In the following article from this morning’s Long Beach (CA) Press-Telegram, a staff member of the Grace Brethren Church of Long Beach (Lou Huesmann, pastor) is highlighted as leading a community project. Eric Marsh is on the church staff as the director of Hope for Long Beach. ROCKHarbor church, mentioned in the article as the church who launched the project, is pastored by Todd Proctor, who has been leading music at BNYC on the Cedarville campus in Ohio this past week.
Hundreds expected to serve
Church groups plan 150 service projects for Saturday event.
By Samantha Gonzaga
Staff writer
LONG BEACH — Hundreds of church volunteers from Los Angeles and Orange Counties will participate in Saturday’s Serve Day, a daylong Southern California community service event.
“The overall mission is to look outside ourselves and say that we love the city, too, and we care for those who are marginalized,” said Eric Marsh, the event’s L.A. County organizer and a volunteer from Long Beach’s Grace Brethren Church.
More than 150 service projects were scheduled to take place as early as 5:30 a.m. They range from serving senior citizens pancake breakfasts and treating Meals on Wheels volunteers to ice cream and flowers, to delivering lunches to migrant day laborers and organizing sporting events for underprivileged youth.
Professionals, corporate and small business sponsors have donated materials and field expertise for some of the projects, Marsh said.
Long Beach will host more than 30 events, including blood drives, gardening Marine Stadium’s marine habitat, a barbecue lunch for the homeless near the Long Beach Rescue Mission, and creating a logo for the Howard Asian Art Collection, a museum the Assistance League plans to open this fall.
Serve Day was launched in 2000 by Costa Mesa-based Rock Harbor Church, quickly expanding to neighboring churches and counties in the succeeding years. Last year, about 40 churches participated at 100 sites in Orange and Los Angeles counties.
Pastor David Trotter of Revolution Church in Long Beach says this year marks his third Serve Day.
His church has committed to three projects: building a new church with Habitat for Humanity in the South Bay area, painting the dining hall of Christian Outreach in Action in the East Village, and organizing a carnival for Metropolitan State Hospital patients. About 100 volunteers from his church are expected, Trotter said.
“It’s a great opportunity to partner with other churches and it’s a great example that chuches aren’t in competition with one another,” he said. “We’re partners in our effort to help our city.”
The COA project is a collaboration with Grace Brethren and Bethany churches, which will be restoring the sanctuary and cooking a barbecue, respectively.
“It’s a great opportunity for our church members who maybe don’t serve on a regular basis to get a taste of how rewarding and impacting in the community this is,” Trotter said. “It’s a kind of onramp for the ministry for us.”
For information about Serve Day, visit http://serveday.com
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