Mound House Church in Miamisburg Shares an OCC Video
Hilary Sievers, of the Mound HC, shares a great video of her house church packing up their OCC boxes… with lots of kids involved! Fun stuff.
Orphan-Care Resources
In our previous post, we shared how every believer is called to care for orphans. In this post we just wanted to share as many resources as we could to help you get started or continue. Whether it’s adopting, mentoring, giving financially, going on a missions trip, or countless other ways – every one can care for orphans!
10 Ways That You Can Support the Orphan, Fatherless, and Lonely:
1. Pray for them!
- Make them a regular part of your prayer life and the prayer times of your House Church family.
- Fast and ask God to deepen your understanding of His call to seek out the lost, lonely, and needy.
2. Speak up for them.
- Become a court appointed special advocate for a child in foster care – www.nationalcasa.org
- Use your various social media outlets to raise awareness for their needs.
3. Provide for their needs.
- Sponsor a child. (see resource info below)
- Send supplies or financial gifts to a reputable orphanage, especially those internationally in highly impoverished areas.
- Organize a food/supply drive.
4. Support those who support them.
- Pray for the families around you that are adopting or providing foster care.
- Contribute financially to a family in an expensive adoption process.
- Offer to babysit, mow lawns, provide meals, etc. for adoptive/foster families.
5. Protect them from harm.
- Become a foster parent or emergency foster parent for children in transition. (see resource info below)
- Join efforts to free children from the sex-slave trade (see resource info below)
- Start or join an effort to build orphanages, children’s homes, etc to keep them off the streets.
6. Visit them where they are.
- Find a local orphanage or children’s home and spend time building relationships with the people there.
- Go on a mission trip to serve orphans nationally & internationally. www.visitingorphans.org
- Take a meal, Christmas gifts, etc to a local foster group-home.
- Become a mentor. (see resource info below)
7. Give sacrificially to them.
- Support reputable orphan care organizations on a regular basis.
- Contribute generously to an adoptive family to help them off-set their costs. (see info above)
8. Encourage them.
- Sponsor a child, support them financially, and encourage them through your letters. (see resource info below)
- Join in efforts like Operation Christmas Child or Shoes for Orphan Souls.
- Become a mentor or tutor for those needing help. (see resource info below)
9. Mobilize your church for them.
- Help your house church figure out ways you can regularly be involved with the lost, lonely, and needy.
- Help them stick with it and continue!
10. Adopt them.
- Give a child a home through international, domestic, or foster care adoption. (see resource info below)
- Adopt a young adult who has aged out of the system.
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RESOURCES
A few local Foster Care & Adoption agencies:
- Specialized Alternatives for Families and Youth (SAFY)
- Montgomery County Children Services
- Greene County Children Services
A few International Adoption agencies:
- All God’s Children International
Apex Families currently the International Adoption Process that could use prayer & financial support (as of 1/11):
- Josh & Tami Rogers – therogersuz[at]gmail.com
- Dan & Abby Garman – daniel.garman[at]gmail.com
- Jason & Angela Maggard – jmaggard3[at]woh.rr.com
Local Child Mentoring Programs:
International Child Sponsorship:
Rescuing Children from Sex-Exploitation and Slavery:
- International Justice Mission
General Orphan Care Resources:
- The Christian Alliance for Orphans
Orphan-Care: The Call of Every Follower of Jesus
This past weekend, Apex devoted it’s gatherings to the Biblical call for every believer to care for orphans. We didn’t want to make an emotional appeal that would produce action out of pity. There is plenty of that in the world already and, usually, pity-based action is very short lived.
We wanted to help Christians see that inside each of them is “the Spirit of adoption“! Because God has given us His Holy Spirit to lead us from within, that means that we have His very nature inside of us…and part of God’s nature is orphan-care. He is a God of adoption – seeking out the lost, lonely, and needy and giving them a family…a home…a future. He doesn’t just seek the easy or comfortable – he sought out the failures, the most needy and draining of people, and made them His kids. Scripture even tells us that He didn’t just adopt lonely kids…we were His enemies. We were against Him! Yet His love was still lavished on us and He sought us out and turned His enemies into His dearly loved kids!
That is why every one of us who calls ourselves a “follower of Jesus” has a nature to reach the needy. It’s not something crazy or weird, it’s natural. That is why you feel sad when you see those commercials…that is why you struggle when you see the guy with a sign on the side of the road…that is why your heart breaks at the disasters of the world. Because God has put within you a Spirit that says “Daddy! They need a Daddy!”
God has made you to be an reflection of Him…so just as He naturally cares for orphans, so do we. I mean it when I say that the Church (the real Church…the big ‘C’ Church) is the hope of the worldwide orphan crisis. Adoption is who we are now. Orphan-care is who we are now.
I can’t wait to see how God uses Apex to change the scope of the needs in Dayton, Ohio, the U.S., and the World!
(We definitely don’t want to just throw out the challenge without giving you some helpful ways to get involved…resources and ideas coming in the next post.)
A Watermelon Story
by Erin Hoy
Colonial HC, a Kettering-area house church, has had several opportunities this summer to engage neighborhoods with Watermelon Parties. Watermelon Parties are designed to reach kids with the love of Jesus through songs, games, crafts, snacks (including watermelon!), and a gospel presentation.
The house church took time off of their regularly scheduled meeting time to prepare for and host the parties. Using resources provided by Apex, the church passed out fliers and personally invited their neighbors to the parties.
Approximately twenty kids showed up to one of their events, most of whom were non-believers. The kids were attentive during the gospel presentation and asked questions throughout. At the end of the presentation, three kids invited Jesus into their lives. Members of the house church had conversations with those kids after the event. The idea is that house church members will follow up with the families of those who accepted Christ and continue developing the relationships that were started at the party.
One of the Colonial HC members, Scott, was able to teach for another HC’s watermelon party as well. It attracted a large number of people from India. Interestingly, at this party, the adults were very alert to what was being said.
In addition to being an outreach opportunity, these parties served to build community within the house church. Shared experiences and working together as a team foster healthy interdependence and help us to see the value that each person contributes to the body as a whole.
God knows the level of impact that these and other events have on people’s hearts. It is up to us to be faithful to the work that He calls us to do! Let us all be praying for the eyes to see the opportunities that God gives us each day to be His ambassadors in our spheres of influence.
The Horlacher HC Partners with Keynote for Concert Outreach
written by Jonelle Utt
The band was set. The hot dogs were cooking. We were praying that God would bring the right people.
Of course He did.
At the end of July, many Apex house churches united together with Chris Brownleigh & the Horlacher house church in Region 3. Their house church has been tutoring and mentoring the kids from the nearby St. Vincent de Paul’s Kettering Commons apartments. This complex is a permanent supportive housing program for families who have been homeless.
God orchestrated details so that the Horlacher house church was connected with Tony and Jonelle Utt of the WestCarrollsBurgWood Forest HC in Region 4. The Utts are raising support to work with the creative arts ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, Keynote. Keynote’s mission is to strategically help evangelistic ministries make the gospel readily understandable to their own target audience by providing innovative and creative resources, such as performing arts, film, and communication training.
After some planning, the house churches decided to put together a free picnic for the apartment residents, including a concert by a Keynote band. About 75 people came to the show – on a day where the heat index was over 100 degrees!
Everyone had a great time dancing to music by Sara Bareilles, Paramore, Owl City, Switchfoot, and more. In between songs, some band members shared stories from Read More
Xenia HCs Partner with AIA for Community Sports Camp
written by Erin Hoy
The Kinsey Road house church in Xenia has had recent opportunities to build relationships not only with their local community but also with a neighboring house church.
In July, this house church partnered with Athletes in Action (AIA) to host a free sports camp in their neighborhood. Over the course of three days, approximately thirty kids from Xenia attended the camp.
Each day, the kids were divided into age-specific groups and then rotated through various sports stations. Athletes in Action interns taught volleyball, basketball, baseball, and soccer skills. The evenings ended with a snack and devotional, which included challenges on integrity and character related to sports skills.
The children’s parents were invited to stay, which provided opportunities to build relationships, have spiritual conversations, and expand interest in the house church. The event also Read More
Haiti Bagging Day 2010 Wrapup
Praise God for Bagging Day 2010!
Please enjoy the bagging day montage video above. We also encourage you to read the note (below) from the Bagging Day Team, and be sure to keep your eyes open for Bagging Day 2011 next year!
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Missions Update: Zambia Trip 2010 – part 2
Begin “A Lifestyle of Going”
Don’t forget that next Saturday, May 22nd, Oasis International Ministries will be joining us in the Missions Cafe from 9am – 2pm for a day of discussing what scripture says about missions, ways that we can engage in missions daily, insights on cultural boundaries Oasis has gained over the years, and the different avenues that are available both domestically and internationally here at Apex. We will be providing lunch for you between sessions. Registration is $5 and will end on May 19th. If you would like to join us, please be sure to pick up an RSVP envelope, fill it out, and drop it in the 
giving boxes in the orange room. If you have questions feel free to contact Tabatha Green via an email to tabatha.green@apexcommunity.org.
BEE World Ministry
For those of us living here in the Miami Valley we have become accustom to a social phenomenon not universally experienced in the rest of the country. As Americans, especially American males, our identity is found largely in our work. It is quite understandable then that one of the first questions we ask one another as we are being introduced is, “What line of work are you in?” Here in the Miami Valley it is not considered rude to simply answer, “I work at ‘The Base’”. Whether or not you realize it, in most of America saying that you, “work across town” is considered standoffish and rude. We understand though, that it is in the best interest of our nation’s security to not ask too many prying questions related to what does or does not happen at Wright-Patterson AFB.
The other day as I was preparing to write this post I asked Craig Kordic what his responsibilities were and where he carried them out. When he told me that he works in countries from “Northern Africa through out the Middle East to Southern Asia”, I understand what he means. Like Wright-Patt’s secrets, that part of the world is Read More