On Saturday April 11, Wellspring Church had a block party. We passed out over 3500 flyers to all the schools in the area and served over 500 people that showed up for the block party, with over 60 volunteers. We gave away over 800 hotdogs, 500 cups of lemonade, over 100 haircuts, 48 cars were washed, hundreds of faces that were painted, moon bounces and lots of fun. We also took cookies and bake goods to all the fire stations in the area. We look forward to next year. We are planning on reaching out to our community more and more now that servolution has given us inspiration to reach our lost community. Thanks Servolution. You are awesome.
Sharon Frazier and her family have witnessed their fair share of violence. For fourteen years as residents in a Northwest Jacksonville neighborhood, the Fraziers have regularly seen or heard gunshots from rival gangs, murders, robberies, and drug deals in the area. Perched at the intersection of two streets across from Eugene Butler Middle School, the Frazier home often witnesses young students involved or hurt in the violence. On Saturday, April 11th, violence was replaced by kindness.
A team of more than 100 volunteers from Celebration Church in partnership with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office spent the Saturday morning painting and repairing the Frazier home, along with three other neighborhood houses. The outreach team also painted over graffiti in the area and picked up trash along the streets. The outreach and beautification effort renewed hope for Sharon Frazier and the Eugene Butler community.
“It takes a good-hearted person to volunteer their time, even on a Saturday, to come help someone else,” Frazier said. “It’s a blessing.”
Frazier was one of many who experienced the love of Jesus during SERVOLUTION, a weeklong campaign April 3-11, leading up to Easter weekend. Spearheaded by Healing Place Church, SERVOLUTION called on churches from around the world to initiate a radical change of a person’s life through simple acts of kindness and generosity.
Celebration teams from across all campuses and ministries joined in by serving in areas throughout Northeast Florida “here are some snapshots of their stories:
Special Needs Easter Egg Hunt: A young child in a wheelchair discovered the joy of eating candy from an Easter egg placed strategically within her reach. Meanwhile, her mother enjoyed a massage in the pamper area.
Jax Beach Homeless Outreach: A gentleman who is homeless received a much-needed haircut and a new bicycle to help him find a job.
Daniel, Inc Fun Day: On Easter weekend, a young child without family enjoyed a fun-filled afternoon of flag football, water balloons, and popsicles with high school students and leaders from Element.
St. Augustine outreach: Visitors and residents of the St. Augustine beach area received refreshing bottles of water and invitations to Easter service.
St. Johns outreach: Women in crisis enjoyed a beautiful and cleaner home as a refuge through landscaping and cleaning projects.
Camden County outreach: Families in Camden without food were able to receive much-needed bags of groceries.
Hardee Trip outreach: Families in impoverished area enjoyed Family Fun Day with free food, games, and prizes!
Our church The Bridge, is a newly planted Church off of Whitley. We had the opportunity to be present at a Health awareness our community was putting on in the park. We took about 12 volunteers from our new Church. Armed with freshly popped popcorn, water and smiles we greeted people as they enjoyed the park. It was a beautiful spring day. Along with the sunshine came allergy season. I was so happy to see that although many of our volunteers were suffering from the effects of the pollen they refused to miss this opportunity. We didn’t wait for the people to come by and visit us but instead walked up to people along the way passing out free popcorn and cool water. It was worth it all to see the faces of those playing basketball, walking their dogs, and those working other booths as we smiled and handed them the water. In the midst of those selling we only gave and introduced Jesus in a practical way.
We are a church of about 350 and saw some amazing things happen during our first Servolution event. Here is how the numbers break down for us: $4300 dollars given so that we could order over $9,000 worth of food from Angel Food. That food was stored in donated freezer storage two states away. We then had 50+ volunteers spend 50 hours in front of a local grocery store collecting over 650 bags of groceries. At the end of that week in the pouring rain we were able to give food to over 200 families in our community. That added up to over 950 people who were able to eat because of Servolution.
This is just the beginning for us.
As a young and growing church in a spiritually cold and dying area we understand the importance of being engaged with the community, serving them and offering the hope we have in Jesus. When we heard about Servolution we knew that this could be the catalyst we needed to get our members outside of the church walls, being used as Jesus hands and feet. There was a buzz of curiosity in the air in the weeks leading up to Servolution. The tides were changing in our church and it was confirmed by the Holy Spirit when he gave us this mandate, “Up until now people having been coming to you, now you need to go to them.”
So, what exactly went down during Servolution? We started on Saturday morning with a free car wash. Despite a cold windy day and our car wash location falling through, we still got to bless three people who were new to the community or worked in the area and wash their cars. They were perplexed at why we would do it for free and it opened an unique door to explain to them who we were and that God loved them. Not wanting the day to be a wash out (no pun intended ha), we cooked up 100+ hot dogs and brought 100+ bottles of water over to a huge mall near our church and handed them out for free. Each hot dog/water we gave away came with a card explaining why we were giving them away for free and how to contact us. IT WAS AWESOME! We all had a great time and the looks on peoples faces were priceless. Volunteers: 25+ – People Reached: 100+
Servolution came early for us on Sunday. Seven of us headed into downtown Baltimore to serve breakfast to some homeless brothers and sisters. We were able to bless them with food but they blessed us with so much more. How humbling it was to see their life, but how much joy they had. This opportunity seemed especially valuable to our members who served as it opened up their eyes to such a real need in our city, yet also putting in perspective how much God has blessed them. Volunteers: 7 – People Reached: 20+
Monday was the most underrated Servolution day we had. We got 100 postcards printed with the Servolution info/our contact info on them and followed behind trash trucks in our community. As the trash men emptied the cans, we simply returned the cans back to peoples homes in a convenient and non imposing location. We attached a card to each can and continued on. We only had four people participate mostly because of the work week/school, but it was so much fun! The Lord held the rain off right until we finished. How simple and fun, and I believe that illuminates the heart of Servolution; simple acts of kindness. Volunteers: 4 – People Reached: 100+
Tuesday was our last day for Servolution. We prepared dinner for the firehouse in our community. We just wanted to simply bless the fireman for serving our community. Preparing the meal in advanced was crucial as they were actually on a fire run at the time. It opened up a dialog that we hope to continue on in the future. Volunteers: 8 – People Reached: 6
Servolution was great. It was a great starting point for our church, especially since we’re moving into the community that we served in. We want to use “Servolution” as a church neutralizing thing so we can partner with the other churches in our county and serve together. We’ll most likely do another Servolution in the fall, definitely in the spring again and then continuing this concept indefinitely! It was a privilege to be apart of it and we’re excited for what God did and will continue to do through it!
We Started off 7 Days of Servolution in downtown Memphis. We gave away about 1,000 Bottles of water that night and peoples’ reactions were priceless. It is awesome that we could shatter the cynical attitudes that so many people have about things being “free,” with no strings attached. Later that night we handed out care packages to the homeless in a couple of the parks. On Saturday we celebrated our “Big Serve Day!!” We had teams out picking up trash, handing out water, cooking food and had tons of games and activities for kids. We also offered free medical and dental screenings for residents in a community that we have adopted. The smiles of the kids are priceless and make it all worth it. Our week was tons of fun and included a free car wash, meals for police officers, college outreach and nursing home visits. It was most amazing to see the impact that serving had on our own people. All those serving talked about doing it more often. It is so great to spark that hunger in so many in our church!!!
Hello, We are a fairly New Church in Grand Bay, Alabama called Worship Center East. The Lord placed us here to serve our community. During servolution week, we had only one major event planned, but we chose to adopt servolution as a way of Christian life. Our event was a appreciation breakfast for volunteer fireman in the Grand Bay area. We wanted to bless and honor those who serve us. Think about it. VOLUNTEER FIREMEN. No pay and very little thanks, but out of love for the community these people serve us. 16 of 17 of our firemen showed up. They were blown away. This had never been done for them before. Hard to believe. We fed them, we praised them, we prayed for them, and we thanked them for being willing to risk their lives for others. We told them they were in good company, that Christ was also a fire-fighter, just a different type of fire. The fire chief told me that they had been on over 700 calls last year. At the end of the breakfast, I ask the chief to come up and say something. He was speechless, and fought back the tears. There was silence for a moment or two as the chief was clearly touched by the goodness of the Lord. My heart melted, because I knew at that moment, that they felt appreciated, and that the Lord had done a good thing thru servolution, and the Lord was honored, because we done it in His name. The real big thing for me as the Pastor was that the church realized that they could serve, and that it brought much joy and fulfillment to them. They are anxious to do more. I wanted to do an aprrecation breakfast for veterans and currently serving military, but the Lord told me that I was thinking way to small. Now we are planning a full parade for them, and we will gather them together and thank them for standing guard over us as a country. All around the world today, men and women are standing with their guns in their hands, defending us so we can sleep at night in safety. They are to be honored, and because of servolution, we have found many brave-hearts in the church to help with all!
We served San Francisco by distributing 10,000 granola bars along with invites to our Easter service and 25,000 door hangers.
On Easter Sunday our attendance doubled and we had 10 first time decisions for Christ!
What a great day! With terrible storms, rain, tornadoes, and hail the day was not looking promising. But what a great weekend to experience a terrible Friday but a gorgeous Saturday and Sunday. Just like the resurrection saturday and sunday we had beautiful weather and helped many people throughout the weekend.
We had well over 1oo servants in on Saturday for a full day of serving the local community and our church grounds in preparation for the weekend.
We successfully patrolled a 3 mile stretch of road and did a tremendous job picking up trash with a team. We had a team doing roof repairs for a single, elderly lady, we have a team in place to repair a hole in the floor of a lady’s home that was allowing varmints of all sorts to come into her home. We shoveled 45 cubic yards of mulch for campus beautification on the church property and did a variety of other tasks throughout the week.
Thanks for the opportunity to be a part!!!!!!!
These 7 days have taught me that not all the time you have to think only us but the people who do not find ways to lighten their burden in Peru fun of us involved and we are happy to help others work with people in need and with people who no longer has room in his agenda, was certainly a beautiful experience. We were 33 volunteers, we have done many things, from sweeping streets to make a meal on the street.