23 Jul Demonstrating the Love of Christ across the DMV
Rob Peabody
Founder of Awaken My City
On July 16, 2016, tens of thousands of people gathered for Together 2016 at the National Mall in Washington, DC to worship and be commissioned as a unified church to be Jesus to their country and the world. The day was filled with renowned speakers and artists from Francis Chan and Louie Giglio to Lecrae and Hillsong United. It is under this backdrop that Awaken My City launched as the premiere tool for non-profits and churches to organize and mobilize their people to serve. 
Over 30 organizations received volunteers to help meet their daily needs. These included the National Parks Service, Capital Area Food Bank and World Vision through a special project hosted by a local church to pack backpacks for Syrian refugees.
In total, there were 12,000 volunteer shifts over the course of July 11-22. DMV locals were joined by groups who came from California, South Dakota, Michigan, Colorado and even South Korea to serve in DC. They contributed 9,000 volunteer hours valued at almost $200,000 worth of human capital in doing these projects.
Awaken My City provided a key opportunity for Together attendees to feel connected to the city and to each other as they worked together. This brought their trip to life and gave them a memory and the knowledge that not only did they come to the city to receive as part of a large event, but also to give in some small way to show the love of Jesus and how it restores. This restoration came in the form of beautification projects outside the White House. It came with the packing of 3,000 backpacks by 600 people who joined at Christian Fellowship Church in Ashburn, VA. It came by giving a smile as they served dinner at Central Union Mission.
The goal of Awaken My City is to streamline and host a tool to make it simple for people to organize and go be Jesus outside the walls of the church. As a team, we could not be more humbled that God opened doors for us to do just that with our launch in July.
To register yourself and your church or organization, visit http://awakenmycity.com.