CareFest 2007 - The Impact of Good Works

“What a wonderful gift of your time and talents you gave us during CareFest! Thank you so much for all the cleaning and painting. Office staff loved coming in to the new blue walls on Monday morning.”

These were some of the words of gratitude shared by a lead engineer and principal of one of the 21 schools we served on our June 16 mission to show the love of Jesus to Rochester. Nearly 1800 Christians from the 22 host churches and over a dozen other churches joined forces to paint over 120 rooms, a number of hallways, and three gyms, wash windows and clean furniture at 11 schools, and landscape at four others. Beyond the arduous locker cleaning at ten schools, three of the schools asked workers to apply a rhino lining on the bottom of lockers to preserve them from further corrosion. At Franklin, a skilled carpenter accepted the challenge to pre-make 50 bookcases, which were assembled and installed at the school without the use of power tools (for safety). 

The impact of good works…the reality of our faith!

CareFest workers also cleaned 53 parks (about two-thirds of Rochester’s parks), covering 1,560 acres! New this year, the ministry of Garage works provided 27 free oil changes and some much needed auto maintenance for those lacking funds. Our largest project was at Crossroads College where 286 servants worked on the dorms, painting the entryways and removing and installing new lighting. They also framed a classroom wall and did extensive painting and trim carpentry work in the administration building. Even in the month following CareFest, a number of workers continued to labor on this project. A large contingency of workers transformed the college’s grounds, chipping, shredding, and raking, and building a prayer walk, labyrinth, and fire pit.

 

The poor and homeless were a unique focus of this year’s CareFest. Teams of servants swarmed the Women’s Shelter,three homeless shelters, three ministries that help the needy,and nine low-income private homes, providing a full range of services from window washing to pouring a sidewalk and installing a shower. A complete exterior makeover was completed at the Interfaith Hospitality House. Diverse work at the low income residences spanned the spectrum from installing new flooring to sealing leaky roofs. Most of these organizations and individuals had limited or no funds to help pay for the cost of construction supplies and equipment.Thanks to those who gave to help support these projects!A common sentiment reverberated among CareFest 2007 participants: deeper level relational connections were formed with those we served. We moved from the domain of shovel sand paint to people and relationships. Many people’s lives were deeply touched not only by the practical help they received,but through loving conversations about why we do this: we moved from simply showing the love of Jesus to showing and telling them of His great love. A number of workers had meaningful encounters with those they served.

Through CareFest 2007, the body of Christ invested about $17,700into our community (about 55% for construction, 35% on publicity and shirts, and 10% for the celebration and other expenses). What is the impact of good works? (The theme of CareFest 2007) Yes, the reality of our faith. But truly, God only knows the ultimate impact!

Special thanks to our leadership group of about 75 people(core team, church liaisons, prayer coordinators, and site leaders) for your extra investment of time and care. You represented Jesus well! Also, our deep love and gratitude to each of you volunteers—you had many options for things to do on June 16, 2007; instead, you chose to serve our neighbors in Jesus’ name.