From Pastor Chris: Go and Learn Mercy

Matthew 9:13 - Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

This last Sunday I challenged our church to put to practice that Jesus saves sinners with scandalous mercy. Jesus went to the least, the lost, the outcast, the sick, the broken, and showed them compassion and called them to follow him. God desires that we extend the mercy we have received through Christ more than he cares about external things in worship services or being a good person.

We need to go to people and allow ourselves to be scandalized by who responds to God's mercy in Jesus. But I especially called us to begin to do it through the ministry of Moriah's Mission. This is the ministry that Justin and Victoria Nelson have been working to establish since God brought their daughter Moriah into their lives. Our church has a great opportunity to serve medically fragile children and their families and to demonstrate God's call to be merciful.

Our goal is to serve the children, families, and even staff of Children's Recovery Center and the Saratoga Subacute with the compassion of Jesus. Serving children with special needs can be a little intimidating. Our aim is not to make them a project, but simply to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We desire to come alongside with events that serve the children and by providing emotional and spiritual support.

There are three ways we want to show the mercy of Jesus through Moriah's Mission:

1) Provide a holiday meals or activities and sponsor field trips (e.g. Monterey Bay Aquarium)

They loved it last year when we provided a Thanksgiving meal and Christmas party. They love it when we raise money for kids to go the Monterey Bay Aquarium. These are easy to get involved with: you can cook, deliver food, or help raise funds for these events. We are exploring the opportunity of doing a Blood Drive with them this fall.

2) Provide a group of volunteers to just be there for the kids and families on a consistent basis

We hope this fall to coordinate a group of volunteers to be there regularly to read to kids, play a game or assist the Nelson's with their kids so they can visit the CRC or Saratoga. The key is consistency (twice a month or weekly).

3) Provide services for Bible studies or memorial service

We used to provide a worship service that became a Bible study on a monthly basis there. We want to do that again. We also have essentially done a memorial service on two occasions for a child and a staff member. They deeply cherished us assisting in the bereavement process. This is basically the role of a chaplain that Justin, myself and a few others can provide.

If this interests you in any way, please come to a meeting for Moriah's Mission on July 10th at 7:00pm in the small social hall. We will go over vision and next steps and begin to move toward greater involvement with the CRC and Saratoga Subacute.