So much ink has been spilled recently around the racial tension that has been swamping our nation. This is politically and theologically charged stuff. I do not write this thinking I will convince you of anything, but to just share how I came to a paradigm-shifting idea of my own privilege and what it means to live and love like Jesus.
On Saturday, October 31st, Central Community Church & Highway City Community Development hosted a Fall Festival with carnival games and a resource fair for the entire neighborhood. Nearly 1000 people attending throughout the day, but it was so much more than a carnival!
. . . “equipping them to serve”
Recently we gathered with folks from about a dozen of our partnerships for an afternoon of networking, equipping and fellowship, starting with an amazing Mexican lunch prepared by parents from Susan B Anthony.
It’s the beginning of a new school year! Remember what it was like? New teacher, old friends and lots of new faces.
Jose, Bethani and Andrew have joined the ENP teamWe have some new faces at ENP, too, and would love for you to meet them.
Jose Chavez will be assisting Brenda with Parent Engagement, currently at 4 school sites. The heart of Parent Engagement is to build up the capacity of our parents and connect them to each other, the school system and the larger neighborhood opportunities. We believe our parents are leaders and want to help give them the tools and opportunities to shape their schools and neighborhood.
“I am beyond excited and blessed to be a part of ENP. I am doing what I love and look forward to learning and exploring new experiences with our parent engagement groups, and very excited about our bimonthly meetings where I will be meeting new parents to build a unique relationship. I know that parents will grow greatly this year and that is my number one goal.”
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Bethani Montgomery has joined the ENP team as part time Admin (and SO MUCH MORE!) Her gifts and talents are vast and she has a contagious smile and love for kiddos and our schools. She will spend most of her time behind a computer and connecting with partnership volunteers, but don’t be surprised if you see her behind a camera at Saturday Sports and other ENP events.
“I’m looking forward to learning more about Fresno and the needs in our city, along with meeting new faces in our community.”
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Andrew Feil has joined ENP as Assistant Director. He will work alongside Artie to support our existing partnerships, financial development, and help build the ENP infrastructure in order to expand upon on work.
“I am looking forward to getting connected to the ENP Family! Meeting all the partnership leaders, supporters, school staff, etc. “I am excited to hear from them about their school and community. Overall just really pumped to be with ENP and continue the good work!“
As a team. we look forward to providing a deeper level of equipping this coming ye!r for our leaders, our churches, and structure that will give many people an even greater opportunity to love and serve our city.
You will be hearing from us!
There are two weeks left before submissions are due for SPARK TANK – An annual Faith-Rooted Social Business Plan Contest sponsored by The Center for Community Transformation.
The purpose of the Spark Tank is to stimulate the start-up of social enterprises strategically connected to churches or Community Benefit Organizations.
A total of $25,000 will be awarded on Friday, September 25 as individual entrepreneurs, churches and non-profits pitch their business plan to a panel of experts. The event will take place at 2:00pm at the BC Lounge on the Seminary Campus. Guests are welcome to attend the event to learn about social enterprise and see entrepreneurship in action.
MAYBE YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO SHOULD SUBMIT A PROPOSAL
If you know either individual entrepreneurs or institutions who might like to pitch an idea, please download the business plan contest template and share it. They could win up to $3000 in start-up money, and perhaps even more if they “wow” the judges. Submissions that make the first cut on Sept 1 will be invited to pitch their idea on September 25th.
If you would like to be a part of the audience, register to attend through the link below.
Space is limited.
SPARK TANK PITCH FEST REGISTRATION
Check out the awards from last year’s event:
$3000 Awards: Evangel Home Cleaning Service, FACE Inc/Rock Pile Yard Services, and Light-House Recovery Program “Bling-Wear”.
$2000 awards: Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministry(FIRM) Translation Services, and Young Men’s Initiative (YMI) YMI Coffee and Pastry Bar
$1000 awards: Bethany Inner City Church: Nano-and Microloans for Enterprising Downtown Families and Inspire Destiny Training Services.
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More than 150 projects took place during Serve Fresno Week, with 40+ churches participating. There were 11 park clean-ups, 6 school beautification projects, and 1000’s of hours of raking, shoveling, cleaning, beautifying, painting, blessing, playing, crafting, tutoring, bike fixing, advocating and encouraging!
Projects blessed many non-profit organizations, including Poverello House, Youth for Christ, Rescue the Children, Campus Life, Spirit of Woman, Community Food Bank and Marjaree Mason Center. The data is truly impressive, but it’s the stories that share impact!
In the Sequoia Neighborhood, two projects were coordinated by Clovis Hills in coordination with the principal and vice principal at Sequoia Middle School. They invited students, parents and staff to join them for an alley clean-up project on Thursday and a campus beautification on Saturday.
The relationship that has been built over the years between Clovis Hills and Sequoia is a true partnership, evident by the church’s presence neighborhood throughout the year. They are seeing the value of including students, staff and families. We will enjoy watching this partnership (and these relationships) continue to grow.
At the Lafayette Park Clean-up Project, folks from two different churches were there sweeping, raking and cleaning up this beautiful park. A little boy came by and asked what they were doing. One of the volunteers told him, “Some friends from my church and Pastor Oputa’s church are cleaning up the park tonight. The little boy then asked, “Can I help?”
“Of course you can!” they said. Then he worked alongside volunteers until the project was done. He knows Pastor Oputa from Saturday Sports which takes place at Lafayette Park twice a month. He also now has a glimpse of other ways The Church serves and loves his neighborhood . . . and he wants to be a part.
GREAT STORIES FROM ACROSS THE CITY
A life group from The Well helped organize a celebration with a small church in Sanger for for kids in this farming neighborhood. It was a huge success! When the volunteers found out the church struggles to do this event every month, they decided that together their life group would take it on as a monthly project.
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At the 4141 Ministries project, a couple Fresno State volunteers signed up to serve. One of the girls, now a freshman at Fresno State, (not so many years ago) faithfully attended one of the first Saturday Sports Programs in Fresno. She grew up seeing The Church love and serve her neighborhood and in the process a strong relationship was built with her family. Now she is finding ways to follow that example of service and giving back to her city.
In serving we are not simply doing something that needs to be done, and not just so we can check “serving” off our to-do list. In the process of serving, we learn more about our city and the people we would not get the chance to know if we didn’t spend time in their neighborhood. We are hearing the stories and learning about needs of the people, organizations that are serving and the opportunities we have to walk alongside them, support and encouragement them.
LIVES ARE BEING IMPACTED
It was an amazing week to watch THE CHURCH united in serving Fresno (and beyond!) It also brought a lot of folks from our churches outside the walls of buildings, into the heart of our city and into the lives of the people.
In serving, we are setting an example for our children, for the Church, and our city. We may never see the full impact, but in the process of serving He brings people into our lives; and while we think we were there to make a difference in THEIR neighborhood, He often uses the opportunity to make in impact in OUR hearts!
It is the Mission of ENP to help churches partner with elementary schools and neighborhoods in our city, with a vision of seeing the Church deeply engaged and invested, not for just a week, but throughout the year. It is the goal of ENP to see a church partnering with every neighborhood in our city, to see our schools supported and blessed as they teach OUR kids. Ultimate goal: healthy families and a thriving city! During Serve Fresno Week it felt like THE CHURCH made a giant step toward that goal!
*SERVE FRESNO is a movement of churches united in serving the city as the body of Christ . . . not just for a week, but throughout the year! This movement WILL continue and we look forward to watching it it grow.
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“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45
*Check out the Serve Fresno Week highlight video on the home page.
It’s “GIVING TUESDAY” What is the purpose?
GIVING TUESDAY: “A global day dedicated to giving back.” “A movement to create a national day of giving to kick off the “giving” season.”
Giving Tuesday is a great idea, no doubt. But for all of us at ENP, we see people GIVING every day! On our school campuses during the week folks are volunteering in classrooms, helping students who might be struggling with reading or math. Others are hosting a Homework Club, Bible Club, or Leadership Club after school. On Saturdays, an average of 1500 kids are having fun with volunteers who GIVE a couple hours of time at Saturday Sports to simply spend time with kids and make a small investment in their lives. And that’s PART of it!
We witness servant hearted people EVERY DAY from our churches, businesses, universities, as well as families in our partnership neighborhoods GIVING of their time to make an impact in the lives of children and families and ultimately in the health of our city.
What would our world look like if we all considered EVERY DAY a GIVING day?
ENP’s role is to connect volunteers with opportunities in our city to serve and GIVE and in the process build relationships. That’s the key: relationships! We make it easy for the church to connect with a school and help them find ways they can make an impact in that school and neighborhood. (FYI – 98,944 volunteer hours so far this year!)
It is also very clear that we could not do what we do without those who are GIVING to ENP financially. Individuals, churches, and businesses GIVE so ENP can equip and connect folks to serve.
So, THANK YOU! Thank you for caring. (If you are reading this, you obviously care.)
You may already be GIVING your TIME and/or TREASURE. If so, we also want to say THANK YOU! We would also like you to invite others to do the same.
There are more schools who would love a partnership church to come along side them. There are so many kids who could use a little extra help in with reading or math. The kids at Saturday Sports LOVE having positive, caring people to hang out with (and you don’t even have to love sports!) Opportunities to GIVE, and LOVE our city are abundant! And it’s so easy! You don’t even have to travel far.
If you would like more information about how you can GET INVOLVED or DONATE to ENP, you can get more information on our website. We would also love to talk to you!
SO, HAPPY GIVING TUESDAY!
Maybe we should start a new movement: “GIVING: 365” . . . because that’s what we are calling it! We have the blessing of seeing people in our city GIVING 365 days of the year! We would love to have you join us . . . or invite someone else along, and share the blessing!
We pray that your Thanksgiving was a time of truly being thankful for friends, family and life’s many blessings, and you enjoy this Christmas season and the BEST GIFT OF ALL!
Another wonderful day in SE Fresno! Hundreds of children were able to pick out a new pair of shoes at El Encino Baptist Church at Faithful Feet 2014!
Volunteers from El Encino and Clovis Hills spent the morning blessing families while sharing a message of love. A shiny red fire truck was there with water to wash the feet of each child before being fitted with new socks and shoes. Families were also fed lunch and entertained by a group of kids from “We Got The Beat”.
This annual event began in 2000. Over the past 15 years thousands of shoes and socks have been given to school age children in this neighborhood. These families see “the church” as not only a place that gives their children something as a important as lunch and new shoes, but as a place that shares hope and love.
El Encino is more than a building across the street from the school. Clovis Hills is more than a church somewhere in north Fresno. When people hear the names of these two churches they probably think more about smiling, loving faces, than buildings
. . . maybe that’s the way it SHOULD be.
These two churches are a true presence in this neighborhood, offering Saturday Sports at Sequoia Middle School and Calwa Elementary. This “presence” gives them the ability to see both needs and opportunities to come alongside families and be a blessing and encouragement throughout the year.
Wesley United Methodist Church hosted an evening of FUN on Tuesday for National Night Out. This was the location of just one of the many events held throughout the country National Night Out, held annually since 1984 to promote neighborhood camaraderie, police-community partnerships and to send a message to criminals letting them know that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back!
Several groups planned this event that was full of fun for the kids and families in the neighborhood El Dorado Park neighborhood:
Wesley United Methodist Church
Associated Student, Inc. (ASI – Fresno State)
Boys & Girls Club, and
Building Neighborhood Capacity Program (BNCP).
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The evening was filled with face painting, activities (including some of ENP’s new carnival games), food and resources for the families.
Special thanks to all the volunteers who made this evening a success, including students from several Fresno State organizations, Fresno State Campus Police, Dave Corona (with his fun games) and Via Church who is a new partner for Wolters Elementary School in this neighborhood.
It was a GREAT evening!
