REACH HEARTBEAT
“We are blessed to be a blessing” – this is one of our deepest convictions as a family and as a church. We are grateful for God’s faithful care and want to pass on His generosity. Our desire is to make ourselves one with God’s heart and to be part of the response to society’s needs through REACH. That is why every year, through local and global projects, we make it possible for people to experience Jesus by addressing need and injustice, by founding authentic and relevant churches and by expanding our local churches.
Together as a church family we can bring about so much good to our environment, to our country and to this world. No matter what your resources are: Each of us can contribute and make a difference. Below we present the individual projects that God has put on our hearts for this year. We warmly invite you to be part of REACH 2020, because collectively we can achieve great things!
Thank you so much for your prayers, your support and your financial commitment.
Leo & Susanna Bigger, Senior Pastors, ICF Zurich
Projects
Meeting needs and injustice
“Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”
Isaiah 1:17 | The Bible – NIV
DREAM CENTER
The Dream Center is a volunteer-based organization in Los Angeles that supports more than 40,000 families and individuals with various services in over 70,000 encounters each month.
These include mobile food supply, medical programs, rehabilitation for adults, accommodation for victims of human trafficking, transition accommodation for homeless families, intervention programs, work skills training, life skills, counselling, basic education, Bible study and more.
AVC
As ICF we want to assist and help persecuted Christians and people in need. With AVC (Action on behalf of persecuted Christians) we have chosen a strong and strategic partner to make a difference in crisis regions in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. AVC also supports and promotes local partners to provide competent, trustworthy and innovative humanitarian aid on four continents. Through a culture-independent program, people are being caringly supported and given new hope.
Strengthening our home
“We are his house … And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.”
Ephesians 2:20 | The Bible – NLT
PROJECT “STETTBACHERHOF”
Last year we collected for the first phase of the project “Stettbacherhof”. The trendy Café Stettbacher, our workshop for work integration as well as storage space were created on the ground floor of the building adjacent to Samsung Hall.
This year we are tackling the second and final phase of the project: we will move our ICF offices from the 2nd floor down to the ground floor. The aim is to inaugurate the new ICF offices in summer 2020. We look forward to having all our activities bundled together on the ground floor of Stettbacherhof and are convinced that we will be able to make use of many synergies in the future.
LOCATIONS
Under the motto “One Church – Many Locations” we as ICF Zurich would like to offer a home to people in the greater Zurich area. In buildings at various locations people are meeting Jesus in a relevant and inspiring way. This year we would like to make ICF Brugg even more inviting with a new bistro and lounge. And in ICF Winterthur the path is now clear to redesign the Celebration Hall and foyer after being able to extend the contract until 2025.
INTERNSHIP
Promoting young talent is very important to us and this takes place in our Team Groups, for example. Another possibility is the ICF Internship. In recent years various young men and women have already been able to join it. We would now like to expand this possibility for even more people from near and far who want to become more like Jesus. For one year they become part of the ICF Zurich staff during the week, work in a specific area and can benefit from everything our college offers. By doing this they have a significant influence on church life. The year is often groundbreaking and a great learning experience for the Interns and for us as a church it is a multi-layered enrichment and a great support.
BUILDING FUND
It is our deepest conviction that the local church plays an important role in encountering the needs of society. So that we can effectively do this as ICF we need to act from a position of strength.
For this reason, 10% of the total revenue of the REACH collection will flow into a fund from which future projects to further develop our locations will be financed.