Serve

We are the hands and the feet

We are devoted to showing love by doing good.

 

 

Why serve at EGM?

At egm, we believe that God calls each one of us to be his servant, and servants must serve if they are to be successful. Service takes lots of forms: we serve our neighbors who have physical needs, we work for justice across the globe, we serve each other... and each of these in turn serves the God we love. We have found that service should and does bring amazing joy - and we invite you to find a place to serve that brings that kind of joy. Check the menu at left to see where you might want to serve.

 

 

How can I serve?

Locally...

At egm, we love our neighbors, and we try to do it practically. God calls us to serve the poor, the weak, the oppressed, and to call our neighborhoods, cities and country into the kingdom of God. We try to bring God's amazing news of hope to our neighbors by offering a cup of cold water - sometimes literally, other times symbolically with rakes, childcare, wood chips and dust rags. We also seek to offer our facilities to groups or schools that can use it, whether for concerts or rural learning experiences for inner-city schools. A sampling of our on-going projects:

 

Kids Hope USA

Kids Hope USA is a national mentoring program that equips churches to train and recruit mentors within their congregation to form one-to-one relationships with at risk children in neighborhood schools. Dr. Virgil Gulker, the same person who started Love INC, started Kids Hope USA about 15 years ago.

The Kids Hope USA ministry is the church giving hope to children in public elementary schools. The Kids Hope way: One church. One school. One hour. One child.

Currently, EverGreen Ministries and Kids Hope are touching the lives of 20 children through our partner school, Bauerwood Elementary School in Jenison.

EGM and Kids Hope USA believe relationships have the power to change lives. Children's lives are brightened through Kids Hope. When one child was asked what he loved most about school, he replied, "I really like Tuesdays because that's the day my Kids Hope mentor comes to see me!" Another child said to his mentor at the end of their hour, "Can you come back again tomorrow? I really had fun today."

EGM and Kids Hope USA... working together today to bring children a better tomorrow.

Check out our Kids Hope Photo Album!

For information please contact: Melissa VandenHoek 669-7700 kidshope@egm.org

Love Your Neighbor Day (Ahav l'reakah)

Twice a year we get together and offer our services to our neighbors, whatever services they may need. Our Spring LYNDay is April 28, when we'll be heading out to Bauerwood Elementary, Harmony Homes, and Beaverdam Christian School. Our fall date is October 10. Please contact jodi@egm.org for more information.

Community Connection

We encourage egm folks to pay attention to the needs of neighbors and friends, especially those outside the egm congregation, and bring those needs to the body of believers. We are happy to be able to help out with physical needs, and be a community to those who have few resources.

Criminal Justice Chaplaincy

Started in the fall of 2007, we began connecting newly released ex-offenders with people who can offer support and friendship, in the hopes that this chance at a new life will lead to a life that is really life!

Marine Family Support

We have privileged to be able to provide prayer and physical support to the families of the 1/24 Alpha Company Marines, deployed to Iraq. We rejoice with their families that they are now out of harm's way in Kuwait, and we expect to see them here in GR by the end of the month! Our next family day for Alpha Company is August 5.

For more information on any of these opportunities, or to sign up for any of these projects, contact the office: 669-7700 or email Jodi Cole Meyer!

 

 

Globally...

Global injustice and poverty is certainly in the news, but too often it stays on TV, and doesn't reach our hearts. At egm, we believe that our responsibility and community aren't limited to those things that we see every day, but extend to "the least of these" across the globe. We partner with people and organizations in six different countries to bring God's love to his children everywhere.

 

Colima, Mexico

egm sends teams of people every year to work at Hogar de Amor, an orphanage and skill training center for parentless teens. We rejoice with the folks that run this place in the changed lives and new hope offered to kids in hopeless situations.

Soroti, Uganda Our focus city for Africa

We support two missionary families based there in conjunction with CRWM and International Teams, the Sleidrichts and the Shaardas. We also send volunteers to work at Amecet, an orphanage and respite care center in Soroti. In conjunction with CRWRC, we participate in community development projects like goats and clean water that offer sustained income to people in Uganda.

Asian Film Project

Believers are working with local people to produce films that communicate spritual truths to tribes that are virtually untouched by the gospel.

Mission India / Christ for India

One of the most populous countries in the world, India is seeing a growing gap between the "haves" and the "have nots" within their borders. We support both international and local ministries that seek to bring the Indian people the Good News of Jesus Christ, along with literacy, safety, and nutrition.

Grace Community Christian School

The Philippines Poverty and lack of education deal a lethal blows to thousands of Filipinos. We are proud to provide scholarships to 12 families per year.

Iraq

Through members of our congregation who serve in the active military as soldiers, marines, and chaplains, we are committed to mitigating the effects of war on the people of Iraq, and seek to connect with local villages by providing medical and school supplies. We also try to support the American troops serving there by supporting their families locally.

Contact jodi@egm.org for any questions.

 

What is the "Corners Offering?"

Lev. 19.9-10: "When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges (many of the rabbis use the word "corners") of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the Lord your God."

The idea for the Israelites was that in addition to the first fruits or tithe, they were to share their bounty with those who had no land and no support.

Each week at Evergreen we ask everyone to bring a dollar for the Corners offering. During the week children are asked to find a way to earn a dollar and adults are asked to set aside a dollar when they pay for something, taking the opportunity to remember the people who do not have the resources to pay for that very thing for their families. The corners offering is not only about money -- it's also about keeping the poor in our minds at all times. It reminds us that a dollar a week means essentially nothing to us and yet a large part of the world spends less than that each day to support their family.

Each month we send our Corners offering to a different project or organization. In the past year, we have supported an unwed mother's home, an at-risk youth mentoring program, our local food bank, building supplies for our team that went to Colima, Mexico to build an orphanage, an inner-city outreach program, an after-school drop-in program for latch-key kids, building supplies for a hospital in Africa, and cribs and car seats for Hispanic moms downtown.