GCF Contact: Matt ()

2nd & 4th Wednesdays of every month, 7-8pm

This is a joint effort by three local churches to care for some of the elderly residents of our community. The Patrician is a retirement residence near the intersection of Nobel & Cargill. Many of the residents there enjoy singing hymns together, but mostly they enjoy the company of young folks. Most of them have no visitors, even family, except a few times per year. We have the opportunity to remind these people that they *are* loved, and they *do* matter to people. No musical ability is needed (although musicians are welcome).

GCF Contact: Norm ()

Karen Connect is a few friends who teach english, to a group of new immigrants: the Karens. More from Norm: "We felt the God had called us to help out these people especially because their situation was particularly difficult. Originated from the mountainous region south east Asia bordering Burma and Thailand makes 7% of the 47 million total population of Burma. In recent year, regional conflicts fueled by ethnic cleansing and drug trade displaced hundreds of thousands of Karen away from their homeland. To escape persecution many of them crossed the border into Thailand and was taken up by the international RedCross organization. Over time these massive refugee camps began to spring up all along the border to accommodate the inflow of people, each one housing tens of thousands of people. Now some of them begin in immigrate to the US under the political asylum protection. As you can imagine the difficulties await for these newly arrived Karen must be horrendous. Equiped with little to no english at all, most of them do not where to begin to start their new life. Something as simple as making a phone call or reading the mail becomes missions impossible. It was during at that point we realised where we can come in and serve our part to make their transition into this country a little easier. We begun to offer english lesson course every Saturday out of an apartment where one of the family lived. With God's blessing, our assistance was met with warm acceptance and the demands for tutors grew. We realised we needed outside help. That was when Bernadette, the person started the whole thing, started to contact outside organizations and asked them if they would like to participate on a more permanent basis. So far we have three Christian student organizations, all from UCSD, GCF being one of them, participate in this tutoring service. Intervarsity and International Christian Fellowship being the other two. GCF have officially taken up the third Saturday of each month as our turn to lead the mentorship. What that really means is we supply the teaching plan and man power for that week. This does mean we will be the only organization that'll be there. It just means we are the ones that caring most of the responsibility. What will happens a lot of the times is Bernadette will sent out a 'Bat Signal' to the rest of the gang for additional volunteers. Its always better to be safe than to be sorry. You can never have too many tutors anyways."

Logistics:
Where: 5120 wightman Street san diego ca 92105
When: Every Saturday 1-3pm

GCF Contact: Kristen ()

Turning Point Pregnancy Resource Center is a non-profit organization that specializes in unplanned or crisis pregnancy solutions. They provide clients with free medical quality pregnancy tests and options counseling. Their goal is to provide a safe environment that includes both practical assistance, education, and emotional and psychological support for women with unplanned pregnancies. All services are completely confidential and free of charge.

here are a couple of ways to get involved. One is to become a trained counselor, though this is a longer process requiring a training period of several months. Another is simply to volunteer to do tasks around the center that are a part of its daily functioning. Such tasks include sorting donations of clothing, food, and other maternity and parenthood supplies; proofreading & photocopying written materials; organizing the center's library; updating outdated brochures and other media; etc.

Volunteers are welcome at any time that the center is open, which is M-Th 10am-3pm, and Sat 10am-1pm.