Church Marks Decade of Community Impact

City Impact Church is celebrating ten years of service to the community this month. In March 2008, church members gathered for their first Community Impact Day, where volunteers carry out home and garden maintenance for people in the community. Starting with a total of 59 homes visited in 2008, the event has grown year on year, with 2016 seeing volunteers go to nearly 300 homes.

Community Impact Days now mobilise over 500 volunteers, four times a year, to help families, widows, the disabled, and the elderly, as well as North Shore and Waitakere Hospitals. That’s a total of 68,900 man-hours and 1700 home visited, not to mention 6495 Christmas gift boxes delivered at Christmas time.

“One of the great things about getting to our tenth year, is that we get to see people who’ve been helping at Community Impact Days since they were kids, now volunteering their time as young adults,” says City Impact Church Community Impact Manager Mary-Kath Laita.

Tyson Wijohn and Jordan Parratt have been at Community Impact Days since day one.

“Even as an eight-year-old kid, I remember thinking how amazing it was that we could make such a huge difference in someone’s life just by doing mundane tasks,” says Tyson.

“I remember helping my parents on Community Impact Days,” says Jordan. “It has always been fun to be a part of it.”

The vision for Community Impact Days came after church volunteers helped to build City Impact Church’s huge facility on their North Shore campus over a two-year period.

“With the Sanctuary completed, we realized we could continue volunteering our time to help our community,” says Mary-Kath. “I started attending some council network meetings, listening to the needs, and building relationships. When we set a date for the first Community Impact Day, I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t sleep for a week leading up to it!”

City Impact Church has continued to work closely with government and community organisations, who refer people to the church when they see a need.

“We love helping people,” says Senior Pastor Peter Mortlock. “For us, it’s all about getting out there and sharing God’s love in a practical way.”

For more on the church’s community work and other upcoming events, go to www.cityimpactchurch.com.

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