Welcome to CAYA

“As Christ loves us, we love others,” 

“As Christ listens to us, we listen to others”

“As Christ lives in us, we share our lives with others.”

CAYA isn’t a word with a special meaning in a different language. It’s not Swahili, Hebrew, or a word in another tongue.  CAYA is simple word with a great purpose: Come As You Are. And we really mean it. Not just once a month, or for a special service – every week and every day we invite you to come just as you are and see what amazing things Christ can begin in you and through you, right now!

As Christians we hold true that Christ sacrificed His life so that when we die we can spend the rest of time, all eternity, with Him in heaven. He taught that we enter heaven with the simplicity of a child. (Mark 10:13-16). When I visit the daycare to pick up my daughter she runs to me screaming “Daddy” as if it’s been weeks. And though she can have a runny nose, dried mucus over her face, spilled food on her clothes, scars and scratches on her knees I hold run to her with as much passion right back. In the same way I come to Jesus dirty, scarred, blemished, and spent. Sometimes you can see my brokenness on my outside; more often it’s hidden on the inside. Yet, He accepts me just as I am – and He takes me in with even more passion than I come to Him.

In the way that Christ, Himself, accepts us – as broken, hurting, confused persons, not judging our inner or outward appearance – I imagine as place where we, too, will accept others. In this light, “Caya” becomes a method of sharing the love of Christ, as well as a means for serving the world around us. It is both evangelism and ministry.

Saeed Richardson
Servant & Friend,