Clothes Drive

From October to November, CCF collected clothes to donate to the Good Shepherd in Hamilton, where 18.1% of the population lives in poverty... crazy to even believe that considering the lives we're living. Thank you to everyone who helped out by donating their clothes!!! :) Here are just some pictures and a quick blurb on the of why we did this! 

One Sunday at church, the pastor was challenging all of us why it seems like there is only one demographic in the church nowadays, and later on, how we can so often neglect serving the community and reaching out to the poor. We're all people created in the image of God and thus, that is how we should be treated. Like what John Piper once said, "Why does God bless us with abundance? So we can have enough to live on, and then use the rest for all manner of good works that alleviate spiritual and physical misery. Enough for us; abundance for others... copper will do."

Moving out all the clothes from Beauman into the car

Packing everything into one big box for delivery at the Good Shepherd

All the donations given to Good Shepherd so far this yr!

"Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.” – Galatians 2:10

When Jesus talked about the poor, I believe he really meant the poor - like the actual, literal poor. The ones who are poor not only in spirit, but physically and financially as well... the outcasts of society. I really do firmly believe that Jesus loved the poor, the homeless, the oppressed, the outcasts. 

If so, why is the church full of those who are technically wealthy, those who go to school and are well off – those who are 'normal'? But Christianity is not for the rich, it is not for the well-off. Instead, Jesus challenges them. He dined with the tax collector (Mark 2:13-17), defended the adulteress (John 8:2-11), and reached out and healed the leper (Matt 8:1-4). I mean, Jesus loved them so much and had such an eager desire and mission to save them – which was God`s will (John 6:38) – that people thought he himself was a drunkard and a glutton (Matt 11:19)!

This all prompts me to ask the question… Where are the poor? Have you seen them in your pews? Do you see them in fellowship? Do you see the church reaching out and loving them as if they were also made in God’s image, which they are? Do you see the church actively laying down their own rights so they can go out and change the world (1 Cor 9:20)?

It's my prayer that CCF will become more selfless and sacrificial when it comes to how we conduct and prioritize our lifestyles - counting others as more significant as ourselves (Phil 2:3) and always remembering the poor (Gal 2:10)!

-Glory, on behalf of committee :)