The first U.S. interfaith loan fund to provide support for long-term domestic disaster recovery was launched in New Orleans on May 15. The Isaiah Funds—sponsored by Catholic, Jewish, Mennonite, and Baptist organizations—gave its first loans to Gulf Coast nonprofit and community development groups struggling to rebuild after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The Church Has Left the Building
An Exxon gas station in Cedar Park, Texas, was taken over by members of HighPoint Fellowship church on April 27 as part of “Faith in Action” Sunday. Church members worked the pumps and subsidized prices so gas could be sold for $1 less than average. “We were dreaming up how we could help our community, and one of the things that’s stressing people right now is finances,” HighPoint pastor Randy Fenter told Channel 8 in Austin. “We knew gasoline is one of the things that impact everybody’s family, so we thought we’d drop the price for a while.”
HighPoint Fellowship was one of 300 churches across the U.S. that cancelled regular Sunday services and took to the streets to serve the poor. Faith in Action Sunday, organized by the Christian communications groups Zondervan and Outreach Inc., with the humanitarian organization World Vision, was the culmination of a four-week, church-wide series of daily devotions, small groups, and sermons focused on Christians taking on the heart of Christ in service to “the least of these.”
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