CARING AND SHARING
Highlights of the Care & Share Fund and More Nancy Singer, director of administration and finance
College Church has a long history of helping people in times of need. One of our primary means of helping each other with financial needs is through the Care & Share benevolence fund. Did you know that this fund was formally started nearly a half century ago, in 1974, with donations that year totaling $10,000, the equivalent of about $55,000 in today's dollars? The principles under which Care & Share operates for the people in our congregation who are undergoing financial hardship include the ability to maintain housing (and utilities), the need for transportation, food and medical/dental care. A sudden loss of a job, a death or a major medical emergency or accident are among those one-time occurrences that can wreak havoc on an otherwise stable family's financial picture. Care & Share is pleased to be able to come alongside and pay bills that can enable a family to regain its stability after this one-time emergency. Just as the needs in our congregation have grown, so has the church's generosity. During this just-ended fiscal year, a record $201,000 in disbursements have been more than offset by record contributions of $277,000 to the fund. In many cases in the last few months, the coronavirus has been the one-time financial stress contributing to the need for help. Besides Care & Share, the church established a special COVID-19 fund to meet some of the needs of those who may not be a regular part of our congregation or who may have needs that have been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, and they don't necessarily meet the criteria of the Care & Share fund. Although this fund hasn't been open very long, your generosity has already supplied $40,000 to the fund of which we've been able to help individuals and families with $15,000 in requests.
But there are many other ways people of College Church help and support each other. Of course, the overwhelming one is prayer. There are many organized prayer groups, missionary prayer groups and various church prayer times. But there are literally scores of small groups who pray for each other. Women's Bible Study small groups, for example, meet via Zoom and continue to pray for needs and other concerns; men's groups, Kids' Harbor teachers, Adult Communities, pastoral staff, elders, deacons, deaconesses and missions boards all are praying for the congregation as a whole and individuals within these groups. Anyone who makes a need known will be prayed for dozens or even hundreds of times depending upon whether they make the need known publicly or privately. There are many individuals who no longer have the stamina or ability to serve as they once did but have become prayer warriors for people they know and those for whom they only know a name. We are a prayerful church, often in our own prayer closets. The deaconesses also oversee a ministry specifically devoted to assisting with physical needs—a ride to the doctor or to church, a room to be painted or a ramp to be built. Volunteers in our Helping Hands ministry provide meals for a new mom or someone recovering from surgery or an illness. Needs like these are also met by an individual's small group or Adult Community, and Helping Hands fills in the gaps. As you read through this, did it occur to you that all of these "need-fillers" are congregants just like you? Of course, this is in addition to all the pastoral care that is provided for those undergoing stress in their marriages, child-rearing, caring for aging parents, relatives, spouses or children no longer following the Lord and countless other situations. If you or a loved one or friend is undergoing any kind of stress, we want to help. We don't know about the need unless someone tells us. So, please talk with a pastor or go to our webpage, college-church.org and pull down the Connect menu or click on COVD-19 Help & Be Helped box to seek the help you need. May God continue to bless his children.
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