Hunger Walk/Run to Benefit the Atlanta Community Food Bank Rivercliff Lutheran Church supports the Hunger Walk/Run annually in both charitable giving and Walk/Run participation to raise awareness for hunger relief through a sponsored 5K event every spring. The money Rivercliff collects will go to three organizations. 1) The Atlanta Community Food Bank supports a wide range of people in need including food pantries, community kitchens, childcare centers, night shelters and senior centers. 2) For over 30 years Inspiritus has helped tens of thousands in the areas of foster care, adoption services, refugee services, family intervention services and disaster response. 3) Also receiving money is the Community Assistance Center where Rivercliff volunteers monthly at the food pantry!

This year’s Hunger Walk is March 10, 2024 at 2:00 at The Home Depot Backyard at Mercedes Benz Stadium. We are looking for walkers and sponsors for our walkers. Our goal is to raise $6000. As an incentive, Thrivent Choice dollars will be used to match some of the money raised and will provide additional money on a per walker basis. To register to walk with the Rivercliff Strong team or make a donation to the team, go to the link: http://engage.acfb.org/site/TR?team_id=41524&fr_id=2145&pg=team. Once there, click on the Join Team button if you want to walk or Donate Now button to make a donation. For additional information about walking or donating, come to the Hunger Walk table at church or contact the Rivercliff Hunger Walk coordinators.

Community Assistance Center

The Community Assistance Center (CAC) is the primary help agency in the Sandy Springs and Dunwoody neighborhoods. As such, we offer compassionate assistance to our neighbors in need by providing food, clothing and financial support for rent and utilities.

In 2012, Rivercliff Lutheran Church agreed to open and completely staff the CAC facility at 1130 Hightower Trail, Sandy Springs, GA 30350 on the first Saturday of each month and we continue to do so. Service opportunities include the following: interviewing clients to determine eligibility for service; stocking the food pantry and helping clients choose the food they need. Another way to volunteer is to be a teacher for Microsoft Office products (Excel, Work, PowerPoint).

Time of service: 1st Saturday of each month from 9:30 am – 12:30 pm.

Training: Rarely needed, but available.

If Saturday doesn’t work for you, there are many opportunities available Monday through Friday. Please visit http://www.ourcac.org/ for further information about the Community Assistance Center in Sandy Springs and Dunwoody.

If interested, please contact:

Habitat for Humanity

Habit for Humanity is a nonprofit organization which seeks to provide home ownership to the working poor by building and selling houses to qualified families in need. The selected families pay a no-interest mortgage and are required to put 350 hours of “sweat equity” on their new home.

Rivercliff Lutheran Church supports this ministry by helping to build homes in the North Fulton County area and also by joining forces with other local Lutheran churches to raise money through special fund drives, such as Taste of Habitat.

The Taste of Habitat is a great fundraising event, held annually where over 50 “chefs” – from various Churches in the Lutheran Coalition for Habitat – share foods they love to make. It’s a fun night of eating and drinking, great fellowship, live music, a silent auction and trivia.

For more information, visit www.lutheranhabitat.org. If you are interested in serving with Rivercliff Lutheran Church to help Habitat for Humanity, please contact Wayne Smith here:

Youth with a Mission Ministry in San Salvador, El Salvador

Rivercliff Lutheran Church has worked directly with Youth with a Mission (YWAM, JUCUM in Spanish) every summer since 2013. A group of individuals from Rivercliff has flown to San Salvador to the YWAM base to work in the Mission Field for one week along with the YWAM Missionaries, who live and work in San Salvador year-round.

YWAM are able to do their Good Works only through charitable giving. Rivercliff cheerfully contributes annually so that we can serve with YWAM and provide for everything necessary during our one-week of service.

We cheerfully serve those in San Salvador and in the Barrio in many ways:

• Build a home for a family in the Barrio with new furniture, foundation, front door, roof and windows. The key presentation to the family is one of the highlights of the trip
• Providing meals to the children in the Barrio twice during the week
• Visitation at a local hospital to serve cookies, coffee, speaking with and praying for families, giving away homemade cross necklaces as a lasting gift
• Visitation at a local university to meet with and pray with students
• Provide meals to the homeless of San Salvador during 2 evenings, serving around 250 meals
• Children’s program in the Barrio including Bible teaching, arts and crafts, singing and bringing the light of Jesus Christ to the children
• Parents program with a homily. In addition, we hand out bibles in Spanish to adult attendees
• Visiting homes in the Barrio, meeting families, praying for them, giving them a Bible in Spanish
• Engage in a service at the YWAM base led by the Missionaries
• Daily devotion as a group with the Missionaries

For more information on the Youth with a Mission, please visit http://jucumes.org/es/. If you are interested in learning more about the trip to YWAM in San Salvador, please contact Michael (Miguel) Tull or Doug Huffman: 

A video about YWAM El Salvador featuring the Rivercliff team is at https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/zK8TnM7CScCkxfU4_GJrew.Okt7gZrz8zbFtJPl5Iq5OK

A video about the Rivercliff mission trip to El Salvador for 2019 is at https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/ocn5cOn3TmC91eYFXEosow.fEyjBsILtjj4MEwTht_zoZ

.

FAMILY PROMISE

Rivercliff will be hosting families from the Family Promise program about once per quarter. We need volunteers to set up and restore rooms where the families will sleep, greet families when they return at the end of each day, cook dinners, stay overnight, and wash laundry at the end of the week.

Family Promise is a national non-profit whose mission is to provide temporary assistance, hospitality, and case management for families that are temporarily experiencing situational homelessness. These families are encountering a shocking change in circumstances, be it personal injury or illness, divorce, job layoff, a special needs child, or other catastrophic events.

Family Promise North Fulton/Dekalb, with which Rivercliff will be working, has partnered with local congregations who provide temporary homes and volunteers who serve hot, home cooked dinners. The families stay at different churches rotating every week. Family Promise also provides help with finding employment, resume/interview skills, child care, case management, and more permanent affordable housing going forward.

For more information about Family Promise, go to https://www.familypromisenfd.org/.