University of Rochester Christian Fellowship (URCF)

After a long travel day we finally arrived in warm and sunny South Florida! Thank you so much to Cape Coral First UMC for hosting and partnering with us this week!  We are so excited to see what the Lord does in and through us during our time here!

As we were getting ready to head out to our work sites for the day, we had a moment to just praise God for what He’s done and what He will do! It’s so important to refocus our hearts as we head out!

After a long day we took the opportunity to enjoy some time with the church youth group! We had a water balloon launching competition and it was a BLAST! We attempted to get them as far as possible, through a hoop, and or landed on a target! This was a great way to wind down and fellowship together!

After an amazing meal with our fellow team and the local youth group, Pastor Ken shared a powerful word with us to start our week!

“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” 

‭‭Mark‬ ‭10‬:‭45‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Ken encouraged us to put on the servants cloth and to let Christ overflow from us instead of pouring from an empty cup! He reminded us to be expectant of the Lord to move and aware of the tricks of the enemy! 

“Don’t let the enemy steal the joy of servant hood.” - Pastor Ken

What better way to end the first day than with some fun team time and “get to know you” questions! Turns out  you can learn some really fun things about people just by knowing their favorite movie and flavor of ice cream!

Today we had the opportunity to do some mucking and gutting for a local homeowner. After some hard work we sat down for a refreshing lunch!

We kicked off our day with some debris clean up in a local trailer neighborhood called Palmetto Palms! 

As we worked in Palmetto Palms we had the opportunity to help remove furniture and debris from a local homeowner’s house.

Everyone, meet Rick and Margie! This couple reached out to us yesterday for some help cleaning out debris from underneath their house. Rick had just prayed the other day and asked for the Lord to send them some help and we got to answer that prayer! We had and incredible time working for this sweet family! Throughout the whole process we got to see evidence of the Gospel! What the enemy meant for evil the Lord turned for good! When God comes in, He takes out the old and rebuilds something new and something even stronger! Our God is too good to not believe!

We wrapped up early with Margie and Rick’s home so we joined them in helping to clean up the public bathrooms in the community. Having clean facilities like this is such a blessing to these homeowners as they work to repair and rebuild!

After a long day we enjoyed a sweet treat as a gift from some local homeowners!

Today we are serving alongside a local food pantry! 

Community Cooperative has an incredible impact on their community! They do everything from supporting meals on wheels, to providing food for local schools, to providing social work aid for families, and so much more! They even set up a P.O. box so that when people are trying to get in their feet they have an address to write down! This is truly an amazing outreach and we are so excited to partner with them!

Today we’re helping Community Cooperative set up for a Gala fundraiser! We started out by picking up some plants at a local nursery for decoration!

We’re cleaning totes so that we can use them to help transport food and supplies to the Ford dealership for the Gala!

We’re working with the second of three kitchen shifts today! Each shift helps to supply fresh meals for the community!

Community Cooperative has serval Master Gardeners that volunteer. They put together an amazing Garden that helps provide fresh produce for the food pantry, soup kitchen, and the community as a whole!

We had an amazing time serving in South Florida this week! The Lord is so good and He was so evident in everything that happened this week! See you soon FL!