Crisis Response and Paradise EFC teamed up for our very first “Serve Saturday” in May. We teamed up with Chico EFC, and between the 2 churches, we had about 12 people ready to serve, including the children as young as five. We met at Paradise EFC and had a little orientation, sharing that the goal of Serve Saturday is basically to be the hands and feet of Jesus wherever we are serving. Our goal for the day was to work together and bless Siran, a senior lady that lives in Paradise.

Siran is single, and lives in a home in Paradise with her brother. She has a lot of land with many fruit trees, as well as a beautiful garden. She has always been the one to do all the yardwork, but she is getting older and slowing down so her property was in a bit of disarray. We wanted to support her by bringing volunteers to help get the yard and gardens back in order, so every time she looks outside she remembers she is loved.

We worked for several hours and then everyone took a break for lunch together. It was a great time of getting to know each other, and then we worked for several more hours in the afternoon. What fun it was to look out over Siran’s yard and see people all over the place, doing all these different jobs! At the end of the day we all circled up and prayed for Siran, who was very touched and was almost in tears. She said that never had she had so many people come out to her place and help her so much.

Our 2nd Serve Saturday in June was extra special because we had three evangelical free churches: Paradise, Chico and Oroville! One of our goals is to build local church partnerships, so we were thrilled to have three churches working together. Everyone split up into teams: some people went back to Siran’s home to continue there, others stayed at Paradise Free Church to work on the grounds. One team prayer walked in the community, some did assessments of homes, and some gave out banana bread to homeowners. No matter what task a team was given, everyone was focused on sharing the love of Christ in Paradise with their words and their actions.

Please pray for how God will use our next serve Saturday! Want to join us for a few days or a week? Email respond@efca.org for more information on how you can serve with a team in Paradise.