“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us.” 2 Corinthians 5:20
Saturday, June 18, 2011, was the Third Annual Day of MERCY! MERCY Worldwide (Maximizing Efforts for Relief Care and Youth) is the benevolent arm of the International Christian Churches. Over 1, 200 MERCY Ambassadors on five continents embraced our local communities by providing compassionate service in multiple capacities.
Here in Orlando, twenty disciples volunteered at the Salvation Army Independent Living Towers in Downtown Orlando. This 15-floor apartment building is housing for many poverty stricken elderly people. The loneliness, neglect and abandonment of the elderly is devastating! Gloria, an elderly lady who we served by vacuuming her apartment said, “Thank you so much for visiting me. I can’t drive or go anywhere, so I appreciate the company! This was wonderful!” Eddie, an elderly man was served by the disciples as they cleaned his apartment. He said, “This is the first time I’ve felt like people came in who really cared. I sit around and wonder everyday if what I’m doing is right and if I’m saved. Can you all study the Bible with me?” The brothers prayed with him and are going to study the Bible with him. Princess, an elderly lady was in tears with gratitude. Eight disciples went into her apartment which was barely liveable and they cleaned the kitchen, toilets, removed garbage and washed dishes. She tearfully said, “I’m so blessed that you were here. Please come back! Thank you so much!”
The following are some good news stories from the International Christian Churches around the world about their Day of MERCY!
MERCY Orange Country Region of LA – Raul Moreno: 80 MERCY Ambassadors visited a senior resident facility and provided entertainment for all 110 residents! The entertainment included dancing, singing and the now “infamous” and hilarious Chicken Man Performance by my son Felipe! We had activities on each floor for the residents that were bed bound: We painted their nails and massaged their hands. We also had one-on-one visiting, singing in each room, and gifts donated by the volunteers: cards, jewelry, etc. What most of the MERCY Ambassadors shared during our lunch brought tears to all of our eyes. They shared about the loneliness in the residents’ lives and the deep desire the residents shared for us to return… And we will!
MERCY Washington DC – Carlos Mejia: Over 80 Ambassadors were divided in two unified efforts to serve both Garfield Elementary School and West Elementary School. Garfield Elementary, due to the lack of staff, had to rely on the 5 to 10 year old students to move over 250 different text books down three flights of stairs into the basement storage room. The tasks ranged from packing an entire library collection of books into boxes at Garfield Elementary to sorting nine classroom libraries in 23 different reading levels at West. The principals and teachers could not stop thanking MERCY for meeting the needs of the schools.
MERCY New York City – Kwaku Sarkodie: The NYC Branch held five projects for the Day of MERCY. Two groups of MERCY Ambassadors encouraged the lives of seniors at two nursing homes, one in the Bronx and one in Brooklyn, spending time, sharing stories and singing songs. Another group of MERCY Ambassadors worked with City Harvest in Union Square, collecting over 2000 lbs of donated food from the farmers market to be distributed to the poor and homeless of New York City. Other MERCY Ambassadors worked with Meals on Heels, a NYC non-profit organization that serves meals to the elderly incapable of leaving their apartments. This group of Ambassadors served meals to 10 elderly people in their apartments in the city and spent time encouraging them. The last group of MERCY volunteers served in Queens, repairing the home of a disciple’s mother-in-law in need.
MERCY Honolulu – Kyle Bartholomew: This past Saturday about fifty MERCY Ambassadors gathered to volunteer at a local park run by Kama’aina Kids. This organization feeds over 10,000 less fortunate children a day here in Oahu. As a result of being short staffed, MERCY Ambassadors provided our services in cleaning-up the premises of the park by doing yard work, “weed-eating,” and some carpentry. Around the park, there were sounds of joy and laughter as we all were encouraged and eager to support this cause!
MERCY London – Michael Williamson: What an impacting and memorable weekend for the London International Christian Church as we served one of the most famous hostels in Europe! “Arlington House” is situated in the heart of London’s “art district” – Camden Town. The hostel was designed to provide clean and decent accommodation for 1,103 working men. The disciples definitely rolled-up their sleeves! We had a few IT professionals update computer workstations, several members hauled trash and cleared massive storage facilities. Another task included sorting a garage-sized room literally full of resident laundry and donated clothing – the majority of which were unclean! Since most of the individuals living there are homeless, plagued with mental illness and deformity, a heart-touching need in Arlington was for Ambassadors to fellowship some of the residents in the common area. One resident said, “No one wants to talk to people like us who are outcasts in society.” The Director of Arlington was in shock at our request to serve them. “The London International Christian Church is the first church in England that’s volunteered to serve at our facility so you guys are ‘Trailblazers’!” He smiled and thanked us for serving. This weekend proved that it is definitely “more blessed to give than receive!” To God be all the glory!
MERCY Santiago, Chile – Vic Gonzalez: Our Day of Mercy started with an awesome fast! Then Friday night, the “universitarios” (teen and campus) students prepared 100 sandwiches! At 6AM, we warmed water then packed-up and headed to the Vega Central where we served over a hundred breakfasts, distributed socks, and had life-changing talks! This morning at our Sunday Worship Service, eight of the people we served were fired-up guests!
MERCY Kiev, Ukraine – Oleg and Aliona Sirotkin: We are so grateful for the inspiration from the call for all the disciples in the SoldOut Movement to be like Jesus and serve the poor and needy. This Friday, we visited our city boarding school for blind children and told them of our willingness to support them as a church, to which they immediately responded with gratitude. We gave them new pots as they had been using the old iron pans for 150 students; we organized the reading materials for the blind, as well as organizing events and excursions. The whole church willingly donated money to buy everything they need for the kids, and we were happy to bring it to them!
We hope you are inspired and encouraged after reading these great accounts! For more information and to donate to MERCY Worldwide, please click here.