A revolutionary movement of God requires revolutionary sacrifice. This far reaching change begins with an UPRISING! Vail Christian Church has given one full Sunday offering to launch this uprising in the community where we live. This is what God has challenged us to do - and we want to hear how you have responded. This blog has been created for you to tell your story and experience. You can also read other stories of giving and connect to the UPRISING.
*** Click on the title or “comments” to tell your story.
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Over a month ago, I encountered a very friendly woman at our children’s aftercare center. I discovered that her spouse is deployed to Afghanistan for a year. I invited her over for dinner and we spoke about each others background.
She is a hard working military wife and employee. She cares for her two sons all on her own. One of her sons is autistic. They have no local family and very small group of local friends. She is a strong Christian woman that has a passion to build community groups in Vail, AZ.
She hardly does anything for herself. Since she is such a hard worker and kind individual we decided to bless her with the $20 from the envelope, along with another $20 from our family. We anonymously left it attached to her front door in the “Uprising envelope”, along with a message that stated to take a break and go out to dinner with her children.
Posted in Javalina’s e-newsletter Tuesday, September 16th, 2008:
Yesterday, I received a mysterious envelope from Vail Christian Church with $50 in it. I’ve since learned that the church had divided one week’s offering and gave it back to the parishioners with the sole purpose of blessing others with it. A lady dropped the envelope off when I wasn’t at the shop, and I just want to say thank you. I plan to use it to give back to the community, and I’ll tell you all about it in a future newsletter.
We feel very blessed to be a part of the Vail School District. This year is our daughter’s first year of school and she has the most amazing teacher! Everyday her teacher greets the students with a smile and encouraging words!! Her teacher is so passionate about teaching. Every week is a new adventure. She is constantly buying school and craft supplies with her own money to make sure that the kids are challenged with new projects.
Our daughter’s teacher is a Military Wife and Mother to two young boys. Her sacrifice, passion, enthusiasm, and dedication to her family and teaching is honorable. We decided to bless her and her family with $35 from the envelope with an additional $40 from our family. Teachers deserve praise and appreciation on a daily basis! Especially ones like our daughter’s teacher!!
When I received God’s money this past Sunday, I knew I wanted to give the money to someone who really needed it. I prayed for God’s direction and was led to the Commissary on base. I knew that the people who bag groceries work for very little money and felt God pushing me to give to one of these individuals. A very nice lady bagged my groceries, and loaded them in my car. As she was closing my car door I gave her the money from the envelope. She accepted what she thought was a small tip, took the money in her hand, and walked away. As I was driving away I noticed a huge smile on her face and new that this was a blessing to her. I am thankful for the opportunity to bless somebody today.
Our daughter and older son attend Sonshine Preschool at Eastside Covenant Church (next door to Sahuaro High School). This school has been a wonderful experience for our kids, helping them grow not only in knowledge but also socially. With the increase cost of doing business and the economic downfall that has happened, they haven’t been able to enroll as many children as they can. Every week when I drop the kids off, their announcement board is constantly asking for additional families. We decided to take the $65 we had combined from both of our envelopes and buy school supplies for the preschool. We loaded up on washable markers, glue sticks, and construction paper from Wal-Mart. When I dropped them off today and talked to the director, she was truly touched and blessed. She says thank you to Vail Christian Church.
I took my sister in for an appointment to have an ultrasound performed. She had been having some medical issues and was really worried, not only about the mysterious symptoms she had been experiencing, but about the cost, as she cannot afford health insurance and lives on an extremely small income. I had decided in advance how much I wanted to contribute to paying for it using Vail’s money as well as some of our own and while she was having the procedure done I secretly gave the money to the receptionist. She had told me that if I paid the entire amount, there would be a big discount, but unfortunately it was more than I could spend. When my sister came up front to “settle up”- she gave them some money that she had saved for a “down payment”. It turns out between the two of us, it added up to pay the full amount and she no longer needed to worry about additional payments. She was so incredibly thankful and I knew God was in it, because He had told me the amount to give before we even arrived.
I think the ‘Uprising’ is a wonderful idea. When I received the $20 on Sunday morning I had no idea what to do . On Monday morning I mentioned it to a lady I work with, Heidi, she asked what I was going to do and I told her I didn’t know yet but that I was praying for guidance. Tuesday morning, Heidi came to me and said “I don’t know how much you got in your envelope, but I would like to match it.” Awesome! So I also matched it. The $20 was now $60. We were going to buy staples for ‘The Giving Tree’ an organization that feeds over 200 homeless people each week. When I went on to their site, It stated that for every $1 that was donated, they could purchase $6 worth of food.
We donated $50 which will purchase $300 in food. Our God truly is an Awesome God. I retained $10 to give to a man that I pass every morning on my way to work. He stands on the street corner, selling newspapers. I told him the gift was in Jesus’ name. His smile brightened my day.
I just wanted to share with you a great testimony that happen to
me just the other day. I was in a spot, where I didn’t have any groceries
to speak of and didn’t want to ask anyone for help. I had said a little
prayer, telling the lord I would just wait on him. Within 15min, Ron Andler
handed me an Uprising envelope with some money, not a great deal, but
enought for me to get what I needed to feed my girls. Normally the amount
would not have covered what I bought, but thru my lord, he provided. Once
again, my lord revealed himself to me, and Ron was such a blessing for me
that day and he and your Church will be blessed back 7 fold.
I really didn’t know who to give our money to. I kept thinking and praying about it and yesterday I got a very clear answer. Give it to the coffee guy. Every day after I drop my daughter off at preschool I stop by the little coffee cart between the tracks in Vail. The guy who owns it is always so nice. I wanted to bless him with an extra big tip in his tip jar today. So today he will find a $100 bill with a pink sticky note that has this web address and a note that says, “Just something to make your day a little brighter! God Bless!” Thanks VCC for your generosity - this has been an awesome experience!
About two years ago God gave me the idea to start a Prayer Shawl Ministry at the Northminster Presbyterian Church. It took me 5 months but I finally found a co-leader who would help me start the ministry. There are twenty-six on that team.
When I moved to Vail, AZ and met Rosalie Mercer, she invited me to attend Vail Christian Church. About eight months later I started the Prayer Shawl Ministry Group there. There are eight members on the Prayer Shawl Ministry team.
I decided to use the $15.00 I received in my envelope to buy several pairs of baby booties and include a prayer card with each pair and hand them out this coming Sunday.
If any of you who knit or crochet or who would like to learn how to knit and would like to be a part of the Prayer Shawl Ministry Group, please contact me at 520-884-5471 or if any of you could donate yarn and other knitting and crocheting accessories, I would appreciate it very much also.
Thanks so much for the money. The money that I received the the envelope enabled me to impact the lives of others.
I am thankful to God, to the Vail Christian Church, and to Rosalie Mercer and others who have given me rides to and from Church and other wonderful things they have done for me and for my husband Allan.
I have a coworker whom I’m building a relationship with. She’s not a Christian, and I’m trying to be a good example of a normal person who loves Jesus and lives for Him rather than some of the less-than-stellar examples of Christianity she’s experienced. She has been getting stressed at work, and her husband currently works the swing shift, so they never see each other. My husband and I put our two envelopes together and added a little of our own money to make one fifty dollar bill and one two dollar bill. I made her a card and wrote in one of my favorite relationship verses (Ecclesiastes 4:9-11). The two dollar bill was to remind her of that verse (It’s the one that says “Two are better than one…”), and the fifty was so that she and her husband can go on a nice date when she takes her vacation. She was really excited, and seemed kind of amazed that we would do that. I hope it’s another step forward in a great relationship with her, and possibly a growing relationship between her and her Lord.
We know of a wonderful thrird grade teacher who works at Cottonwood Elementary School in the Vail School District. She and her boyfriend were side swiped- he died and she was in critical care in a hospital in Phoenix. She is recovering but has a long way to go. She is a teacher so she has little funds or time off for the recovery period and she will have large medical bills, not to mention her boyfriend of seven years funeral. We matched the funds given to us and sent them with a candle from the Vail Christian Church Family letting her know God cares and so do we!
There we were sitting in the second, maybe third row that Sunday morning. After Ben’s sermon, it was explained that there were envelopes in the basket at the front with an array of dollar amounts. We were asked to touch someone’s life/lives or just say thank you. The butterflies began in my stomach. This was not my money, possibly not even the church’s money but God’s money. Wow, the things I could do and wish that I could do with this. As I prayed for the past week of what to do with it and who could be the most deserving. I thought of many people, I work on the Southside of town and respond to many “needy” families. I thought of them and was reminded some of them choose to be this way. I thought of my neighbor as his wife has been very sick and repeatedly in and out of the hospital. But I finally felt that God was leading me toward my son’s kindergarten teacher. She has been teaching our nations youth and making a difference in our society for the past 20+ years. She has been a tremendous blessing and encouragement to my son and I can only assume all of her students. She goes out of her way to send an e-mail nightly of the days activities so the parents can be in the loop. She has scheduled “family fun nights” so that the parents can come to the class in the evening and do projects with their kids. She also has scheduled and come to our home to play with Kadin and Evan. Wow, one might ask does she have any time of her own? There is no doubt in my mind that all whom are successful in life owe a huge grattitude to God, their parents, and the teachers that have influenced their lives. We gave our money and then some to her so that her and her husband may have a nice evening out over the upcoming break.
This was a very hard task for us because there was so much we wanted to do. We received $15 and as a family decided that we would take the money from our “change jar” that we have been collecting and add to it. We were able to make/purchase 20 school supply kits that were donated to Acacia Elem and 10 sets of hand sanitizer and kleenex boxes that were donated to Old Vail Middle School. Finally we gave $48 to the lovely bus driver who has taken our kids to school safely for the past 48 days.
Recently, we have started volunteering at the Tucson Gospel Rescue Mission, so when this opportunity came up, we immediately thought of serving the homeless population of Tucson. We pooled our money from the Uprising envelopes and bought cases of water and packaged food, and set aside time Thursday morning to give them away.
We set up near a bus stop in South Tucson and later at Armory Park in central Tucson and gave away food and water, along with gospel tracts to many struggling folks that we encountered.
During that time, we met more than 25 people, including Barbara — an elderly Christian woman who also asked us to keep her in our prayers as she tries to access any kind of housing.
The leftover food and water was taken to the Tucson Gospel Rescue Mission, and they will definitely put it to good use in their men’s and women’s shelters.
This was a wonderful idea, and we are grateful to Vail Christian Church for encouraging us to serve Christ in such a tangible way.
I am a student-athlete who plays soccer at the U of A, and I was fortunate enough to not be travelling last weekend so I was able to make Sunday’s service. I brought one of my teammate’s with me to church so we decided to get an envelope together. After opening our envelope we couldn’t figure out what to do. Then we remembered our strength coach. Our strength coach puts so much time and energy into creating our workouts to improve our soccer program but she gets little credit in return. She pushes our team beyond our limit, and my team often ends up complaining during workouts because we are usually exhausted and don’t feel like lifting weights or running. My teammate and I decided that we wanted to do something for her to let her know how much she means to our program and to us. Considering our envelope had $15 we decided to pitch in an extra few dollars and buy her an assortment of flowers. We bought her a bouquet of flowers and left them on her desk with a note telling her how much we appreciate her. When we saw our strength coach in person she had the biggest smile on her face and she gave us a big hug too. She said we made her week, and it made us happy to know that we could do something so little to make her so happy.
I had the privilege to bless a women at work who has been sacrificing her time, love and energy to take care of her grandkids while her son and wife get their act together. She never complains about caring for all 6 of them ranging from ages 4-16. In fact, she has gone out of her way to make sure each child has had the proper counseling/therapy to live a normal productive life moving forward.
I placed the money in a card sharing about VCC’s story and how I felt the Lord was leading me to bless her in this way. She said she cried the whole way home from work. She shared that she feels blessed six times over every day! She also shared that her husband has been wanting to take her out on a date night for months, but they just didn’t have the money for babysitting and dinner out. Tonight they plan on having a night out on the town! Thank you VCC!
My wife and I were very excited about this idea of giving unexpectedly and using the money we were entrusted with to touch someone’s life. We decided to put our funds together (w/ a little extra) and give it to a family from our previous church. They really are a remarkable family. The husband and wife were told they could not have children , so over a 3 year period they adopted 3 children. All who were previously abused, or born with addictions. About 1 year after they adopted these children , the wife got pregnant with their own. They were ecstatic to have the new addition, but we do know that they have a very hard time getting by financialy. Also, Very recently the wife was diagnosed w/ breast cancer. Fortunately she has been doing very well and she is healthy and strong and the cancer is in remission. Through all this I know they have remained very positive and faithful. They continue to give of their time and energy to serve at their church and others in the community. Sometimes, I believe becasue they do give so much , they get overlooked. We decided to send them the money anonymously along w/ a note thanking them for their work,their faith, and their positive attitude in the midst of adversity.
The West Family
Our family was very surprised to realize we had chosen two envelopes containing a very large sum. After church we gathered our family around the dinner table and prayed for God to lead us to people he had for us to bless. After two days of praying and brainstorming and discussing many ideas, we decided to go talk to the principal of Desert Willow Elementary, the school our children have attended for several years, and try and identify some personal needs any children or families may have there. We have a great relationship with this school, the principal, and many of the teachers. We felt that they would do a great job helping needy families that we didn’t even know of. Mrs. Finch was so appreciative, and after discussing it with her advisory council at the school, they have put some of the money toward a great outreach called “Meals on Wheels” that serves meals to families in distress every week. They will also use some of the money for their Christmas outreach and any student personal crises that emerge. The next day at school, several teachers approached us and were so excited and appreciative of the gift; they had some great ideas for it already. Word about VCC’s generosity spread very quickly! We also gave some to two delivery men and some to a woman who is 8 months pregnant and has just fled an abusive situation with only the clothes on her back. We have been blessed greatly by this experience as a family. We have been reminded of the great blessing of giving, and awakened to just how many needs are out there and how much we have to be thankful for. It has challenged us to find ways to give more of our own personal resources as well. Thank you, Pastor Ben and the elders for entrusting all of us with these “talents.” We can’t wait to see how God increases them in our community.
I was thankful to have this opportunity, in particularly because I was brought closer to Christ through prayer as I tried to decide what to do with God’s abundance. He let me know as I received information that a coworker had her car stolen, which was bad enough, but that her trunk had been full of her bread and groceries for the week and that she wouldn’t be able to replace that.
I left the envelope citing Matthew 25:16 on her computer with a message that I hope this money was a blessing in her life. She is a wonderful person and has been faithful to God, so I’m not sure whether my prayer allowed her to find me, or if her prayer brought me to her.
Thanks for this!
We were very excited about the challenge Ben gave us last Sunday. We put our money together with the girls and added some of our own, then sat together and asked God what He wanted us to do with it. It was hard because we didn’t really know anyone personally that had a great need. So we had to be totally led by God. After days of ideas that didn’t feel right God pressed upon us to divide the money into two Vail envelopes and wait at the Road Runner Market in Corona. It was quite funny watching the four of us sitting on the bench in front of the store watching everyone go in and out wondering who God would choose. Finally we gave one lady an envelope and told her it was a blessing from God to do whatever she needed with no strings attached. She was stunned!!! And thankful. The second envelope took a little longer but another young lady pumping gas pulled at our hearts. We said the same thing as before and at first hearing about the money she hesitated to take it. We assured her it was our joy to give it to her and she accepted. As she drove away she said, “God Bless you”, to Scott and he saw tears in her eyes. After we got in our car the girls said that was the best thing they had ever done!!
Praise God, we are not just hearers of the Word but doers!!!
We decided to take an envelope for both my husband and I but also for our 4 yr old son on Sunday. We hesitated to get him an envelope because we were unsure if a 4 yr old has any concept of giving or an appropriate thing to do with the money. Well, he certainly did & surprised us both! When we asked him on the way home who he thought he could help with the money he said he’d like to give it to a boy in Africa who was like him but didn’t have food or a nice place to live. As touching as that was we had to explain that it needed to be local. His second idea was to ask his preschool teacher at Vail Inclusive Preschool if she needed anything that she didn’t have the money to buy for the class. We ended up putting our money together after she told us of a need for the class & I wrote a note explaining where the money came from. I told her she should feel special since she rates only 2nd to starving children in Africa in our son’s eyes! She was so touched and said it brought her to tears and gave her goosebumps. What a great experience and teaching opportunity for our son to see first hand how we can bless others!
Based on last Sunday’s scripture reference (Matthew 24:15 -25) of the talents, I decided right away to challenge myself to find a creative way to at least double the $$ in my envelope. Blanca Bracamonte decided to combine her $$ with mine for a total of $30.00. After toying with a few ideas, I decided to clip coupons and take advantage of sales. I was able to use our $30.00 to purchase $77.15 worth of food which was donated to the local food bank.
All week our discussions at dinner were about uprising. Our family had many, many ideas on how to use the Lord’s money to bless a heart. Even my father, who does not go to church at ALL, thought the idea was great. A clown for a childrens hospital, a bible for a hobo, daisys for the elderly, feed a family at a food bank…we just did not know what to do! We knew our time was running out and I was a little worried that I had not heard God when he spoke to me. We finally settled on a decision Saturday afternoon. Alex had a friend from youth group who just had a baby sister at St. Joseph’s hospital. We drove there, still unsure of how the Lord would speak to us. We did know that everyone in a hospital had a need. As we sat and had coffee and cocoa in the lobby, we saw a young woman in her twenties. With her was a pre-school age beautiful girl, and in her arms, two georgeous babies! She certainly had her hands FULL! I looked at my husband and smiled. He said that she would spend the equalivavent of what was in that envelope on diapers in a week. We knew she was the one. As I approached her, my heart was pounding…Had we made the right decision? Had we decided to use the Lord’s money in the right way??? I walked up and she apologized to me thinking I wanted the seat she was leaning into. I told her no need to apologize, I just had a gift for her and laid it on the seat. I went back to get my purse and the rest of the family…we were so nervous, we wanted to remain anonymous and knew we had to leave before she set the babies down. We walked around the corner to the door, we were quite curious to know if she had picked the Revolution envelope up. After much debate, and a couple of sneaky glances back into the lobby we decided that it did not matter if she had picked it up or not. If somone else had picked it up, so be it, it was the Lord’s money afterall. If they threw it away, then a man at the landfill would find it, and it would bless him. What if she did not need it? Then she would pay it forward, we just knew it. We knew SOMEONE (other than us) was going to be blessed. As we drove on, the car was quiet. I realized my husband had turned on K-Love, my favorite station and we began to sing along. Saturday was bright, beautiful, and a nice warm day that turned out to be a blessing for the young woman and her babies….we hope.
Thank you Vail Christian Church for blessing us today!
In God’s Love,
Jeff, Lara, Alex and Marie too!
The Biagi Family
After church on the 14th we discussed some ideas and decided to pool our envelopes together and add some of our own. We had a family of nine in mind whom we knew had some financial needs.
I finally had the opportunity yesterday when I saw the father. I explained all about the uprising and how VCC reaches out to the community and that our family had chosen his for a financial blessing. He was stunned and shared how his wife had been in a car accident this past week and they were really struggling with the repair costs among other things. He was speechless and kept saying Thank you, “Nobody has ever reached out to us and he had no idea people would help people they didn’t know.” He thanked me over and over and kept saying, Wow, this is incredible…
It was heartwarming to help him and such a blessing to see his reaction.
Thank you Vail Christian for allowing us to bless a family in our community.
In His Love,
Bill, Mark And Lisa
At Barbara’s invitation I visited VCC for the first time and witnessed the “uprising” event. Moving. At first not sure to take an envelope as a visitor, I did with Barbara’s encouragement.
The focus of that “giving back” was on a young woman at work. At 26 and ready to start chasing her dreams she was brought down by illness. After 18 months and three life threatening crises, the least of which was cancer, this young woman fights for survival with an inner spiritual strength and passion for living rarely seen. She says the strenght of her faith comes from her midwest South Dakota family (Christian) beliefs and upbringing.
I mentioned the “uprising” that I witnessed at VCC to her co-workers who too were moved. The uprising money has now grown to eight times the initial envelop’s holding. We have contacted the young woman’s father who is here from SD to care for her and will receive the money, gifts and cards now resulting from “uprising.”
Thanks to VCC for this experience which I will share at my home church (Resurrection Lutheran) in Oro Valley. And I will be back to visit VCC with Barbara again.
UPDATE - We received a card from Sonshine Preschool that we want to share with you all.
Thank You.
Michael and Wendy, Thank you both and Vail Christian Church for your generous donations of Art supplies to the children of Sonshine Preschool. We really are so grateful! Thanks for spreading God’s love around to us!
Cathy Wysopal and the Sonshine Staff
The first thing that came to mind when the invitation to take envelopes last week was to buy creation science materials and donate them to the public library. I called the library and you have to go through a process to get books/media ordered for the public libraries in Pima county which includes purchasing at least 26 copies - one for each library. Well, that was a little much, so we decided to purchase a set of books and some DVDs for the Sycamore Elementary/Corona Middle School library so that the kids can learn about creaion and intelligent design at the public school and know that evolution is a theory and not fact.
Beth and I prayed about who and how to give God’s money to someone in our area. We doubled the amount from church and decided on someone we know that has a very limited income. When I gave him the money, he was surprised and very appreciative! He is without insurance, his health declining and the money would help him buy some medication that the doctor prescribed for him. I believe this experience will make a difference in his life.
Another outcome was that while I was visiting with him, another neighbor walked up and asked about donating a van to the church.
Dennis Hardy
Prior to opening our envelopes, we both determined to match the mystery contents. This upped the thrill of this very cool approach to community involvement.
Currently Constance is enrolled in 2 local non-profit service organization programs. One is to assist with her balance following emergency leg surgery. TROT, a therapeutic equestrian center for the disabled, helps everyone from blind children to injured veterans. We are praying that Patti, who drives Constance and volunteers there, will one day visit VCC with us.
The second donation went to handi-dogs.org. This Tucson based organization trains people and their dogs to become working partners. The ultimate goal is that Hailey, our (rescued) boxer-mix, becomes a certified service dog for Constance. We are not praying for her to attend church <: but do trust that God will somehow use this gift for His glory.
Thanks VCC for (again) throwing stones in the pond…we want to ride the waves with you !
Alan and Constance Reber
I had an inclination of what I ought to do with the “Uprising” offering as soon as I received it. In the three years that VCC has been meeting at Empire High School there have been three or four members of the EHS facilities staff who have opened up the campus for us on Sundays and whenever else we choose to rent the campus. Over the years I have developed a relationship with one lady in particular; she often opens the campus when we rent it for summer camps. She has a small grandson who sometimes comes with her to work. I was chatting with her one day as I was cleaning up, and her grandson was begging to go to McDonalds…she told him that they couldn’t go that day, and then explained to me that it was just to expensive to go to McDonalds all the time, and that her grandson needed to understand that it was a special treat. So, when God put her into my mind last week, I took the Uprising money along with some of my own and bought a gift card to McDonalds. I gave it to her yesterday along with a card explaining where the money had come from. I also told her how much I appreciate her service and that I want her to be able to have a couple of “special treats” with her grandson. She was moved that someone would think of her and her “nieto.”
On a slightly separate note, what a challenge this past week has been! I’m somewhat ashamed that it took the radical act of the church giving back a week’s offering and demanding that I step up and take personal responsibility for it to get me to look outside of the predictable and traditional ways to give. I am truly convicted about the importance of giving to the local church, but I hope that I can continue to be receptive to ALL of God’s prompting as to how I am to use the things that He has entrusted me with.
Over the past few months since moving here I have gotten to know a wonderful lady at the school where I work. She is an awesome mother, wife, and teacher but lives daily under a weight of guilt, always trying to please others. The money we (my husband and I) received was enough to purchase two copies of the book Boundaries which we (my co-worker and I) have agreed to study together. It is my hope that she will not only learn to set healthy boundaries in relationships, but come to understand the awesome grace and mercy of Jesus. My copy I will then pass on to someone else.
We gave the Acacia PTA our $15 for buying supplies for children who come from families that can not afford everything for their child’s school supply list.
I knew I wanted to use the money to thank someone for their work or contributions. It is always so nice to be appreciated and those few words of thanks will play over and over in your head for a long time to come. Sooooo…. after praying that God would reveal the right person to give it to, I felt I should leave the money with a nice note in our mailbox. Our mail carrier just drives around all day and doesn’t have many face-to-face interactions…. so I wanted to let her know that her work was noticed and appreciated (she often gets me the special stamps I like… and has tracked down one of my lost packages). She left me a sweet note telling me how surprised she was, how the thoughtfulness made her day, and that she wanted to share the gift with the substitute carriers also. I’m so glad she enjoyed the gift… and that it is being passed on. May God’s blessings flow throughout our community!
There is a man named Mike who is the facility maintenance person and janitor at the building where our office is located. Mike is married and has two kids. Recently, his family car had some mechanical problems but Mike didn’t have the money to get the vehicle fixed. Ben and I both took the money from our envelopes and, after adding a bit more to it, the total came to $150.00. Last week we gave the money to Mike so that he could fix his car. Yesterday, Mike said that he had bought the parts he needed for the repair and was on his way towards getting the vehicle fixed. Mike and his wife were totally surprised by the gift. It will be something they will remember for a very long time.
I have been holding on to this envelope for 2 weeks now, trying to figure out what to do with the money, a couple of ideas had popped in my head, but I had not acted on them, until today at work a coworker of mine was telling me about her cousin in New York had a house fire, had lost everything and sadly lost 2 kids in the fire, the mom is 45% burned, and she was asking how old my son was and if we were interested in donating some clothes, I immidiatly went to my purse and pulled out the envelope, told her about the outreach program through my church and I wanted to give her the money to send to them to help out, I told her it was’nt much but I knew this was the best thing to use the money for, and hope that God helps them get through this unfortunate situation.
I brought a friend to our church for the first time the Sunday of the “Uprising of Giving Back”. We took one envelope to share. She was very excited about the concept and felt led to use the money that God had entrusted to us to take flowers to a neighborhood friend of mine that I had introduced her to the day before.
This neighbor is a strong Christian woman that I have been in Bible studies with and her knowledge of God and her relationship with Him has been an inspiration to me. God is walking with her through a particularly challenging time in her life now. When we walked the flowers to her house, her reply was, “God always knows when I need encouragement and He is always there to lift me up”. She first thanked the Lord for his blessing, and then also thanked us for allowing God to work through us. It was not us giving flowers to a friend; it was the hand of God reaching down to minister to His child.
A relative recently gave me the book, “Driven by Eternity”. It was such a transformation in my life that I bought a copy and gave it to my friend who participated with me in this Uprising. I pray the Lord will use this tool to deepen her relationship with Him.
Flowers for a friend…….. $15.00
A book for another friend……. $15.00
Sharing God’s love and encouragement……PRICELESS
I thank the Lord for this opportunity to give back to the Lord what is His and have already seen God multiply his blessing to my two friends and myself.
We have received the benefit of not only drawing closer to each other through this experience, but more importantly we have all gotten to know God more intimately.
A few weeks ago we attended a Vail District School informational meeting on the subject of BEYOND TEXTBOOKS, an effort to interest senior members of the community in supporting the effort to equip our schools with electronic teaching tools, enhancing their educational process. We were interested. 2 Sundays later, VCC introduces the ‘Giving’ envelopes and asks us to ‘give it away’ where it will be used to bless someone. We agreed that BEYOND TEXTBOOKS - Vail Schools was where we wanted our $30 plus some additional $$ to go. Sharon and Dick
My 14 year old daughter received her own uprising envelope. I thought she might have a hard time deciding how to give the money but when I asked her she immediately knew. She gave the uprising money to another girl at her school who frequently doesn’t have lunch money because her parents can’t afford it. She also told me that she’d been skipping her own lunch sometimes saying she wasn’t hungry so that her friend could eat instead. This was a wonderful experience for our family and is such a great way to experience God’s love.
We took the money we received from the VCC and added to it to create two “Blessing Baskets.” We put together two bread baskets filled with a veggie tale video(focused on giving), a book about faith, life water, a plant, passion tea, thank you cards, a journal, movie tickets, tickets to the botanical gardens, a Visa gift card for $25.00, gift card for dinner, envelope of cash, and much more. Enclosed with the basket was a message about the VCC Uprising. Also, the message asked the receiver to choose one or two items from the basket to keep for their family; then replace the one of two items with something else and pass the basket on to another family. The idea was to pass along the gift of caring, giving and sharing. We delivered the baskets to two different families in different neighborhoods in Vail, AZ. We believe that God will guide the baskets to the families that need them most.
When we picked out our envelope, we knew just who to give it to. We had just been talking on the way to church that morning about a family in our neighborhood that is going thru a hard time. Our neighborhood has under 30 homes in it and we are a very close knit community. Having said that, we are also the well administrators and have a little more knowledge of peoples finances that others. The family we were talking about had never been late on their water bill until 3 months ago. They had mentioned to Ronny that they were having some slow times in thier business and are having hard times making ends meet. We decided to add to the 15.00 we had in our envelope and pay the 3 months of water they were behind and also their portion of the road maintenance fund for 2 months for a total of 100.00. I stayed in the truck while Ronny spoke with the husband that Sunday on the way home. I watched his face go from total confusion to extreme apreciation. Ronny told me he could not understand why we were doing this and no one has ever offered to help them like that before. It was a great experience for all and I am so glad to have found VCC and be involved with such an amazing church.
It’s a real privilege to be the Pastor of a Church with such creativity! I know the Lord is pleased when we invest in the kingdom this way. It’s also so great to know so many have added to their envelopes or combined them to magnify the blessing. Our team has had a lot of fun telling the story of this “Revolutionary Uprising” to other leaders all across the country. I love Vail Christian Church! I love being the Church!
With the recent help of the TPD and TFD to our family, we decided to give back to the heroes of Tucson. Recently Stacey and Mark were in a car accident and needed help. Thankfully, God kept them safe, but as the wait of the accident report, a Sheriff gave Mark a bear. Within the same week, TFD helped Stacey get into the car after locking the keys inside. Luckily she was right next the TFD station and they were able to help. They gave our sons water to drink and stickers to thank them for being such great sports.
With these events, we decided to help our local TFD and TPD. We took homemade cookies to the fire station and took the money, in which they guaranteed us that the money would be used for the holiday boxes given to needy families. We are so happy to give back to our community and we are so thankful for those who help us daily.
The Norris Family
We have a new neighbor who hasn’t had an easy time fitting in with the rest of the neighborhood. Although we have never met her personally, we decided to use my husband’s envelope to get her a gift card to Papa Johns along with a note welcoming her and telling her that God loves her.
My envelope and family donation was used to purchase groceries and donate it to the Arizona Baptist Women’s Services. I’m a big time coupon/sale shopper, and when I told a friend from Pantano Church about our Uprising, she chipped in another $10. With coupons and sales, I was able to get more than $100 worth of food for $34.80.
Thank you VCC for giving us another opportunity to be a blessing to the people around us!
Our story begins at 8:30 on a Sunday morning. I mean that we woke up at 8:30 on Sunday morning. I was prepared to call making it to church a bust, but the leader of our house was sure we could make it. We did. Why on this particular morning did he feel so compelled to get us there at our usual 9:00 (or 9:15, as we are the family that always walks in late) time??
We sat down and Bob saw the baskets. He says he knew they had money in them and wondered how this crazy pastor was going to tie it to scripture and make us do something.
Bob and I each pulled $15 envelopes. As we drove home discussing this enormous responsibility and decision that lay before us, we could not help but think how much easier the decision would be if the envelopes contained more money. That, however, was not the point. Was it?
We included our children in our list making time. They had such great ideas. As parents we were blessed by that. One person that made our list was an uncle. He does not live in Vail and that may be a direct violation of the rules, but we have no doubt that God will be exalted through this gift.
Uncle Mel is a 62 year old man who has M.S. He has very little income and is a young Christian. He has been faithfully attending a church in Marana for a couple of years. I was talking with my mother-in-law a week or so ago and I asked her about Uncle Mel. (as he was one that made our list) She said that he was okay, but that he was waiting for his disability check to come in so he could go to Savers and get some clothes for Church. He had missed a month of worship with others because he needed clothes. At that moment I knew who needed a blessing.
We may have broken another rule. We sent the $30 plus some added from our family, anonymously. I wrapped it in a piece of paper and wrote only Romans 8:26-28. Uncle Mel is a proud man and won’t take a gift or hand-out. He certainly won’t ask or let people know his need. The passage seemed perfect. We figured it did not matter where the dollars came from, just that they were God’s dollars.
As I prepared to finish this blog our Uncle called. He called to tell us about an envelope he received and about how good the Lord is. He says that he does not worry anymore because God provides.
Our story is very simple. The kids and I went to Village Inn for breakfast one weekend morning - a spur of the moment decision.
Our waitress was pleasant as most waitresses are. She was very attentive of our youngest bringing extra plates and separating the food of my youngest so it would not touch.
I learned she was a mother as well.
I know waitressing is a hard job that does not pay much, and supporting a family on it must have its challenges.
We left a tip and along with it, the envelope of money wich had 20.00 & a note thanking her.
~Noemi
We received an envelope with a $100 dollar bill. Jason and I talked a lot about what to do with it. We had thought about someone at Ronald McDonald house as a possibility but did not know when we would have a chance to go their. Ronald McDonald house was a huge blessing for us when our oldest children were born.
We decided that I would ask at my school if their was a family that could use the money as I work in a very low income neighborhood. The community resource person had to check to see if she could accept the money. The process was drawn out for a couple of weeks and she never did really give me an answer as to what to do with it so it could be given to a family.
All that waiting time must have been part of Gods plan. I had finally decided this past weekend October 3 that I was going to find someone to give it to even if I had to walk up to someone at the grocery store. My friend called that day and said her supervisor was just informed that her twin grandsons had been taken into CPS custody and they wanted her to take the children. She had no beds, clothes, toys, etc. to take care of two 18 month old children. She is a single mother with a 7 year old son. I knew immediately what to do with the $100. I talked with my children about giving to these babies as well.
We were able to bless them with a large box of toys, a stroller, booster seats for the dinner table, a box of books and the $100. My friend said she kept asking if it was a joke when she showed up with all of the items and money!! Being able to give and help felt wonderful and I was so proud of my children who so willingly went through all of their toys being thoughtful about what a “baby” would play with. Never once did they complain.
Michelle
Deby Trubman shared information about your project at todays staff meeting at the Tucson Jewish Community Center, where a collection was taken for the Community Food Bank.
Thanks for the difference that you are making in the world and allowing it to mushroom out to different agencies and organizations.
I’m the friend that was visiting with Renee Grigel on your Uprising Sunday and was very moved. Her feelings for her neighbor and the friendship that she has shown me are truly a blessing from God and I appreciate her friendship and encouragement that she gives to me. I’m reading the book she sent me now. I beleive that Renee is a gift herself, who helps others, not only in words but through her deeds.
Thank God for friends like Renee and Carl Grigel
We combineded are money and gave it to a single mom with three children who was living off of a salary of a waitress. She was very thankful for the money. :]
Hello Church,
I wanted to share just how far reaching this uprising has been for my family and I. I had an opportunity to attend the Joyce Meyer Womens Conference in St. Louis and I must have told a hundred people of this wonderful gift that Ben challenged us with. Imagine my complete elation when Joyce Meyer herself said that the Christian Church as a whole needed to begin a revolution of Love that starts with an uprising! I smiled from ear to ear knowing that VCC had already put us on that path. The following week, Jeff and the children traveled to North Carolina to visit Jeff’s dad who is having some medical issues. After 23 years in the military Jeff’s best friend Donnie and he had a long talk about faith, church, families and the like. Jeff found that Donnie’s church, much like VCC had also begun an uprising! Jeff was so excited to haar that the church his best friend (and his family) attends has been able to experience such a wonderful reminder that regardless of the amount, it takes a mere 5 minutes to share God’s love and share your story. On a side note, this was the first time Jeff and Donnie had ever discussed religion as adults. This uprising has started a fire in my belly for the Lord and I have no intention of letting that flame burn out!
Stay safe and God bless you all!
Lara
When I received my envelope of $15.00, my mind raced with possibilities, especially since I was planning on adding to it. I began praying that an opportunity would present itself quickly. However, several weeks passed and I became discouraged. That’s when God revealed his plan. When we started back to school last week (I work at Corona Foothills Middle School), I talked with our student services coordinator about the money and a family who might be in need. Her eyes lit up and she immediately had a family in mind. Turns out this family is on the verge of homelessness and any money would be a real blessing for them. I told Mary Hickman, one of our Sunday school teachers, who had her own money to give. We decided to pool our money and together we gave a $100.00 Frys gift card, a request from the family as they can get both food and gas. Our student services coordinator attends Pantano Christian Church and was amazed we were doing this. On Friday I presented the gift card to her to give to the family. I was not told who the family is, but can only hope that through our (the church’s) gift, they will know that God does love them.
Received via email.
My name is Angela Dominguez. I am 23 years old and I have a little boy who is two. I am single mom; the father of my child was abusive, both mentally and physically, and so I left him. I know that God has done many things for me, but I would like to learn more about him. Therefore I would like to come to your church.
A few weeks ago I didn’t have shoes or food or milk for my child and not even a dollar in order to take the bus to the store. I didn’t know what to do, so I asked a man on the street for a dollar to take the bus. He didn’t give me anything and it made me feel horrible – I had never asked for money in the street before. However, I had no other choice, so I asked another man, and another. The third man gave me money for the bus. I was so grateful because now I would be able to get to the store to buy food. So happily I crossed the street to get to bus stop. All of a sudden the man who had given me the money came back. He handed me an envelope from your church and told me that it had free money in it. I went and sat down at the bus stop. I couldn’t open the envelope right away because I knew it was the work of Jesus. I looked at the envelope in disbelief and gave thanks to God for what He was about to do for me. I almost couldn’t contain myself – I knew that this was something really special that God was doing. I asked God to bless the man who gave me the envelope, and that God would be faithful to give to him in his moment of need. Finally, when I got on the bus I was able to bring myself to open the envelope. When I opened it I found $50 inside…I didn’t have any more words to say thank you to God…and I went on my way to the store and was able to buy food and milk and shoes for my little boy.
My name is Sandra Marshall and I’m the Prayer Shawl Ministry Group Leader for the Church.
The motivation and enthusiasm has been great since the starting of the Uprising. My husband and I have been blessed by an anonymous person who gave the envelope to a person we knew to give the envelope to us. The envelope had my name on it and inside the envelope was a beautiful card and it read, “Thinking of You”–Dear Sandra and Allan, A friendly hello to brighten your day. Remember you’re cared for in a very special way. God laid this on my heart to give it to you. He loves you so very much”. Inside the envelope also was a Fry’s Gift Certificate for $100.00. We would like to express our sincerest appreciation for the gift card at this very bad time for us. You made a very big difference in our lives. We feel blessed. May God Bless You Always. Thanks so very much.
Sincerely & Blessings,
Sandra & Allan Marshall
My wife and I along with her son each received an envelope with $15 in it. After discussing it we decided to pool our envelopes, add some to it, and give it to the woman my wife buys newspapers from. My wife designed a nice card to go along with the money, but we were unable to locate the woman. My wife finally suggested we look for something else to do with the money.
I have a coworker who is having a hard time financially. His wife is terminally ill, and they are on the verge of bankruptcy. About two weeks ago was offered a promotion with a large raise in salary if he could go to Texas immediately. He had no choice, his wife stayed to pack up the house, he left immediately. The next day I got a call from his wife asking for help. Her car was broken down and she couldn’t afford a tow truck let alone get it fixed. They had previously been to a mechanic and were told they needed repairs totaling about $600.00 I’m not a mechanic, but I’m pretty handy with the easy stuff.
So we finally found a place to use the money.
I managed to get the car to their house, and to do most of the work they needed to have done. Thanks to Vail Christian Church they should be able to get through a very rough time.