Circle of Hope

In 2011—through our Compassion Fund—we gave away $46,302.11 in gifts to our friends, family, strangers that had a need. I find it so inspiring to be a part of a family that gives away its money to help people get through hard times and help relieve the stress of bills so that minds are not cluttered with concern but focused on Jesus.

$12,694 helped people to pay their rent, so they could continue working on programs to promote peace and Gods love

Some of the other money went to buying a laptop so someone could accomplish school work, helping people get a months’ worth of groceries, getting a car repaired so they could get to and from work, helping someone to get closer to being debt free.

In 2011 Circle of Hope wrote 74 checks just because we saw or heard of a need.  In my eyes that is the true meaning of family and living like Jesus.

(Submitted by Kate Schafer, Treasurer of the Compassion core team)

Rachel Sensenig was recently deployed as our Administrative Pastor. She is amplifying the “network builder” role in which Grace Ciak-Linton recently served at Broad and Washington.

Our staff tends to adapt to what we need at a given time and to who is available to serve. We are glad Rachel was available and willing to change her life around to exercise her gifts for building our capacity to be an incarnation of Jesus. She’s still a Coordinator, a cell leader and attached to various teams and visions. Now she is taking on the role of focusing on the administrative side of what the pastors do, especially at Broad and Washington.

Her first two weeks have been consumed by figuring out how the office runs, how the computer works, and what all the machines do. Now she knows more about how the traffic of the week and the requirements of all our meetings and events need supervision. She has an idea about how money gets to the bank and provisons are purchased. She has an intercom, gchat, email and phone calls to keep her busy. It is quite a bit! When the President said he wanted to help small business people last night, that was us! Rachel’s up to her neck now in our business. Thanks Rachel!

I’m proud and excited to tell you that the newest member of our Leadership Team is Sara Semborski. She’ll be serving  a three-year term on Compassion Core team, joining Meg, Kate, Josiah, Jess, and Art! She’s 22 and is studying anthropology at Eastern University,  lives in Kensington, and works at Leotah’s Place. She has a Christ-like humility and a servant’s heart. Energy and passion overflow from her. Moreover, she’s able to lead others, and be led herself. She’s faithful, flexible, and positive! A strong woman who is jazzed about this opportunity. Please pray for Sara as she embarks on this journey, while continue to be an Art Director at 19G and one of our Cell Leaders, as well!

We held our second monthly Middle School Family Brunch this past Sunday, January 8^th.  We gathered at the Snyder’s home in South Philly, with 13 people in attendance.  Conversation and relationship building was had over a delicious meal, provided by the Snyder’s.  After the meal, we gathered in the living room to reflect over 2011, using story-telling and a team game, and then shared about our hopes and goals for 2012.  It was a very special time to be together.

Our next brunch will be held on Sunday, February 5^th in West Philly from 11:00a.m.-1:30p.m.  If you are interested in joining us, or know of any middle school kids who would be interested in coming, please e-mail me at nichole.b.jackson@gmail.com for more details.  We hope to keep supporting our middle school kids and their families, as we continue to meet together for a meal, fellowship, games, and conversation about what Jesus is doing in our lives.

I also wanted to bring attention to a BIC event for Middle School kids.  It is a conference called Jump Start on March 2^nd and 3^rd, and its vision statement is: “Jump Start exists to unite young followers and equip them for a journey of passionately transforming the world.”  If you would like more information on this conference, go to jumpstart.GoNextGen.org.