An array of service projects organized by Peoples Church (PC) known as Healing and Serving (HandS) will be launched, Oct. 6. There will be a variety of projects, such as feeding the homeless, cleaning up local parks and making blankets.
The goal of the project is to help the community but also to form lasting relationships. Event coordinator Vanessa Markarian, mother of FC student Jared Markarian, ’17, emphasized connecting with the community as an integral part of the project.
“HandS is an opportunity for people to go out and serve our community,” Markarian said. “I think it will benefit the community because we’re doing a lot of service projects in parks and neighborhoods, and places that need a little extra love. Hopefully it will not just be a one-time thing but people will build relationships that they start on the trips.”
Markarian also noted that opportunities for service can be valuable for those serving, not just for the recipients.
“Students and their parents should get involved in this because it’s something that they can do to show Christ through acts of service,” Markarian said. “It also benefits our members, by allowing them to do something to help other people.”
Thomas Friesen, ’17, is planning to serve on Saturday and showed enthusiasm for serving others.
“I’m going to be planting flowers over at Edison High School,” Friesen said. “I’m excited because I am looking forward to showing a Christ-like attitude and serving the community. It will be an opportunity to help the community and share God’s love. ”
Matt Markarian, junior high leader for PC and husband to Vanessa, identified HandS as a huge opportunity for the church and other believers to serve.
“As followers of Christ we are called to serve other people, so we are fulfilling that mission by being good stewards to our community,” Matt said. “When people do a project like this, it forms relationships. It ends up connecting people to sort of a mission lifestyle and encourages the kingdom of God.”
Adam Loughney, ’14, will not be participating, but agreed that HandS will be beneficial for the community.
“I don’t really know that much about it, other than that it’s a project to help people,” Loughney said. “I do think that the HandS project is a good thing for the community. Personally, I’m not going to participate in it, for the reason that I have to study for the SAT.”
To serve as a group, the group must come to a decision on which service project they would like to work on and send one person to register the group. For each project there is only a certain amount of openings. There is no fee to participate in this project but volunteers may be asked to bring supplies.
For more information, call Vanessa Markarian at 559.298.8001 x270 or send emails to PC Events. For more details on individual projects, visit the PC HandS website. For more news, read the Oct. 4 article, BRIEF: Students to attend Cal Poly tour.
