In God's World
At First Christian we take seriously Jesus’ response to the question, “Who is my neighbor?” In his telling of the story of the Good Samaritan Jesus shows us that the neighbor is the one who helps another – even a foreigner or stranger – in need. We want to be good neighbors to a hurting world. We extend compassion, care, and understanding towards our neighbors by:
- Giving to the Disciples’ Week of Compassion Offering http://www.weekofcompassion.org/ in order to provide emergency and long-term assistance to people in the aftermath of hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, droughts, civil war and other natural and human catastrophes, and to support self-help programs that empower people and communities to stand against and rise above hunger, poverty, disease, illiteracy, and other forces of injustice that deny and destroy human dignity.
- Being in dialog and sharing meals with our Muslim Turkish brothers and sisters from the Iowa Dialog Center http://iowadialog.org in order to promote compassion, cooperation and partnership through intercultural interaction, interfaith dialog and conversation.
- Walking and raising money to support Church World Service (CROP) http://www.churchworldservice.org/CROP/ . We walk with neighbors taking a stand against hunger in our world. Together we raise awareness and funds for international relief and development, as well as local hunger-fighting.
- Participating in the Trick or treat for UNICEF (the United Nations children’s fund) http://www.unicefusa.org/ helping children around the world receive the basic things they need like shelter, healthcare, clean water, nutrition and emergency relief.
