2021
October 2021 - Strengthening Communities One Person at a Time
Dear Family and Friends,
We hope this letter finds you healthy during this last quarter of 2021. It has become a tradition for many of you to receive a letter about our annual trip to New Orleans. The McCain’s hate to break tradition and with Hurricane Ida hitting on the exact day as Hurricane Katrina hit sixteen years ago, the need in the 9th Ward is even greater than last year. So, we begin again to prepare for the 15th Thanksgiving meal and outreach in the 9th Ward. Since some of you are new friends, this video gives you the history of how this outreach began.
2021 marks the first full year serving through our 501(c) (3) nonprofit religious corporation, Family Serve. The mission of Family Serve is simple: share with God's people who are in need; practice hospitality. (Romans 12:13) Family Serve seeks to demonstrate the basics of living in peace and connecting people with opportunities to serve and grow in the local, national, and international context. Here is an update of what Family Serve has been up to in 2021.
San Diego Food Share: Family Serve shares fresh food each month with friends and neighbors near downtown San Diego, reaching over eighty families in San Diego communities and across the border into Mexico. New connections are made monthly and everyone who comes is encouraged to take extra food to share with their friends and neighbors.
San Diego King’s Daughters: King’s Daughters is a club for girls of all ages. We have fun togetherthrough many activities such as art, dance, baking and gardening. We learn from the Bible and serve the community. Jennifer and Cami Stout have been leading King’s Daughters for over ten years. Marilyn also helps out regularly. In 2021, due to Covid-19 restrictions, we went virtual. The online platform allowed us to reach girls from other communities and our numbers grew! This summer, we hosted the first King’s Daughter weeklong summer art camp, called “His Love is All You Need”. We had over twenty girls attend. The girls made beautiful works of art, learned from the Bible, and made blankets for our friends in Tecate. We just started up for the 2021- 2022 school year and we have thirty girls signed up to attend in person at City Tree Christian School. We are planning to continue with zoom and weekend meetings for girls in other school communities and our prayer is to reach Liberia soon.
Tecate, Baja California, Mexico: We continue outreach to local families by providing food, clothing, and other needed items. The Gonzalez-Herrera Family is very dear to us. We have been friends since we met them fifteen years ago while building one of their homes with Amor Ministries. Three generations live together on a rural piece of property near the border. Sadly, two of their homes burned down in August. Gladly, everyone survived. We have visited them several times since the fires in August and we are currently fundraising to rebuild their homes through Amor Ministries. We are also seeking volunteers who would like to help rebuild with us.
Liberia: This year we partnered with Malia Harris and participated in a virtual teacher training with St. Paul’s church in Liberia. We also organized and supported two collection drives of food and household goods which were shipped to Liberia. Another canned goods drive is currently underway.
New Orleans Outreach: Last year we traveled to New Orleans two times. In October, we helped a widow who we met after Hurricane Katrina with home repairs and cleaning. We also met with partners who provided us with food and volunteers for the Thanksgiving meal. In November, we hosted the 14th Thanksgiving meal and outreach which reached hundreds of families with homecooked Thanksgiving goodness, “I Love 9th Ward” face masks, grocery distribution and “For Girls Like You” magazines for the local youth. We met new ministry partners and joined them for a day of door-to-door grocery delivery. Those partners then served with us at the meal. They also provided us with extra hands when a huge truckload of groceries needed to be distributed to several additional neighborhoods. It was a full week, and the multitudes were fed, both physically and spiritually.
For this year’s outreach, we will distribute as much food as possible during the week at different locations. We will cook a traditional meal for everyone in the community. We will also assess needs due to damage caused by Hurricane Ida and plan to work with Reach Global who coordinated Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in 2006. This year we serve with the spirit of Wasim Merchant as our guide. Wasim, our daughter Sara’s fiancé, and father to our grandchild, Josephine, and Kamila, was a true Louisiana man who never met a stranger and always had a smile on his face. Sadly, he passed away on August 24, 2021, after a courageous battle with brain cancer. Sara and Josephine will serve the community with us as we remember Wasim and how much he loved his family, others, the Saints, and Louisiana!
Thank you for praying and supporting us this past year. As we head off to New Orleans soon, we wanted to let you know of ways you can help. You can send a tax-deductible donation to Family Serve, 2766 A Street, San Diego, CA 92102, or you can Venmo your donation to Jennifer McCain-2. You can also designate your giving to any of the specific areas mentioned above. All of the money we receive will be used 100% on the outreach you request. Another way to help is to add Family Serve as a charity under your Amazon account by logging into Smile Amazon each time you order items. Amazon donates a percentage of orders to your designated charity. We would love you to help out in any way you feel called.
As the Lord called us to different places, we go with the intention of meeting spiritual and practical needs one person at a time. Our time and efforts are always donated, but with your prayers and support we have been able to make a lasting impact in these communities. We are thankful for your prayers and your desire to help out however you can. If you, your family, or your organization would like more information about Family Serve, or would like to join us in upcoming adventures, please let us know. We would love to have you come along as we serve as family in Christ.
With joy and gratitude,
The McCain Family/Family Serve
Share with God's people who are in need; practice hospitality. Romans 12:13