Christ's Church of the Valley (CCV) likes to run short, 250-word stories in each weekend's bulletin to tie in with the sermon or events happening within the church. Here is the short story I wrote about the effectiveness of the Neighborhood Ministry and how neighbors reached out to care for each other in times of need. The approximate bulletin count is 6,000 every weekend.
Answering a Call for Help
Matt Cortes was diagnosed with a life-threatening disease at age 17 and was given only 3 years to live. Surprisingly, he lived a much longer life and died at age 44. The extra years he had with his family and friends were a blessing. But at the time of his recent death, Matt left behind a hurting family that would now have to pick up the pieces and move on.
Nancy Cortes, Matt’s mother, is a CCV member and knew the church would be there to help her and her family walk the road of recovery. But they were blown away by the outpouring of support from the Paseo Highlands neighborhood groups. Neighborhood leader Joe Cavaretta quickly mobilized fellow neighbors connected through the CCV neighborhood groups to take action.
Not only did the neighborhood groups send flowers and cards, they fulfilled tangible acts of kindness by providing daily meals to the family and took care of all the details regarding the memorial service, including greeting and ushering, as well as taking care of the memorial reception.
Nancy and her family don’t know what they would have done without the help from the neighborhood groups who collectively provided for their every need. “We knew Matt’s death was imminent and our son would be leaving us.... The day Matt died we lost our son, but we also gained a new extended family.”
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