Big Sunday is the largest annual citywide community service event in America. It’s a time for community building in Southern California, when volunteers of every age and from every walk of life work together to help others. There are countless opportunities for every passion, talent, skill and age. Projects are scheduled throughout the weekend, and they last anywhere from one hour to two full days. Some are big, some are small, some are easy and some are more involved. All are rewarding. All anyone is asked for is his or her time and talent. The day is totally underwritten by foundation grants and private and corporate donations.

When we first thought about participating in “Big Sunday,” I’m not sure we had any idea as to just how big this project would become. We knew we wanted to make a difference within our community and even though we are blessed with our own school, we felt a partnership with Reseda Elementary School would be a good fit. Initially, I don’t think the school knew exactly why we would offer our time and talents to help them, but it did not deter our desire.  Our biggest challenge was in educating our own “flock” that this event would take place on a Friday/Saturday even though the name refers to Sunday. Sign-ups began and enthusiasm began to grow.

In the meantime, we had to try to secure the materials and tools needed to complete the painting and planting tasks given to us by the maintenance director of the school. We knew we could ask our people to loan us some of their tools, but more would be needed. We put together a small team of people who were comfortable in approaching local businesses for donations (Rick Skalma, CJ Shepherd, and Laurence Soultanian).  Chick-Fil-A was so kind to provide us with 100 coupons for a free chicken sandwich for our workers. Dunn Edwards provided three gallons of free paint and significantly discounted the rest. Lowe’s gave us a 10% discount. Jessica Tabares, who works for Starbucks, gave us her allotment of coffee. Brandon Balderas, a member of the Reseda Neighborhood Council, secured for us a donation of 48 potted plants. And we had many of our wonderful ladies bake or provide food items for the hungry workers. Some of our ladies who weren’t able to paint or garden, created over 50 home-made thank you cards for all the Reseda School teachers, staff and administrators. What a blessing! Some even dusted classrooms, raked the front yard, fixed signs, pressure washed walls – all extra things done since the projects given us were completed in record time.

Pastor Bruce created the teams – God has blessed us with talented people who are painters (CJ Shepherd) or landscapers (David Saxe) and food coordinators (Bridget Smith). Diagrams had to be drawn and maps created. Buttons were created to ensure everyone who worked had been checked in – mostly for liability needs required by Big Sunday. Water and t-shirts were picked up from downtown L.A. (thank you Jay & Bridget Smith!).

The outpouring of volunteers was amazing. We had 126 people serve, including 5 who were signed up online from Kaiser Permanente. What a turnout! Everyone that came had a wonderful servant’s heart. Thank you! It was wonderful to see families working together within the family of Christ.

What do we expect for the future? All indications are that we will join Big Sunday again next May and hope to continue our partnership with Reseda Elementary School. The Principal was so pleased and grateful for all the hard work. She and her teachers will no doubt have MANY more projects for us to complete next year.  In the meantime, please pray for Reseda Elementary and praise God for His faithfulness in our first Big Sunday effort. Thank you to all who helped us in BRIDGING THE GAP!