2010 Year in Review
By God’s grace, together we have done great things!
In 2010, the churches in Riverside collectively gave over $72,000 to keep King Hall Transitional Living Facility, Hulen Emergency Shelter and the Family Shelter open and running with excellent care. Our local shelters opened their doors to over 1850 men, women and children providing a total of 104,800 bed nights in 2010. Thank you, Riverside churches!!
Our partner churches also served as Guest Chefs at all three shelters run by Path of Life Ministries, providing nearly 55,000 home-made dinners to shelter guests in 2010.
We sent dozens of skilled volunteers, including doctors, nurses, and pharmacists for the Health in Motion clinic for homeless families.
The Health in Motion ministry saw 940 patients this year!
Back in January, we partnered with the City of Riverside to put on Project Homeless Connect – where 400 local volunteers created a One-Day, One-Stop service event for 500 homeless men and women – from haircuts and new clothes, to legal aid and a dentist visit.
In March, we helped organize Riverside’s first Minister’s Prayer Retreat! Nineteen leaders spent two night and two days together at the Oak Glen Christian Conference Center. We worshipped together, hiked in the mountains, prayed for our city and connected with each other and with God!
Over 12 volunteers from six local churches worked together to lead a Life Hurts, God Heals recovery program for the teenagers at King Hall over the summer. 30+ teens participated in the weekly healing groups and everyone involved enjoyed the two Saturday field trips: the Day of Adventure and the Day of Play!
We participated in the 30 Day Prayer Calendar for local foster children that are waiting to be adopted. Over half of the children highlighted in the calendar have now been matched with their forever family. We also participated in the Walk Your Talk Walk at California Baptist University to raise awareness for local foster children.
TURN partnered with Child Protective Services and 10 local churches in August to throw a Back to School Picnic, where local foster families were invited for a day of fun and play. 110 volunteers participated from our partner churches and over 25 local business donated towards the event. If we added up the value of all the volunteer hours, plus the thousands of dollars worth of school supplies and gifts for the children and parents, the total donation made towards the lives of foster children in our area totaled $35,700.
For the first time ever in Riverside, our churches launched a series of Faith Based Summits with Child Protective Services. 15 churches have attended these action-oriented gatherings where we have worked together to find more quality foster homes, help reunify families and help support families during the Team Decision Making process. This group organized a Team Decision Making Workshop in June, helped launch the Kids Corner Storehouse for Foster Children in July, and they put together the Back to School Foster Care Picnic in August!
For the 4th year in a row, local churches came together for the BLESS Riverside Prayer Service. We had 250 participants
representing 38 local churches gather on top of Mt. Rubidoux on Saturday, September 18th to corporately pray for our city. We sang together, prayer together, laughed and cried together. The theme for this year was “Riverside: Arise, Shine!” taken from Isaiah 60: 1-2. It was a truly powerful event leaving us all with much hope and anticipation of what the Lord has planned for our city! The Prayer Service was the kick-off event for the city-wide 40 Days of Prayer and Fasting, concluded by a Worship Celebration on November 1st.
Finally, our churches worked together at Christmastime to spread love and joy at the four local shelters that have children in residence: King Hall, the Family Shelter, Genesis House and Amelia’s Light. 145 volunteers from 21 local churches worked side-by-side leading children’s parties, planning gift wrapping and taking residents out shopping for the evening. Over 1000 volunteer hours were invested, 300 $25 gift cards were donated, nearly 300 moms, dads, grandmas and children were showered with love and everyone involved was blessed!
Thank you, Riverside churches, for an amazing year!!