The Gathering hearts Serve Day!

As a church family we value making the presence of Christ known in our city. Despite the brokenness that we may come across every day, God has given us at Grace the opportunity to meet some of those broken areas by the partnerships that we have established with HfLB in our city. We have strong and well-rooted relationships with 15 ‘mercy and justice delivering’ organizations in our city, and twice a year we come together unified as a church family in order to show those organizations how much we care about them by serving them. We do this because our presence in the city matters, and through days like Serve Day, relationships are established that point others toward the reality that God has not abandoned our city. God has allowed us to be stewards, cultivators and shalom-bringers, within our neighborhoods, because that is how much He desires for our city to recognize him. 13 organizations have requested our help, and on July 28th we have the opportunity to serve them...

Here are the details..

At this point we have 115 volunteers signed up, and we still need approximately 250-300 more.


As an ABF, if we rally together to support 1 or 2 projects, we could probably occupy 75 of those spots.

One of the biggest areas of need is for a project called "Fun with the Franklins" at Franklin Middle School... This is one of our biggest projects, with the greatest amount of need. We will be partnering with Franklin Middle School to host a carnival for the students at Franklin as an "end of the Summer School" celebration, and it will also be open to the surrounding community. The students will be showcasing their work, their parents will be offered resources, and there will be games, sports tournaments, food, and more. We need about 60 volunteers in order to pull this event off. This is our first time partnering with Franklin Middle school, and it may provide tremendous opportunity for us to become more involved in being advocates within particular low-income schools.

You can either sign up online at www.serveday.org, or you can sign up at the Information Center on Sunday.

Email Kira Williams with any questions: kwilliams@gracelb.org-

Labels: Gathering, Grace Brethren Long Beach, Serve Day

posted by Christina @ 8:15 AM 0 comments

Call for Volunteers - Music Camp for foster kids in July!

The wonderful Tracy Turner is helping to organize a Music Camp for foster kids and needs a few more volunteers to help with games, crafts, teaching the recorder, lunch, and helping with a music theory lesson.

The camp is on Saturday, July 21 and Saturday, July 28, 9am-3pm, for kids that are entering 1st-6th grade. It would be awesome if people were available for both weeks in order to connect with the kids - but one week would be great too! Contact Tracy for more information at tracy.d.turner@gmail.com or email gatheringgracelb@gmail.com for Tracy's contact number.


(image - www.esa.int)

posted by Christina @ 7:11 AM 0 comments

New Book Club Discussion- The Road, Cormac McCarthy

The lovely Katherine Lo will be hosting a book club on Wednesday, July 18th, 7:30pm at the Labrys Gallery at Grace Brethren Church, featuring "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy.

"A searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy’s masterpiece.

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.

The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, “each the other’s world entire,” are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation."

Join us for a great discussion on this fascinating book.

posted by Christina @ 2:29 PM 0 comments