Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
Our “Live Simply, Give Generously” theme for missions month has an entirely different meaning now than it did a couple of weeks ago, doesn’t it? We are praying for our whole church, community, and world. We are in this together!
Council Road will be responding to the anticipated needs of our community during these challenging days ahead through something called the CarePortal, an online platform originally set up to address the needs of children and families in crisis. As we continue to communicate with members of our church, surrounding schools and other local partners, Care Portal will be a huge asset in organizing needs and equipping our church to respond. They have expanded their platform to not only include requests made from case workers in DHS (Oklahoma Department of Human Services), but to “church-entered needs.”
We are so thankful for such a time as this! Here is how you can help:
Pray – we know there is power in prayer.
Pray for our church body, our staff, our community, our state and our nation. Pray in all of this that individuals will be stirred to turn their face toward God and seek Him.
Sign up to be a CarePortal response team member.
This will allow you to get both “Church Entered” requests (requests made by Council Road members and attenders about needs) and requests from our local schools, DHS, etc. We have already been in touch with our local schools about using this system!
To sign up go to https://system.careportal.org/church/council-road-baptist-church/11601?kiosk=578996b24a90d7bf0f94380c.
This will take you to the Council Road Baptist Church CarePortal page. Click on the orange button that says “SIGN UP TO HELP / LOGIN”.
The next page will ask you for your email address. Enter the email address where you want to receive a CarePortal request.
The next page will say “Sign up for CarePortal”. Enter the required information and set your personal password.
The next page is titled “Support locally or around the U.S.”. You may select any of the areas that interest you. When you are finished selecting, you will click the “ADD” button and you will be directed to the next page that is titled “Find some friends!” “Council Road Baptist Church” should be in the white box and under that box you can select the “ADD” button.
You are done! You will be able to view open requests and begin to receive requests from CarePortal and from Council Road.
CarePortal general information:
Don’t feel the pressure to meet every need. If God places a need on your heart, share it with a group that you are involved with and see if you can meet the need together. You can also say you can assist with meeting part of a request.
If you want to meet the need but resources are limited, you can reach out to us by email (chamberlain@councilroad.org and mmagnus@councilroad.org) or by clicking the button on the CarePortal page that says “CONTACT MINISTRY LEADER”.
In the days ahead, it will be easy to feel overwhelmed. I encourage you to do what you can. Look out for those in your family, neighborhood, and community. Make the call to someone on your mind to check in. Pray with one another. Drop off groceries. Make someone’s day. Continue to connect with each other.
Like the song we sing on Sundays, God is where our help comes from. We look to Him for vision, wisdom, and comfort!
What ways are you finding to encourage and help these days? Sound-off on the comments below so we can learn from each other!
Meet the Author!
Makenzie graduated from Wheaton College where she majored in Christian Ministry, Urban Studies, and Photography and somehow managed to apply all of her degrees to work in the real world! She has a passion for community development after years working in urban ministry in Chicago, non-profits in Austin, and part-time roles at CRBC the past 4&1/2 years. She loves being able to equip and serve the church and recently stepped into the full-time role as Minister of Missions at CRBC which includes both local and global partnerships. Despite being the missions minister, she is quite the homebody. She is an avid Harry Potter fan, loves Oklahoma City, and loves to be with her friends, family, and ADORABLE weenie dog, May.