Churches serve others

NEWPORT BEACH — The house, located on a street of pastel paint jobs and manicured lawns, looked like an image from a different neighborhood. The grass grew high on the front lawn with weeds jutting throughout; plants withered beneath the front windows. Taking up the entire driveway was a large yellow dumpster, which volunteers filled with the remnants of cardboard boxes as they exited the home.

Across Margaret Drive, on a much tidier lawn, Stacy Lemoine knelt for a prayer with a group of friends. A circle of men, women and children held hands on the grass, some fighting back tears as she spoke.

“Just be present today and fill the space between these two houses with your glory, God,” she said, surrounded by yard tools she and others had brought from home.

A member of The Crossing church in Costa Mesa, Lemoine had coordinated the cleanup as part of the annual Serve Day, in which her church and others venture into the community to help people in need. The owner of the house across the street had lost her husband last fall, and Lemoine rallied her fellow churchgoers to clip the yard, paint the exterior and help throw out old belongings.

Churches around Southern California have banded together for Serve Day since Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa started the tradition in 2000. The Crossing has participated in the event for years, but this weekend, the church did something it had never done before: It canceled its weekend services to allow its members two days of work.

“It’s not about religion,” said Vicki Costa, a Crossing member who spent Saturday morning at the Orange Coast Interfaith Shelter in Westside Costa Mesa. “It’s about a relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus came here to serve us, and we’re doing as Jesus would be doing. We’re going out and serving the community.”

At the shelter, members of The Crossing joined with a group from the Church of San Pablo in Tijuana, where the Costa Mesa church did outreach work earlier this year. Jason Bryan, a local landscaper, provided dozens of plants and flowers to decorate the shelter’s yard, while other volunteers covered the offices inside with tarp in anticipation of repainting the walls.

Another group congregated on Shalimar Drive, one of Costa Mesa’s poorest neighborhoods, to repair and clean the laundromats in apartment buildings. According to Crossing Communications Director Jan Lynn, more than 1,500 church members signed up for the event, which was dubbed Serve Weekend for the first time this year.

James Hatfield, 17, of Laguna Beach, was among those cleaning on Margaret Drive Saturday morning. He and his sister, 19-year-old Megan, participated in Serve Day for the second year in a row.

“You feel awesome afterward,” James said.