Church leaders hit streets to spread faith
Published 12:00 am Monday, October 29, 2007
The congregation members at Greater Faith Apostolic Church have been on a mission this week and they’ve taken their mission to the streets — literally.
The church’s pastor, the Rev. Chris Austin said he and others, including evangelist Ken Cook, have spent this week out in the community, meeting people and finding out what is happening in their lives and what their needs are. On Sunday, the church will meet some of those needs by having a giveaway after the regular worship service.
“We’ve done a few things like this but never as big as this one,” Austin said. “But we want to show people that we care.”
The church will have a drawing and give away bicycles, electronic equipment such as videogame players and a television set and even a 1999 Ford Taurus. Some of the items were donated and some were purchased with money the church collected for this purpose.
The week-long outreach was a way to meet people, many of whom are without hope, and share with them the church’s message of hope through Jesus Christ, Austin said.
“We’ve met homeless people and given them blankets and socks and so forth, to show we care,” he said. “We want to show that we care about them and care about the community and we want people to be blessed as we have been blessed.”
Cook said many of the people they have met throughout the week have some knowledge of Christ, and many attended church as children, but then life took a different turn.
“We ran into some drug users. We ran into one man who was drunk every time we saw him. And he said, ‘Don’t give me anything because to tell you the truth if you give me something, in 15 minutes I’ll be out buying some crack,’” Cook said.
Cook, Austin and other faithful hope that by sharing their love and concern with tangible things, those whose lives are touched by this generosity will come to know God’s love and how it can change their lives forever.
To be eligible for the drawings, anyone interested must attend the church service and sign up before 9:45 a.m.