“Then a woman I had never seen or met before came over and gave me a big hug, saying, ‘I love you guys from The Hallows.’”
Ronda hadn’t met this teacher at Chief Sealth International School before but the teacher already felt like she knew her. She had heard that there were people from our local church who had been sacrificially and joyfully serving her public school as needs arose. Over the last couple of years, our West Seattle expression has led in serving the diverse school in hosting two back to back winter coat drives for their homeless students (~80 students!), using Missional Community monthly stipends to buy Safeway gift cards for families in need, proctoring tests, supporting teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week, and annually providing volunteers to help get the school grounds ready for the school year on City Serve day.
And while anyone who knows Ronda knows she loves a good hug (yes, we know, its abnormal here in our touch-adverse city), she said that teacher’s hug on that day was particularly timely and encouraging. Ronda had just walked into the school feeling discouraged that more people from The Hallows Church weren’t able to volunteer for that day’s particular request to help during testing. Yet as the teacher hugged her, she realized, “It matters to have people show up and say we support our local school, and we want to help. It [the fact that the school reaches out to The Hallows for help] shows we have a foundation where they feel comfortable asking and that is a beautiful thing.”
So, if you’re able to help on August 18th’s City Serve Day (a city-wide, multi-church effort to serve assigned local public schools), please don’t hesitate to email info@hallowschurch.org for more info or to sign up for a shift. It’s a great way for everyone in all stages of life to connect with the community, embody our values like humble community and cultural integrity, and to get to work alongside one another and those in the schools. As Ronda shared, “City Serve can get hot and be tedious work—its usually yard work— but last year we had a lot of fun just getting together and giving each other a hard time while fellowshipping with one another as we served. Christa is the Vice Principal and she was even out there working alongside us which was real cool too.”
Our West Seattle Expression will be serving our friends at Chief Sealth again and our Fremont Expression is serving our friends at B. F. Day Elementary again. **Our West Seattle Expression currently has less volunteers signed up this year, though, and can use as many hands as possible to serve Chief Sealth’s admin and families well. So if you can head that way on Saturday, August 18th, let us know and bring a friend too!
#humblecommunity #culturalintegrity #sacrificialgenerosity #loveyourneighbor #cityserve
