.001-04:00

Many of you have expressed interest in helping out during our week of local missions. But you haven't connected with a sign-up sheet yet! So here's just another way to do that...

The following link connects you with a spreadsheet of opportunities

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=rZjcBvcJ6ZOnx-JfTNv7Drg

To sign-up, just review the opportunities and then email your choices to us at info@gracetoday.net

You can call in your sign-ups to Darien at 832-3775 if that's easier.

Internet/ Blog Coordinator

2009-07-01T16:26:00.000-04:00

Internet/ Blog Coordinator
Each night
This group will be in charge of blogging for each project and working on the Mission Charleston Website. There are 6 different major projects.

Revised Wish List(s)

2009-06-30T18:19:00.000-04:00

Hey Everyone,

Mission Charleston is 2.5 weeks away! We are adding more projects and involving a lot of people. We still need some supplies for Mission Charleston. There will be a container in the lobby Sunday that you can put this stuff in. If you have any questions about these supplies see Darien Gabriel, Ann Miller, or Martha Fletcher. The list is below.

See Darien Gabriel or Ann Miller

· Small water bottles

· Small Gatorade bottles

· Tea

· Peanut butter

· Jelly

· Sandwich bread

· Can soda

· 5 gallon Gott coolers with spout

· Chest coolers

· Gas cards

· Sun screen

· Bug spray

· Small bags of chips

· Ice

· Paper plates

· Paper cups

· Plastic forks

· Plastic spoons

· Napkins

· Paper towels

· Hand Sanitizer

See Martha Fletcher

blankets to sit on
kiddie swim pools
squirt guns and super soakers
t shirts child size med (10), child lg (15) and adult sm (15)
pool noodles which will be cut in half so not returnable
Styrofoam plates
permanent markers
beads
water balloons (lots)
tissues
Vaseline

Map of Projects & Ministry Locations

2009-06-30T11:19:00.004-04:00

Here is a map of some of our ministry locations for Mission: Charleston.

View GCF Ministry Map of Summerville in a larger map

Lowcountry Food Bank

2009-06-29T16:26:00.000-04:00

Lowcountry Food Bank
Thurs 8:30 am—11:30 am
The food bank needs help with sorting food moving food, and any other jobs they need us to do. It is located in Charleston.

Pray right now for Curacao trip: leaving Fri.

2009-06-29T10:47:00.002-04:00

Take a moment to lift up the folks on this trip right now.

Habitat for Humanity

2009-06-26T16:25:00.000-04:00

Habitat for Humanity
Thurs and Sat 8 am—12 pm *Sat is until 2
A team of people will be able to learn how to do some
minor construction while working on a house for a family in need. At the site of the house. TBD

Mission Charleston Parent Letter

2009-06-25T09:24:00.000-04:00

Dear Parents of our Youth,

I'm excited about our local missions efforts this summer. Not only do we have a group going to Curacao for a week, we are going to serve people in need in our own community.

What? Mission: Charleston is a weeklong emphasis where we love people in the SC low country. This week will start with a youth retreat to prepare them for 4 days of ministry. While the charge is being led by our youth, it will be a total church effort. What I'm including here are details for your youth's involvement.

Where? Retreat: Bonnie Doone Plantation (near Walterboro, SC)

Who? Youth (6th-12 grades including recent grads) & their friends

When? Retreat (July 12-14); Daily Projects & Fun events (July 14-18)

Why? We follow Jesus and so we serve people as he would and did

How much?

* $75 pays for the retreat (meals & lodging), projects, fun events & t-shirt.
* $50 for retreat only
* Each fun event is $5 if you decide to do them a la carte
* There is no cost to those who go to Curacao

Payment, Code of Conduct & permission slips for the entire week is due Sun, July 5.

If you have specific questions, feel free to contact Josh Sullivan (843-708-1477; josh.sullivan@gracetoday.net) or Darien (830-2464; dariengabriel@gmail.com) You can also learn more at www.mission-charleston.blogspot.com and www.gracetoday.net.

Please have your youth(s) read the included flyer and youth code of conduct to sign and turn in along with your signed permission slip and payment by July 5 to Josh Sullivan or Anita Gabriel. You can also mail it to us at Grace Christian Fellowship, PO Box 904, Summerville, SC 29484. You can scan and email to us as well.

Ready to make a difference in the SC low country...together!

Darien Gabriel, Josh Sullivan & Mission: Charleston Team

Chic fil a Spirit Night

2009-06-24T20:00:00.002-04:00

This Friday, June 26 the Chic-fil-a in Summerville (off of main street) is having a spirit night for our church to help raise money for Mission Charleston. It starts at 5pm and ends at 8pm. If you order food inside and put your receipt in the box at the counter, Chic fil a will give us 10% of the total amount that were on the receipts. Hope to see you there. Let your friends and family know. The youth will meet there around 5.

Lowcountry Orphan Relief

2009-06-24T16:25:00.000-04:00

Lowcountry Orphan Relief
Wed 9:30 am—12 pm
This place stores clothes and other necessities for children that are given out to orphans. Volunteers are needed to put together packets for the children that are then given out to orphans in the Lowcountry. Located at the old Navy Base in North Charleston.

VBS at GreenTree North Apts

2009-06-23T13:59:00.000-04:00

Dream Center

2009-06-22T16:24:00.000-04:00

Dream Center
Tues and Thurs 9 am—11 am
The Dream Closet provides clothing, food, and ,medical help along with Biblical counsel to men, women and children in the community. Volunteers are needed to give out food, clothes, and help the people check in. On North Rhett

Greentree North Apartments

2009-06-20T16:24:00.000-04:00

Greentree North Apartments
Backyard Bible Club
Tues-Thurs 3 pm—6pm
A Backyard Bible Club for around 40 kids ages 5-pre-teen. There will be games, music, crafts, and Bible stories for the kids. Near Rivers Ave. and Otranto.

Map of Projects & Ministry Locations

2009-06-18T15:00:00.001-04:00

View Summerville Ministry Map in a larger map

Ways to Help at Greentree North Apartments

2009-06-11T16:39:00.000-04:00

Lowcountry Orphan Relief

Wed 9:30 am—12 pm
This place stores clothes and other necessities for children that are given out to orphans. Volunteers are needed to put together packets for the children that are then given out to orphans in the Lowcountry. Located at the old Navy Base in North Charleston.

Greentree North Apartments
Backyard Bible Club

Tues-Thurs 3 pm—6pm
A Backyard Bible Club for around 40 kids ages 5-pre-teen. There will be games, music, crafts, and Bible stories for the kids. Near Rivers Ave. and Otranto.

Join group prayer walk (Tues afternoon) k
□ Help pass out flyers for Backyard Bible Club (Tues afternoon) k
□ Pick up trash prior to BYBC (Tues afternoon) k

How you can help: transportation

2009-06-08T13:35:00.001-04:00

To support the Curacao missions, we need volunteers for three trips:

1. One additional van driver to depart not later than 4:00 AM on 3 July from Summerville to deliver GCF passengers to Savannah Airport no later than 6:00 AM. The van will be provided by Old Fort Baptist Church. Optionally, one scout car that will drive ahead of the van convoy and keep it advised of road conditions and be able to help in the event of a mechanical breakdown.

2. One additional van driver and a driver with truck suitable for pulling a trailer to pick up GCF and Curacao passengers at Savannah Airport and deliver them to Bonnie Dunes at about 10:30 PM on 11 July. We will be using the old church trailer.

3. One additional van driver to depart TBA from Summerville to deliver GCF passengers to Savannah Airport on 18 July. Optionally, one scout car that will drive ahead of the van convoy and keep it advised of road conditions and be able to help in the event of a mechanical breakdown.

We may be able to do without the scout car on trips 1 & 3 but we will need the third vehicle to haul the trailer on the second trip. If you are interested, please contact Mike O'Neill (843) 819-9042 or moneil@sc.rr.com.

Greentree North Apartments BYBC

2009-06-04T15:40:00.002-04:00

We will be putting on a Backyard Bible Club for the kids at Greentree North Apartments in North Charleston. We will have kids from 5 years old through pre-teen. We will be playing games with the kids, singing songs, teaching them Bible stories and showing them the love of Jesus Christ. The theme for the Bible Club will be Outback. We are using the Boomerang Express kit from Lifeway
(http://vbs.lifeway.com/vbs2009/yourvbs/). If you want to learn more about this Backyard Bible Club please email me at josh.sullivan@gracetoday.net

Dream Center

2009-06-04T15:22:00.003-04:00

Brad and I have gone to the Dream Center twice now to see what it is all about. As mentioned before, this center gives out clothing and food to those who live in North Charleston and Hanahan. They also have a clinic inside the building which looks like a normal doctor's office. People can come here and have various medical treatments and receive medicine. We will be taking some youth to the Dream Center in the next couple of weeks so they can see how it works before we all go down there for Mission Charleston (July 14 and July 16 from 9-11). If you would like to find out how you can help with Dream Center, email me at josh.sullivan@gracetoday.net

Ways to Help

2009-05-30T13:03:00.001-04:00

Ways to Help with Mission Charleston
(week of July 12)

Check which ones you would like to help with and turn in to Darien Gabriel or Josh Sullivan.
K= kid friendly

Name: Phone #: Email:

□ Help setup for Sun service at Boonie Doone Plantation (Sun)
□ Bring food to lunch at Bonnie Doone Plantation (Sun)
□ Pick up rental vans to take to Bonnie Doone Plantation (Mon night)

□ Help your home group fix bag lunches (Mon, Tues, Wed, and Thurs night)
□ Help with keeping coolers filled with water and ice (Tues– Fri)

□ Join group prayer walk (Tues afternoon) k
□ Help pass out flyers for Backyard Bible Club (Tues afternoon) k
□ Pick up trash prior to BYBC (Tues afternoon) k

□ Life Guard for pool party (Wed night)
□ Help serve food at Beach Picnic (Thurs afternoon/ evening)

□ Shoot digital video at one or more events
□ Create video of the week using video footage for Sun following Mission Charleston
□ Take digital pics at one or more events
□ Create slideshow of the week using digital pics for Sun following Mission Charleston

□ Help transport youth for 1 or more days to project sites (using rental van or personal vehicle)
□ Help with food for Friday cookout at Fletchers
□ Return rental vans to Enterprise (early Sat morning)

□ Help with Backyard Bible club at Greentree North Apartments (Tues-Thurs afternoon-evening)
□ Help with large Sports Camp (Tues-Thurs morning)
□ Help with small Sports Camp (Tues-Thurs afternoon) k (boys)
□ Help with Royal Oaks Retirement Home (Fri morning) k
□ Help work on Habitat for Humanity house (Thurs or sat morning-afternoon, need to be 16 + years)
□ Help at Lowcountry Food Bank (Wed morning)

If you would like to help in any of these ways please send an email to josh.sullivan@gracetoday.net

Mission Charleston Wish List

2009-05-30T12:53:00.003-04:00

Wish List

Small water bottles
Small Gatorade bottles
Tea
Peanut butter
Jelly
Sandwich bread
Can soda
5 gallon Gott coolers with spout
Chest coolers
Gas cards
Sun screen
Bug spray
Small bags of chips
Ice
Paper plates
Paper cups
Plastic forks
Plastic spoons
Napkins
Paper towels

This is a list of items that you can donate or let us borrow for the week of mission charleston. If you would like to help us with these items please send an email to josh.sullivan@gracetoday.net.

Dream Center (Tue & Thurs)

2009-05-28T16:48:00.003-04:00

Partnering with Seacoast Church in N. Charleston, our youth and adults will meet for 2 hours on Tue. and again on Thur. to hand out free food, clothing and smiles to those in need. Not only will we learn how to show the love of Jesus in practical ways in N. Charleston, but this will help us imagine what it will be like to do this in Summerville.

Projects are coming together...

2009-05-28T16:47:00.001-04:00

The projects are coming together for Mission: Charleston this July. We'll start featuring them this week. We'll continue to add details to keep you in the loop. Subscribe or check back often. Darien

Servant Evangelism: 2 unpopular words (and that's in the church!)

2009-04-20T14:50:00.002-04:00

My hope is that as part of Mission: Charleston we'll learn how to show the love of Jesus in practical ways in Summerville. That's called Servant Evangelism. Here's some more info on that from the expert Steve Sjogren:

Based on the hundreds of email responses I received, a large number of you are having difficulty getting servant evangelism going. If you are wondering how to get servant evangelism started at your church, I think you will find this video very helpful. Click the link below to view it:

How to Get Servant Evangelism Started In Your Church

I will be posting a few more videos this week, so stay tuned for my
email updates about those.

Keep walking in the outflow!

Steve

P.S. Look for the Dino Rizzo interview online tomorrow... it's
packed full of inspiration!

Logo Design Tournament

2009-04-09T14:51:00.003-04:00

Youth logo design tournament. (must be a youth at GCF to enter) The winner will get $25 to Chick Fil A. Here are the guidelines:

* Design has to be in ready to be judged by April 30th.

* Must include in some way the following information:
- July 2009
- Mission: Charleston, M:Chas09, M:Chuck '09 or some other variation that communicates what the event is called
- No more than 3 colors can be used including black & white
- Should be a simple design
- Our mission (Love God. Love People) included in the logo somehow (can be as creative as you want)
- Logo idea can be hand sketch or computer drawn
- Other than that, be as creative as you want to be!

* It will be judged by a panel of students and adults from GCF

96% aren't connected to a church

2009-04-08T15:25:00.002-04:00

We're going to be tackling multi housing ministry as part of mission charleston. Here's why:

1. Who is “Multihousing?” A community of people living in the same locality, in similar structures, under the same management or authority. This encompasses more than apartments… from nursing homes, condos, military housing, marinas, duplexes, triplexes, senior apartments, urban high-rises, etc.

2. 57% of Americans live in multihousing communities.

3. 96% of the people living in these communities have NO CONNECTION to a church!

The Schedule

2009-03-29T17:01:00.006-04:00

View Mission: Charleston calendar

Check out the latest schedule of what we'll be doing for this week of local missions.

Note: Make sure you go to July 11-17 on the calendar itself as it defaults to today.

Pray for new projects

2009-03-14T13:45:00.001-04:00

Things are moving forward but a little slow. Thanks to Josh Sullivan we're making progress though. Pray that we'll find plenty of projects to have ready for our guests coming from Curacao to help us!

Pray also for our retreat that will kick the week off. It's at Bonnie Doone Plantation near Walteboro, SC.

Next meeting Sun, Jan 18

2009-01-14T14:33:00.002-05:00

The Mission: Charleston Meeting will begin at 5 PM at the Sr. Center.

Agenda for next meeting

2008-10-25T09:18:00.000-04:00

Mission: Charleston
Our mission is to lead our church (and partners) to love God by loving people in the SC Low country next summer.

Next Meeting Sun, Oct 26

Our next meeting is this Sunday just prior to the Congregational Gathering at the Sr. Center. We'll continue to move forward on plans and details.

If you're interested in helping out, feel free to join us.

Status on Major Areas

I. Projects: (JoAnn) We must determine where God wants us to serve in our community (SC Low country) and then how to do it effectively.

1. Discover and setup various projects with local ministry, agency or individuals responsible: See www.SummerVols.blogspot.com for detailed opportunities.

2. Setup & coordinate our ministry teams

I. Backyard Bible Club(s) (Darien, Doris)

II. Other projects (JoAnn, Jena?)

II. Hosting: (Anita & Laurel) We must coordinate the hosting of groups from out of town who wish to partner with us this summer. (e.g. Youth Group from IGA (Curacao))

1. Secure lodging for group members

2. Coordinate meals

3. Coordinate local transportation

III. Retreat: (Darien) This 3-day/2-night retreat is to bring two (or more) youth groups together and equip them to do ministry the following week.

1. Theme & Overall schedule: TBA

2. Messages/Speaker: Micah Hasty is considering coming for Sun & Mon.

3. Games/Mixers/Activities: TBA

4. Food: Meals to be handled by Bonnie Doone except for Sun. lunch. Darien to find a meal coordinator for this.

5. Worship: Micah would lead worship as a part of this weekend

6. Leaders: Our youth leaders coupled with the youth leaders from Curacao would make up this team. Some of our parents may help too.

IV. Worship & Fellowship: (Darien) This part is to build community between the youth groups and the rest of the church fellowship.

1. Sun. AM worship service at the retreat center: Darien to coordinate with Micah, Jimmy, Terry & praise band.

2. Sun. lunch at the retreat center

V. Special Events (Josh Sullivan)

1. Help plan fun events during the week

2. Help plan games for retreat

Next Meeting: Sun, Dec 7, 4-5:30 PM at TBA

Next Meeting Sun, Oct 26

2008-10-22T18:12:00.000-04:00

Our next meeting is this Sunday just prior to the Congregational Gathering at the Sr. Center. We'll continue to move forward on plans and details.

If you're interested in helping out, feel free to join us.

They're coming!

2008-09-09T17:04:00.002-04:00

Yes, 24 youth and adults from the island country of Curacao, N. A. are coming to help us with Mission: Charleston next summer! We're looking forward to hosting them too!

Learn more about Curacao at our Cura-blog.

Bonnie Doone Plantation

2008-09-09T16:50:00.002-04:00

Our week begins with a youth retreat at Bonnie Doone Plantation.

Project Ideas

2008-09-08T15:16:00.003-04:00

You all came up with several good ideas for projects we could pursue as part of Mission: Charleston. Here is a list. I hope those who read this will contribute their ideas as well under the comments. You can also comment on an idea already submitted. If you know contact info, names, etc. that would be great.

See also our blog called SummerVols for more on this topic.

* Backyard Bible clubs/local VBS in a park; possible neighborhoods include Brownsville and Robin Wind.

* Inner city ministry through Hope Assembly of God down on Kings St. in Chas. This happens every Sat. if we want to go and see what happens.

* Migrants/Hispanic ministry in the area. Take free food, clothes, etc. to a trailer park where need is obvious.

* Reach out to our future neighbors near our property up on Hwy 78 & Wagon Trail Rd.

* Partner with the DREAM Center in N. Chas. (A ministry of Seacoast Church)

* Construction/Reconstruction/Painting. Charleston Outreach may have leads on this as would Habitat for Humanity.

* Palmetto House for homeless people.

* Check with Matt Kuhn at Summerville Baptist on projects they worked for their mini-World Changers in March.

* Opportunities at the Dorchester County Sr. Center

* Check with the principle at Alston Middle School for possible families we could help.

Major Areas of Focus

2008-09-08T15:07:00.002-04:00

Hey Gang,

Great first meeting! We accomplished a lot and there seemed to be a lot of energy and enthusiasm in the room around this mission trip!

Here are my notes from the meeting. If I missed anything, please feel free to add. I'll also post this on the mission: Charleston blog .

The following people were interested in working on the following major areas:

Projects: JoAnn Schad

Hosting: Diane Jernigan, Laurel Sullivan, and Anita Gabriel (no one found to help with meal coordination though)

Retreat: Josh Sullivan, Anita Gabriel, Diane Jernigan

Worship & Fellowship: no one so far

Special Events: Josh Sullivan

We'll get updates on all these groups at the next meeting. So if you want to start building your team and working on this go for it! Feel free to call or email me with questions along the way. Also, if you have to choose between doing something related to 40 Days of Community or this, this might should wait. We're still playing catchup on 40 DOC!

Thanks so much Doris for hosting this meeting!

Our next meeting is Sun., Oct. 26th, an hour before the Congregational Gathering at the Sr. Center. Right now that would be 5 PM but the CG time sometimes changes. So it won't be at Doris' this time to hopefully help with driving.

Agenda for first meeting

2008-09-06T20:39:00.002-04:00

Mission: Charleston 2009—Our mission is to lead our church (and those choosing to partner with us) to love God by loving people in the SC Low country next summer.

Scope & Major Areas of Ministry

We need to identify people who would be willing to assemble and lead teams in the following areas:

I. Projects: We must determine where God wants us to serve in our community (SC Low country) and then how to do it effectively.

1. Discover and setup various projects with local ministry, agency or individuals responsible

2. Setup & coordinate our ministry teams

II. Hosting: We must coordinate the hosting of groups from out of town who wish to partner with us this summer. (e.g. Youth Group from IGA (Curacao))

1. Secure lodging for group members

2. Coordinate meals

3. Coordinate local transportation

III. Retreat: This 3-day/2-night retreat is to bring two (or more) youth groups together and equip them to do ministry the following week.

1. Theme & Overall schedule

2. Messages/Speaker

3. Games/Mixers/Activities

4. Food

5. Worship

6. Leaders

IV. Worship & Fellowship: This part is to build community between the youth groups and the rest of the church fellowship.

1. Sun. AM worship service at the retreat center

2. Sun. lunch at the retreat center

The Multiplying Church

2008-09-05T21:28:00.000-04:00

The Multiplying Church
Bob Roberts (Zondervan, 2008)
If we’re going to reach the vast numbers of unchurched people in the United States, our churches have to re-learn what growing Christian movements around the world are putting into practice everyday – church multiplication. Bob Roberts of NorthWood Church outside of Fort Worth, Texas, has become a recognized expert on the subject. In this book he shares what they’ve learned about starting churches with the kind of DNA it takes to multiply churches. It’s a great book for any church leader with a passion for planting churches.

Caroline coordinating the trip here

2008-09-02T16:10:00.000-04:00

Hi, I trust all is well and still excited about next year's mission. My greetings to Richard and his wife..... am trusting God with healing.

Cali asked me to coordinate the team from Curacao coming to minister to you.
What I would like to know to start off is how many can you handle?? What would be our maximum in people.

I understood from Cali you are thinking of doing a camp style activity at Bonnie Doone's (Gene and Sue). After that going to homes and ministering to where you are and evangelizing at different places.

I have not had my first meeting yet ... I do not have even have my committee in place yet. He just asked me yesterday.

Would it be best for us to travel back with you on the same day you leave here?? or would you like us to give you some breathing space first before we come?

As we start meeting and know how many we are working with could you come up with a figure what it would cost per person a day roughly?

What events or activity do you think the youth will want to attend .... how much for entrance or pass??? You may give us some idea and we will see how we can schedule in one or two at the end.

Will let you know as we start meeting and scheduling our program. Looking forward to seeing God move in us and through us in all of this.

Hi to everyone...1 Cor. 1:12

First Meeting

2008-08-25T11:37:00.001-04:00

Please join us at 4 PM at the Hundley house to discuss plans for our Mission: Charleston Mission Trip (124 Smilax Lane phone 871-6453) Detailed directions

If you are interested in the first meeting for our Curacao 2009 mission trip, go here for details.

Mission: Charleston is now live!

2008-08-25T11:32:00.003-04:00

This the place to learn the who, what, where, when, why, and how of our mission and ministry efforts in the SC Low Country area.

Grace Christian Fellowship is a non-denominational church committed to making a real difference around the corner and around the world. This site will help us communicate our vision and logistics as we partner with others to love God and love people as we believe Jesus would if He were in our shoes.