2010 Livingston Christmas Store Set-Up Event

The smell of sloppy joes filled the air as people arrived. One by one, family by family the troops were rallying to "build" the Christmas store. There was much work to be done. The tables were moved, trees and decorations were put up, and most importantly (for some) the bounce house was ready!
The Live2Serve event was a success. Friday night everyone who participated in setup knew they were doing something good for people in need, but the lives touched by the Christmas store will be immeasurable. For the single mom struggling or the family whose breadwinner just lost their job, the stories are countless and one of them may just be your neighbor. We can only hope those who will be able at some point in the future, just "pay it forward." Then we can imagine that this time wasn't just our family and friends helping out for a few hours at church, but rather a gift to the future from those touched by the Christmas store.

Christmas store was a wonderful serving opportunity for us to help out with. Whether you helped Friday, Saturday, Sunday or bought a gift or made a salad. THANK YOU! Your efforts are appreciated and it wouldn't have been the same without you.

November 13th 2010 L2S Event: Decorating Seneca Street at GCH

The day began with a glorious sunrise and the warmth of the sun on our faces, I just knew that God’s presence would be among the 35 plus volunteers from the River Community Church as we descended upon Pontiac and Grace Centers for Hope for the annual Christmas decorating of Seneca Street.

Over the years, Grace Centers for Hope has diligently worked to purchase abandoned housing and convert/refurbish this housing to fill the needs of displaced families across our communities, including abused women and children. The River’s Live 2 Serve compassion team has worked with Grace Centers for Hope on various occasions and have always been humbled by the Heavenly Spirit that envelopes whatever we can do to help/serve, this occasion would be different.

The original intentions and direction given to our team were to “decorate two –to three of the Seneca Street houses”.

Once the game plan was devised and an inventory of decorations performed, we divided and conquered…..Decorating six (6) houses and the community park, all within our three (3) hour time limit! The deserved families could not believe their eyes as the came outside from their homes to find the Glory of Christmas on their streets.

Trees being decorated…..

Garland flying along the porches…..

Stars and beads spiraled around the columns…..

Wreaths up on the houses…..

Thousands of lights wrapped and displayed…..

Nativity scene placed for the park…..

And still found time to organize the storage room in the basement of the Grace Center Chapel….

All I can say as the interim lead for this event is WOW! Live 2 Serve is truly blessed to have such an incredible team, families and volunteers.

Being the hands and feet of JESUS is so much fun and I hope to see you on the next Live 2 Serve project.

Kicking Bear Event

Blessed to be a blessing! Live2Serve had the honor to serve at the Kicking Bear Camping event held at Livingston Conservation & Sports Association on August 27 & 28th in Brighton Michigan.

God's presence was in abundance from:
- Glorious weather
- Opportunity to lock arms and share God's love and nature with 211 disadvantage youth.
- FUN: Hats and Tee shirts for all; Games including Dunk Tank; Marshmallow Roast Kicking Bear style (i.e. 10,000+ marshmallow fight - looked like snow in August); Bon Fire complete with Ray Howell, founder of Kicking Bear sharing his story of salvation; Craig Mortz's inviting youth to give their hearts to the Lord with a Salvation poem; and distribution of New Testaments and that was JUST Friday night! Saturday provided one-on-one mentoring to youth with archery. The event wrapped up with an awesome raffle for both Volunteers and Participants.
- FOOD with the help of our volunteers, we served 3 meals to 350+ people - and we had some hungry campers.
- Opportunity to partner with Kensington Field & Stream Team (FAST)

The list goes on and on - check out some of the pictures and mark your calendars for next years event (Last weekend in August)

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