Thank you!Thank you to the 50 servants who deep cleaned at Century, Kellogg, and John Adams public schools on December 17, 2011. We'll see you on Saturday, June 16, for CareFest 2012! |
About Rochester CareFest
If your church vanished, would your community weep? Would anyone notice? Would anyone care?
Since 2005, local evangelical pastors grappled with and prayed over questions like these found on the back cover of The Externally Focused Church (Rusaw and Swanson 2004). Rochester CareFest was conceived in prayer and borne out of our desire to more effectively reach out to our community with the love and truth of Jesus Christ. CareFest provides a great opportunity for the local body of Christ to minister to our community, demonstrating Jesus’ love in tangible and meaningful ways. Our desire is to serve individuals in need and community-enhancing organizations like the schools, parks, and other people-helping non-profits. The core of Rochester CareFest embraces the faith and beliefs of the World Evangelical Alliance http://www.worldevangelicals.org/aboutwea/statementoffaith.htm.
History has taught us that human institutions like government alone cannot solve the problems of our culture. Budget cuts and limited resources for cities and non-profits have provided great opportunities for us to fill in the gaps. How can we, as Christians, make a positive difference in our community?
Since Rochester CareFest began in 2006, God has mobilized each year 1400-1800 believers from over 30 churches to serve our city, showing them Jesus' amazing love by our cleaning, painting, fixing, and landscaping at dozens of sites. By reaching out to our community and giving of ourselves selflessly and unconditionally, we model the love that Jesus so freely gives to us. We also create a spirit of trust and understanding that transcends the social, cultural, or economic barriers that often divide us.
Many cities have found this kind of event to be a catalyst for wonderful new opportunities: congregations are energized as they see the real impact they can have on others through helping them and through the friendships that are consequently formed, and non-Christians have new reason for hope as they interact with a loving, hope-giving church. Author Eric Swanson aptly summarizes, “Good deeds make for good will, which makes for good opportunities to share the Good News.”
CareFest 2011 Photo Album
CareFest 2011 Recap
2011 CareFest Recap
by Pastor Larry Orth, CareFest Coordinator
CareFest 2011...becoming His masterpiece!
On a brisk February Sunday evening, a group of Zumbro Valley community leaders and residents gathered to brainstorm possible solutions to jumpstart their rebuilding process. Five months earlier, the flood of the century had devastated their community; government resources were scarce and buyouts were uncertain. The sea of volunteers that had come to their immediate aid had all but dried up and hope had faded. Many families had lost everything and dozens remained homeless.
That evening, the Lord began to move among His people. CareFest leaders sensed God’s call to get involved and, within a month, a two-phased event was planned. According to Lutheran Social Services relief coordinator Craig Richardt, new life was injected into the whole relief process. “Before CareFest showed up, volunteer and financial support had really diminished. I could feel the urgency that if something didn’t happen soon, the relief efforts would die and there was a lot left to do [$1.3 million].” He continued, “CareFest was the ‘shot in the arm’ that was needed to bring renewed awareness of the ongoing needs of the flooded region. CareFest brought a new level of credibility and trust to encourage other organizations to rally alongside the relief efforts. For example, United Way, Rochester Builders, and Salvation Army released designated flood recovery funds to us because they knew the money would be leveraged to do the most good for the victims. Immediately we started to build momentum and strength for a long term recovery process.”
Read more...Prayer Requests
- Pray that God will reveal the specific projects He wants us to do in our community for His greatest glory.
- Pray that God will raise up the specific leaders and skills we need to accomplish the projects.
- Pray that God will help leaders define each project’s human, equipment, and supply needs; for good communication and good relationships between project leaders and ministry recipients.
- Pray that God's people will respond to the call to serve in faith and perseverance, that God will guide the process of matching workers with projects, and that God will meet all our needs.
- Pray that God will guide our leaders in their planning, site preparation, resource allocation, and carrying out excellent work at each site.
- Pray that all the final details will culminate in the best possible CareFest. Pray for good weather, safety, and for Holy Spirit superintendence of each project to the glory of Jesus.
- Pray that many will come to know the Lord as Savior through CareFest as they experience His saving and restoring hope.