Ways We Serve the Community

Following Jesus means loving and serving others, both locally and globally. Here is a partial list of the ministries we are involved with in an ongoing way.

1. Every Tribe

Circle has been involved with a number of ministries that serve the Navajo Nation specifically and Native Americans generally. Currently we have a fund called “Every Tribe.” 100% of gifts to this fund go directly to meet the immediate needs of Native American people.

Circle has been involved with a number of ministries in the Navajo Nation.
One is the Tokahookaadi Church and Lybrook Community Ministry, which offers spiritual and material support to people on and around Navajo territory. Circle supports this holistic, renewing ministry. See http://www.lcmmission.org/
Another is Southwest Indian Ministries Center (https://www.wgmaif.org/southwest-indian-ministries-center.html) which works on the reservation but also has an office and ministry center in Peoria AZ.
We have also worked with an informal network of friends and relatives who regularly collect supplies that are delivered directly to elders deep in the Navajo Nation.

2. House of Refuge Sunnyslope

Circle has an ongoing relationship with House of Refuge Sunnyslope (https://www.refugesunnyslope.com/), which provides transitional housing and life changing resources for men, women, and single moms with their children. Their main focus is to provide a safe and sober transitional living environment while individuals are restored through God’s presence in their life, full-time work and fellowship with others. In addition to ongoing service projects and supply collections, we cook meals for and eat with residents.

3. Refugee Ministry

There are currently two main areas of focus with our Refugee Ministry. The first is a Welcome Team that is building personal relationships with a family that was settled in Phoenix after evacuating from Afghanistan. We also collect donations for household supplies that are hard for families to get or afford, and have worked with Gathering Humanity (https://gatheringhumanity.org/) among other refugee organizations.

4. Sock Balls & Homeless Kits

This is an ongoing ministry of our church generally and our children’s ministry specifically. We collect clean white socks along with small food (granola bars or small gift certificates) and hygiene items (lip balm, sample/hotel sizes of soap and shampoo). We put the food & hygiene items into a pair of socks, roll it into a ball, and give the “sock balls” to people at Circle to keep in their cars. When we see the homeless and/or panhandlers, we hand them the sock ball. Supplies for this ministry can be dropped off or picked up from the church every single Sunday morning.

5. Nigeria Crisis

While this is related to an event in 2014, we continue in prayer. For more information, see http://www.brethren.org/nigeriacrisis/ and Pastor Jeremy’s letter.