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Mill Creek Residents “Blown Away”

"We were just blown away by what you guys have done," was the comment we kept hearing over and over again. In fact, Blown Away became our theme for our Faith in Action celebration...

“‘We’re just blown away by what you guys have done’ is the comment we kept hearing over and over again. In fact, ‘Blown Away’ became our theme for our Faith in Action celebration,” explained Kurt Helmcke, associate pastor for North Creek Presbyterian Church in Mill Creek, Washington.

This was the first year that North Creek participated in Faith in Action. From this church with an average attendance of 450 on Sundays, some 400 volunteers showed up to put their faith into action through 11 service projects.

The largest project was the Mays Pond Park clean-up. This overgrown and neglected park, “very out of character for this area,” Pastor Kurt said, had become a place of crime and drug activity. The park team, in conjunction with the Mays Pond Homeowners Association and a local Boy Scout troop, worked to “take back their park.” Working together, they cut out overgrowth and brambles, mulched the cuttings and spread them along the park trails. They also removed dense underbrush so that law enforcement and neighborhood watches could see clearly into the park. The work crews attracted the attention of a local TV station, which quietly filmed the work and then showed the story on the Sunday evening news.

“As we left the park when it was all over, families and kids started coming into the park to play,” Pastor Kurt remembered. “That wasn’t happening before, and it was great to see immediate results. Residents were overjoyed.”

Working with Woodside Elementary School, another North Creek team hosted a reading/literacy event in the community room of Heatherwood Apartments, a low-income housing complex. The school counselor found that students living in the complex rarely attend after-school events; many are from single-parent families, and the parents can’t take time off work. The North Creek group teamed up with teachers, the school counselor and local library workers to host a “Read and Feed” book fair for these needy kids. The team gave away new and gently used children’s books, collected in a prior book drive, along with free refreshments.

“We designed this event to pursue a partnership with Woodside School,” explained Pastor Kurt. “We now have a ministry team that works with school representatives to meet the needs of various Woodside families. Our congregation offers them tutoring, grocery store gift cards, whatever they need. We’re also using our church van to provide them transportation to church on Sundays.”

Two more teams were in action at Life Care Center, a nursing care facility in nearby Bothell. One crew worked outside doing walkway demolition, weeding and clearing various areas; the second team led a worship service for residents. Other teams led worship services at nearby North Creek Retirement Home and Merrill Gardens. Many stayed behind to visit with residents and deliver handmade cards and bookmarks created by North Creek children.

Other crews put their tools to work. At Matthew House—a ministry of the Simon of Cyrene Society to thousands of women, children and families of prisoners—a team performed a total “make-over.” Here the crew painted and cleaned apartments, cleaned the parking lot, planted 40 small trees, installed a flag pole and built a concrete patio. At Habitat for Humanity in Everett, another crew worked on a single-family home in the early stages of framing.

At Pathways for Women Transitional Living in Lynwood, crews created a new children’s space, hauled away truckloads of debris and cleaned up the grounds. A YMCA program, Pathways provides basic housing needs for women and children; in 2007, 442 homeless parents and their children received safe shelter and housing through the program. Prior to the work day, the North Creek team held a food drive and housewares/linens drive and then prepared move-in crates for the residents with household items, linens and supplies. “This is a new project for our church’s women’s ministry,” Pastor Kurt said. “We’re partnering with Pathways on an ongoing basis to help these needy folks.”

Lastly, crews took on projects at the Mill Creek Town Shopping Center, creating and delivering gift baskets to business and store owners as a token of the church’s esteem and appreciation. Town Center is bordered by a wooded trail used by dog owners and exercise enthusiasts, so the team also worked to clean up a large section of the trail.

“Faith in Action generated an incredible amount of excitement from our people,” said Pastor Kurt. “Several remarked how great it was not only to do the work, but to do it side-by-side with people that they’d shared a pew with, but had never really known. We developed a much deeper fellowship, a deeper sense of community.

“Our people were definitely drawn by the opportunity to be a part of what God is doing—meeting real needs right here in our community,” he added. “Faith in Action has given us new energy and insight for our local mission activities.”