Downtown Cornerstone Blog
Jan 31
2019

Mercy Ministry Update | January

Ethnic Harmony, Mercy Ministries, Mercy Update

The Mercy Ministry Updates are a regular snapshot of our Mercy Ministries in DCC, where we are working to serve and uphold the value and dignity of God’s most vulnerable image bearers in our city. Each update highlights one of our focus areas, as well as provide a listing of upcoming events, and current prayer requests across all of our focus areas.

Gospel Framework

The Bible, as God’s inspired word, displays God’s good design and our radical need for a savior, found only in Jesus, and calls us to live out our new identity in Christ as we engage the world around us.

“Thus says the LORD of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.”Zechariah 7:9-10

God speaks through Scripture to his people, calling them to faithful action to care for the most vulnerable people around them. Often in these instructions, we see four populations listed – the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, the poor – as a description of those who were most vulnerable in their midst. And we also often see these instructions intermingled with instructions to care for brothers and sisters (“one another”), which is to say, the love that we have for those who are vulnerable is not some “out there” love but a “from here” love that starts in the family of God, rooted in God’s love for us. We love because he first loved us, and has given us the commandment to love others. (1 John 4:19,21). This is good news for us because it means we can put the love of others into practice right here in our church and in our city.

Mercy Focus Highlight: Understanding Disproportionality

As a church we support and partner with several mercy ministries and want to share and highlight their on-going work.

Racial Disproportionality, that is, the underrepresentation or overrepresentation of a racial or ethnic group compared to its percentage in the total population, is a reality in every one of our mercy focus areas (Life/Abortion, Foster Care/Adoption, Juvenile Detention, Sex Trafficking, Homelessness, and Refugees). This means that people, families, and communities of color are more affected than white people, families, and communities (in King County and nationally). So as we care for the most vulnerable populations in each of these areas, we should seek to understand this reality so that it can inform our care. Other types of disproportionality also exist in many of our mercy focus areas, such as the economic disproportionality of women seeking an abortion, and even some interdependencies between them, such as children in foster care and juvenile detention, or juvenile detention and sex trafficking. Similarly, those whom we seek to serve in these areas have, without question, experienced trauma, which likewise informs how we understand and care for them.

These factors lead us to understand the complexity and scope of sin’s impact on our world. In turn, this should also lead us toward increased empathy and informed care for those we serve and increasingly see the measure of Christ’s gift to us in our salvation. As we simultaneously see the depth of sinfulness and brokenness of the world around us and the height of God’s love for us in Christ, we will move toward others in love as he has loved us.

Upcoming Events

Not all events are sponsored or hosted by DCC, but serve those in our focus areas. See linked details for each.

Partner Prayer Requests

Please join us in praying for the people impacted and involved in each of these focus areas.

Refugees

  • Praise God for answering the prayers of World Relief and others, as the federal government announced that it will continue working with all of the organizations that work to resettle refugees in the U.S.
  • Pray for those seeking entry into the US, with the recent drop in federally allowed refugees, and elsewhere – that they would be provided for and cared for by the church globally.

 Foster Care & Adoption

  • Kids in extended foster care – if a child doesn’t have permanency at the age of 18 then they can apply to be in extended foster care, a program for 18-21 year-olds. Pray they would learn the skills they need for independence, and that they might not lose hope of having a family and a place to call home. 
  • Kids aging out of foster care – this is one of the most vulnerable populations of kids. They leave foster care without support and are susceptible to a variety of different dangers from sex trafficking to drug and alcohol abuse to homelessness. Please pray that God would move in the hearts of those families that He wants to adopt the children aging out of foster care.

Sex Trafficking & REST

  • By God’s grace, REST has seen their ministry grow significantly over the last few years, and with that has come to the need for new office space. Please pray with REST as they search for office space in Seattle for their administrative team so that they can continue to serve the survivors they work with as effectively as possible.
  • As we enter 2019, let’s also be praying for God to transform hearts throughout our city and area. Let’s pray that God will bring many people out of brokenness and into faith and relationship with Him, and let’s pray that He works in and through REST for His glory and the good of many!

Homelessness & UGM

  • In 2019 we want to double the number of mentors in our men’s recovery program, going from 20 to 40. Please pray that God would call the next cadre of mentors to the Mission.
  • Safety and protection of our homeless neighbors during the wind, rain, and cold of the winter months.  

Juvenile Detention

  • Please pray for God to comfort the children that are away and have been away from their families and loved ones during the holidays and who may be feeling particularly lonely and without hope. 
  • Please pray that God would open the eyes and hearts of these children to see the real hope they have in Christ despite the circumstances in front of them and for the Lord to put people in their lives that can encourage them to place their trust in Jesus and grow to be more like Him.

Life & CareNet

  • Continued favor in the Communities CareNet is serving – For open doors with the social services agencies and health facilities, that these agencies will see the benefits they offer to clients
  • New Mobile schedule in 2019 – For direction and provision as they expand their schedule to include DCC and more hours in current locations 

Stay Connected

Join the focus area city groups in order to hear more regular updates, events, and opportunities to serve.

Oct 1
2018

Mercy Ministry Update | September

City Life, Mercy Ministries, Mercy Update | by Pastor Justin Keogh

The Mercy Ministry Updates are a regular snapshot of our Mercy Ministries in DCC, where we are working to serve and uphold the value and dignity of God’s most vulnerable image bearers in our city. Each update highlights one of our focus areas, as well as provide a listing of upcoming events, and current prayer requests across all of our focus areas.

GOSPEL FRAMEWORK
The Bible, as God’s inspired word, displays God’s good design and our radical need for a savior, found only in Jesus, and calls us to live out our new identity in Christ as we engage the world around us.

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” – Isaiah 55:1

“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive…” – John 7:37-39

We are often prone to forget the deep wonder of God’s grace for us in Christ. Israel would have heard the promises Isaiah spoke of—promises of forgiveness and restoration and peace and love—and hoped in them for hundreds of years before the fulfillment of these promises in Jesus. If we are honest, we too have felt that deep thirst and longing, which we can only be satisfied in Christ. And Jesus tells us that as we drink and savor God’s love for us in Christ, our hearts will be fountains of living water by the Holy Spirit (cf. John 4:1-15), and that the same joy, satisfaction, and love which we are filled with will also flow outward from us. This imagery of a fountain and of flowing waters richly and beautifully reflects our call to love others as we are loved in Christ. We serve because we have been served by God. We have compassion for others because God has compassion for us. We love because we are a people profoundly and eternally loved by God.

MERCY FOCUS HIGHLIGHT: SEX TRAFFICKING AND REST
As a church we support and partner with several mercy ministries and want to share and highlight their on-going work.

Sex trafficking is a major issue in our city, with an estimated 3,000 individuals are being trafficked in Seattle every night. Our primary partner in this area of focus is REST: Real Escape from the Sex Trade. REST was founded in 2009 with the purpose of powerfully serving and loving victims of sex trafficking by providing prevention, intervention, and restorative services. The nonprofit has served over 1,580 individuals and assisted over 100 in exiting the sex trade for one year or more. Every one of those individuals is a person made in the image of God and every story matters. God has done and is continuing to do amazing things in people’s lives, and it is a joy and a blessing that he gives us the opportunity to lovingly serve those in need.

DCC will be hosting an Info Session with REST this Sunday at 1pm, where you can learn more about the issue of sex trafficking in our city; the work that RESTdoes in caring for sexually exploited women, men, and children; and the ways you can partner with DCC and REST to care for these image-bearers!

UPCOMING EVENTS
Not all events are sponsored or hosted by DCC, but serve those in our focus areas. See linked details for each.

PARTNER PRAYER REQUESTS

  • REFUGEES | Let’s be praying for the image-bearers around the world fleeing oppression and destruction, that they would find refuge and justice, that the true King would establish his throne in steadfast love, in faithfulness, in justice, and in righteousness, and that God would give us opportunities and courage to be the advance guard of that kingdom. 
  • ORPHAN CARE | This month our prayer focus is the global orphan crisis. Please consider a particular nation as you pray for families in that nation to be strengthened, Christian families to adopt and/or foster children in need, churches and NGOs to partner and seek restoration, and that God would ultimately adopt the fatherless into his family.
  • SEX TRAFFICKING & REST | Pray for the young and vulnerable girls who have run away from home and become targets for traffickers. Pray also that they, along with other women, would find shelter in REST’s services including the emergency center.
  • HOMELESS & UGM | Pray for the men and women experiencing homelessness in Seattle, especially that those who have contact with UGM will be able to pursue recovery and treatment as needed. Pray also for UGM and its leaders as they undergo a search for a new Mission president.
  • JUVENILE DETENTION | It has been really encouraging to see God soften stony hearts and draw some of the young men and women in the detention center closer to Him by sparking curiosity in His word.  Please pray that He would keep this desire burning in their hearts and that they would read and study His word with a desire to know Him, that would continue as the leave detention.
  • LIFE & CARENET | Pray for the girls returning to school this year facing unplanned pregnancy, that they’d find life-affirming options through CareNet and other pregnancy centers. Pray for the launch of CareNet’s Smart Programs this year in schools.

STAY CONNECTED
Join the focus area city groups in order to hear more regular updates, events, and opportunities to serve.

Jul 19
2018

Mercy Ministry Update – July

Mercy Ministries, Mercy Update | by Pastor Justin Keogh

The Mercy Ministry Updates are a regular snapshot of our Mercy Ministries in DCC, where we are working to serve and uphold the value and dignity of God’s most vulnerable image bearers in our city. Each update highlights one of our focus areas, as well as provide a listing of upcoming events, and current prayer requests across all of our focus areas.

Gospel Framework

The Bible, as God’s inspired word, displays God’s good design and our radical need for a savior, found only in Jesus, and calls us to live out our new identity in Christ as we engage the world around us.

         “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” – Genesis 1:26-27

        “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb… Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” – Psalm 139:13-16

In the first chapters of Genesis we see God’s creative work in creating men and women in his own image. This is the source of our intrinsic value, dignity, and worth – that we are made in the image of God. In Psalm 139, we see that God’s care for his children starts even before birth. God, in the depths of his love and riches of his grace, cares profoundly about human life – and for this reason so should we, as his adopted and beloved people, move in the love, grace, and truth which God has poured out on us through Jesus to protect, care for, and show compassion to the many children who have yet to be born and the mothers who are facing questions and doubts in the midst of their pregnancy.

Mercy Focus Highlight: Care Net

As a church we support and partner with several mercy ministries and want to share and highlight their on-going work.

Care Net Pregnancy & Family Services is the largest pregnancy crisis center/resource in the Puget Sound region (7 centers, 35 staff, 450 volunteers). Care Net provides confidential, professional, life-affirming services to clients at no cost, including medical consultations, pregnancy and STI testing, ultrasound, perinatal hospice, abortion recovery, and more. They have locations in Federal Way, Issaquah, Kenmore, Gig Harbor, Lakewood, Puyallup, and Tacoma. In 2016-2017, we as a church had the opportunity to help Save The Storks spearhead and raise funds for a mobile ultrasound unit for Care Net, which is now providing resources for clients in certain Seattle areas. Recently, Care Net has also been able to acquire another mobile unit to serve the Bellevue area. 

If you are interested in ways you can continue to learn and get involved alongside others in our church, please join the Mercy Focus: The LIFEProject group on the City, which will be a go-to place for information and upcoming events! Also, please check out our Care Net Info Session, occurring this Sunday (7/22) downstairs at 1pm!

Upcoming Events

These events are not necessarily sponsored or hosted by DCC, but serve those in our focus areas. See linked details for each event.

Partner Prayer Requests

Please join us in praying for the people impacted and involved in each of these focus areas.

Refugees | With immigration policies and enforcement at the center of national media over the last month, let’s continue praying for wisdom and compassion for our leaders, and for God’s felt presence and great grace on families affected by the recent policy and enforcement decisions.

Orphan Care | When kids come from a trauma background (as all of the kids in the foster & adoption world do) it can be difficult for them to deal with changes in routine. This can effect how they regulate their emotions and how their behavior can change. Summer can be an especially challenging time because it means a change in school and routine. Pray that the families would be able to settle into routines and have a joyful summer.

Sex Trafficking & REST | Let’s give thanks for the recent increase in awareness of the issue of sex trafficking in our city, state, and country, and let’s pray that God will move in the hearts of people – politicians, organizations, ministries, churches, and all of us – to bring about real transformation for his glory and the good of those in need.

Homelessness & UGM | As the summer months are here, the winter shelters close and more people are sleeping on the streets in the hot sun without easy access to clean water. Please pray for these individuals and that God would provide the means for these men, women, and children to survive.

Juvenile Detention | Pray for the conversations between kids and mentors, that the gospel would be proclaimed, that God would draw the kids to himself, and they find hope in Christ.

Life & CareNet | Praise for an increase in clients visiting the mobile van around Seattle, and pray for even more who would come to choose life! Pray for grace in the communities they serve, specifically for a new schedule starting in July.

Stay Connected

Join the focus area city groups in order to hear more regular updates, events, and opportunities to serve.

Jun 14
2018

Mercy Ministry Update – June

Mercy Update | by Pastor Justin Keogh

The Bible contains numerous exhortations for God’s people to care for the sojourner and the alien (Deut 10:17-19, Jer 22:3). And even as we read these passages, we know that we were once ourselves alienated from God by our sin. In 1 Peter, Peter uses this language of “sojourners and exiles” to call our attention to the fact that our home is not of this world, but with God in heaven. He then speaks to our new corporate identity, saying “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Pet 2:9-10). And it is from this mercy that we have received from God that we also extend mercy to others, including the sojourner and alien in our midst.

Mercy Focus Highlight: Refugees

As recently as 2015, Washington was the eighth largest refugee-receiving state! Over the years, we’ve had a number of our members working with organizations like World Relief to serve refugees here in Seattle. World Relief is an international ministry that focuses on disaster response, health and child development, refugee and immigration services, economic development, and peace-building. If you are interested in some ways you can continue to learn and get involved alongside others in our church, please join the Mercy Focus: Refugee group on the City, which will be a go-to place for information and upcoming events!

June 20th is World Refugee Day. This is a day intended to honor the strength, courage, and perseverance of millions of refugees, show support for those who have had to flee their homes, and raise awareness of the situation of refugees around the world. There are a number of special events coming up this month hosted by World Relief and other organizations in the area. Please check the list of upcoming events below to learn more about those, as well as events related to other mercy ministry focus areas!

Upcoming Events:

June 16 – Caregiver’s Evening Out (DCC Building)
June 16 – Stand with Refugees (Seattle)
June 19 – Refugee Community Garden Work Day (Kent)
June 20 – ARTvocavy: World Refugee Day (Seattle)
June 24 – Worship Service @ King County Juvenile Detention Center (Seattle)
June 28 – Swing for Life Golf Tournament (Kent)
June 30 – World Relief Golf Tournament (West Seattle)

To learn more or get connected, email

Partner Prayer Requests:

Refugees

Pray for increased awareness, compassion, and advocacy for refugees through the upcoming events hosted by World Relief and other refugee focused groups on World Refugee Day.

Orphan Care

Caregiver’s Evening Out event on 6/16 – Pray that this event would be a blessing to caregivers and parents, and that God’s love would be made evident in our service to them.

Sex Trafficking & REST

Due to recent legislation, the number of clients seeking aid from REST doubled in the month of April. Pray for the safety of those involved in the sex trade, for lives to be transformed by God’s grace, and for REST to have the resources and ability to support the increase in demand.

Homelessness & UGM

A recent count indicates that the homeless population in Seattle has increased to over 12,000 individuals. Please pray for the safety of those facing homelessness and for the efforts of organizations and ministries like UGM who serve those in need, and that God would use them to bring people to him.

Juvenile Detention

Pray that through the upcoming worship service on 6/24 kids in detention would hear and respond to the gospel.

Life & CareNet

Continued prayers for the mobile unit, that CareNet continues to make progress in the communities they are currently serving (Eastside, Burien, Rainier Valley). Pray that the women who need their services seek them out and use their services, and that they’d choose life and get support they need.