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Help us staff Christmas tree lot benefiting low income children

Our next service opportunity is coming up on Friday, December 14th from 3pm until 9pm. We will be working with the folks at Good Samaritan running a Christmas tree lot in Innsbrook.

The money raised from sales will go to purchase Christmas presents for 50-60 low income kids from Richmond subsidized housing.

We need lots of volunteers. We'll be in charge of the whole operation, from helping customers select trees, taking payment, and making the experience cheerful and friendly. We'll also need a few folks to help carry the trees and put them in customers' cars.

If you can stay the whole 6 hours from 3-9, that's great. If you can only make if for part of the time, that's great too.

If you're interested in helping, please contact Sean via email - (sean [at] thenewlanguage [dot] com).

FSC Bible Study kicks off this week!

A lot of people have asked, "Is there a Franklin Street Community Bible study?" And now, the answer is yes!

FSC is hosting a Bible study this Thursday and every Thursday thereafter. The topic will be the Gospel of Mark.

Our leader will be Kevin Greene, pastor at West End Presbyterian Church, who has graciously volunteer to lead us. Kevin has preached several times at FSC and joins us for worship every chance he gets. Kevin has also met with the Leadership Team several times to share his wisdom on how to go about finding a full time pastor.

All are welcomed to attend the Bible study. You don't need to be a Bible scholar or anything, just a hunger to learn more about God's word. Feel free to bring a friend!

The Deets

FSC Bible Study

Thursday, November 15th @ 7 p.m.

3108 Patterson Ave, Apt 4 (Sam Fetchero's place)

Note: we will not be meeting on Thanksgiving, but will resume the following Thursday, November 29th.

Loaves & Fishes and some Church fun

Our resident photographer, Jake Lyell, took some great pictures this past Sunday. Take a look...

Georgia and her little one get ready to start cooking the meal for Loaves & Fishes.


Jenny loves to stir gravy!!!


Zach tests out the mashed potatoes.


Serving the folks.


Practicing before the service.


Don't let the scruff and tattoos fool you. These guys love to hug.


Kira is an excellent greeter. And, I mean, she's super cute, too.


The Catrows love church.


Mr. Bonkovsky doin' his thang.


Another little one.


Jesse and Benj chatting it up after the service.

Thanks to Jake for the great pictures. You can see the rest by going here.

Join us feeding the homeless this week

This Sunday (October 21st) we're headed back to the Conrad Center to feed the hungry as part of Loaves and Fishes. Once a month we cook up a delicious meal for Richmond's homeless population.

We'll get started at 11:00 AM. We're typically done serving and cleaning up by 1:30 PM. All are welcome.

The Conrad Center is located at 1400 Oliver Hill Way. Map

Erik brought this to some of our attention earlier this week. Just click on the image to learn more. It's something we should all be thinking about, if not just as a church, but as Christians.

Gilpin Games Recap

The Gilpin Games were a tremendous success. We set out to put on an afternoon sports camp for kids, and it turned into a day of fun, food, and a surprise at the end. It was a blessing for everyone.

The day started around 11 when kids began filing into the field across from Gilpin. They were organized into age groups and rotated through 30-minute sport sessions where they got instruction and coaching on how to play. It was an extremely hot day in the 90s, but we came armed with water to beat the heat.

We had a wide array of sports offerings. Of course there were the standards - football, basketball, soccer, volleyball, kickball. However, having a diverse set of volunteers allowed us to teach new sports to the kids. Two tennis instructors came armed with a bucket full of balls and tennis rackets for everyone, which was quite a surprise; many of the kids had never played tennis before. However, they picked it up quickly.

Phoebe taught some dancing moves, which turned into a dance-off. Everyone was having a blast dancing to the music, combining dance steps from all genres. There were definitely some naturals.

Dancing was definitely the most labor intensive activity. To beat the heat, kids hung out under the shelter, which provided shade while allowing the breeze to blow through. Plus, the most popular station was right nearby - the water station.

For lunch we served Chic-fil-a with waters and juice boxes. Probably not the healthiest meal, but the kids loved it. Who doesn't love Chic-fil-a?

We wrapped up the day with a special surprise... school supplies for everyone that attended. Shari did a lot of work lining up donations before the event, and it paid off in the end when every attendee got as many school supplies as they could carry. While the kids probably weren't looking forward to going back to school, they sure liked showing off their new backpacks.

photos by Jessee Caleb

Reminder: Feeding the homeless this Sunday

This Sunday, Franklin Street Community will be serving Richmond's homeless population as part of "Loaves and Fishes" at the Conrad Center (1400 Oliver Hill Way) from 11 am to 2 pm.

Churches from the Richmond area handle preparing and serving food to the city's homeless population at the Conrad Center, and we handle lunch on the third Sunday of each month. Typically about 25 men and women (and sometimes children) show up and bring a huge appetite. They usually eat about 60 meals-worth of food.

We've become much more efficient in how we split tasks and prepare the food and have become a well-oiled machine with great teamwork. We've also tweaked the menu to cater to the likes and dislikes of our patrons. For instance, salads are rarely touched. Both a vegetable medley of tomatoes and cucumbers with Italian dressing and cooked corn and lima beans are much preferred.

We've been so fortunate as to serve the poorest of Richmond, because although they may not have much money, they're certainly not poor in spirit. We've learned a lot from the experiences, and have hopefully shared the love of Christ. While it's initially uncomfortable, there's no better way to reach the homeless than getting out there and sitting and sharing a meal with them.

We'd love to have you join us - see you at 11 am.

Put your Sunday where your mouth is...

If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?

James 2:16

Every third Sunday, FSC goes down to the Conrad Center on Oliver Hill Way to participate in Loaves and Fishes. We always have a great time and it's an awesome way to get to know the community and those you worship with.

In case you're not familiar with it, Loaves and Fishes is run by a group of churches who each take over one Sunday a month to provide a hot lunch to those who need it. FSC started out by participating in Stony Point Church's Sunday, but we've managed to take ownership of our own week and we are almost self-sufficient at this point.

Our next date for Loaves and Fishes is September 16th. We meet at the Conrad Center at 10:45. Lunch is served at 12:30 and clean up is usually finished by 2:00. If you're interested in more details, want to help, need a ride, let us know.

Keep James's words in mind - a pretty strong call to action, I'd say.

P.S. Whenever we read from James in church and the pastor says, "What James is teaching is that..." I always laugh because when I hear the name James, I automatically think of James Murphy and imagine him scribbling down all of his ancient wisdom onto piles and piles of parchment paper. And now you ALL will be thinking of that, too. Here's a picture of him. That will further ingrain his image into your mind:

Here he is enjoying some kind of stew, I believe. Doesn't he look warm and well fed? Totally goes with the verse.

Gilpin Games

This Saturday (August 25), FSC will join STEP in running the Gilpin Games for the families and kids of the neighborhood. The kids will get to participate in a sports camp and receive lunch and school supplies at the end of the day. This is an excellent opportunity for us to be present in the community and to serve its people.

Here's a breakdown of the schedule:
1o-11 Set up
11-11:30 First sports rotation
11:30-12 Second sports rotation
12-12:15 Speaker
12:15-12:45 Lunch
12:45-1 Pass out backpacks with school supplies
1-2 Clean up

If you stay the entire time (which you don't have to), that's only four hours of service - not a whole lot considering what it's giving the kids: a safe place to play, lunch, and a head start for the coming school year.

Please consider coming out to join us. Dress to play and be sure to bring water and sunscreen. If you can't make it, remember to pray for the event - the weather, the volunteers, but the kids most of all.

I'll leave you with the verse on STEP's web site, a good one to keep in mind when thinking about this Saturday:

"I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ."
-Philemon 6

Welcome to the new FSC blog!

For those of you who don't know about us, we are Franklin Street Community, a growing church that meets in the Harvest Renewal building at 822 West Franklin Street. We are located right on the VCU campus in Richmond, Virginia. Our services are every Sunday at 4:00pm. You should come and hang out.

The purpose of this blog is to keep people informed about what's going on at FSC. We are constantly changing and exploring new ways to serve the people of Richmond, so there's a lot to keep up with. If you are involved with FSC, feel free to send in any ideas about what should go on this blog. We welcome the comments, thoughts, and contributions of everyone.

Contact us any time at franklin.street.community@gmail.com.

Be sure to check back often for updates, pictures, and the like.