Parents did you know your child can participate in the Friends of North Richmond initiative?  The first 3 Sundays in November we will be collecting canned goods & diapers.  You may drop off in your child’s ministry area in the large boxes provided.  You can share with your child that there are children in our immediate area who don’t have the food and diapers they need.  Our friends at Helping Hands provide food & diaper assistance.  You may want to allow them to pick out the diapers or food at the store, carry it to church themselves.  This is a great time as a parent to teach our children how to serve others!
 
Collection items needed are:
Dry Soup
Canned Goods
Diapers
Children’s Underwear

For more information please contact River Kids.

This summer I finished this great book titled The Hole In Our Gospel by Richard Stearns the president of World Vision. You can pick up a copy in the River Pointe Bookstore.

This book is personal as it follows Richard’s journey from the epitome of worldly success as the CEO of Lenox to answer the call to become the president of World Vision. I loved his honesty as he openly shares his lengthy struggle and resistance to the idea.

This book is informational but not in a mere fact-stating kind of way. Richard puts out vital information about what is going in on in the world in a way that is current and thought provoking. For me chapter 11 was worth the price of the book, in it Richard unpacks the complexities of poverty juxtaposed against the typical American views on the subject. This is a chapter I will be going back and re-reading. Here is an excerpt from that chapter:

“Perhaps the greatest mistake commonly made by those who strive to help the poor is the failure to see the assets and strengths that are always present in people and their communities no matter how poor they are. Seeing their glasses as half full rather than half empty can completely change our approach to helping.”

This book is challenging and incredibly inspiring. I highly recommend it. In this book you will find compelling stories of the revolutionary power of the gospel and I believe you will find yourself inspired to do your part in demonstrating the whole gospel of loving God and loving your neighbors and our friends of North Richmond.

I was recently faced with this question, “Why should the church help the poor?” This is a great question. I could answer with my own opinions but the Bible has numerous Scriptures about helping the poor. Isaiah 58 is one of my favorites, especially in the context of what we are trying to do in North Richmond.

Isaiah 58:6-12

“This is the kind of fast day I’m after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.

Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, God will answer. You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’
“If you get rid of unfair practices,
quit blaming victims,
quit gossiping about other people’s sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,

Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.

I will always show you where to go. I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—firm muscles, strong bones. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry. You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.”

Tomorrow morning the River Pointe Connect Event participants will be working on four construction projects in North Richmond. We are very excited for these new Home Teams that started as a result of the Connect Event. It’s cool that they get to kick off their Home Team by serving the community of North Richmond together.

We are expecting a large group that will be painting two houses and doing home repairs on two additional houses. It’s going to be a great day as we do our first construction projects under the Friends of North Richmond banner!

There truly is a way for just about anybody to connect to their hobbies and strengths to benefit our friends in North Richmond. This past week we connected Hunters Harvest with Helping Hands. Now area hunters will have a way to donate any left over processed meat to help feed the hungry in North Richmond!

We are very excited to be hosting Career Day for two hundred and forty 4th and 5th graders from Pink and Juan Seguin Elementary Schools! THis will take place on River Pointe’s campus on November 23rd. Stay tuned for details on how you can be involved!

Looking for a benevolence service project? Consider serving Convoy of Hope. Saturday, November 21st at the Fort Bend County Fairgrounds. To volunteer, contact Becky Watts.

Pray for our Construction Lead Team this week as they put together systems for volunteering. If you are interested in donating tools to the cause, contact Rick Cassani, our tool czar.