General Assembly Mission Opportunities

The local arrangements team has identified several mission opportunities that will be available during General Assembly in Columbus this July.

There's knitting scarves or donating knitting supplies for a local shelter, restoring homes with Habitat for Humanity, helping with the local food bank run, donating blood, and learning about how to participate in and even organize a CROP Hunger Walk. Find all the information about how to get involved here.

 

 

There are also three opportunities for youth to get involved in mission on their way home from Assembly. Projects are available in Indiana, Kentucky, and  Ohio. Check out the details here.

And don't forget the mission project for everyone... you can help by donating your old used plastic grocery bags. The Disciples Women and Disciples Youth are crocheting them into sleeping mats for the homeless. Learn about this unique project and get involved today!

Disciples of Christ lead in the growing partnership between emergency services and the faith based community

Tammy Clough - deacon at First Christian Church, Cameron, is pictured here with Cameron Fire Chief Mike O'Donnell and Assistant Fire Chief Mike Walser.  Tammy serves as the Deputy Emergency Management Director for Clinton County.  She recently participated in the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) Annual Conference in Branson along with Roger Latham, member at Savannah First Christian Church and Andrew County Emergency Management Director who also attended with his wife Alice.

Emergency Management Directors oversee the formulation of comprehensive emergency plans for their jurisdiction and participate in leadership during responses to large scale emergencies.

Disciples have compiled a very helpful handbook called Help and Hope available at Chalice Press

 

 

 

 

 

 

Darren Day, member of Broadway Christian Church, is pictured here at SEMA headquarters in Jefferson City, with Deb Hendrick - Statewide Volunteer Coordinator and Susamma Seely - President of the Missouri Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (MOVOAD).  Darren is representing Mid-America Disciples of Christ in MOVAOD and in the Missouri Interfaith Disaster Response Organization (MIDRO) which is currently chaired by Regional Minister Team member Bill Rose-Heim.  Darren is a Boone County volunteer firefighter, an on-line business instructor at Central Methodist University and a stay-at home dad who has prior experience with emergency management at Boone Hospital Center in Columbia.

Disciples of Christ congregations wanting to connect with free resources to help them prepare to survive and serve during and after community-wide emergencies can check out www.midrodrc247.weebly.com/resources.html.  

Church Extension Fund is also preparing new resources and services for Disciples congregations preparing for or recovering from disasters. They plan to launch the new service during the 2015 General Assembly.

National Avenue Christian Church Supports Teens with Shoes - and so much more!

This year, we celebrated God’s wild, moving, living Spirit with shoes all around us on Pentecost Sunday. One of our partners, the Rare Breed drop in center, invited us to return this year with the Converse shoe project which we had enacted during the Lenten season last year. Teens at the Breed go to the center for various reasons: some teens are street dependent; others need access to resources such as GED classes or medical help; some need a quiet place they can be themselves; and 40% of the teens especially need to know they are loved after being kicked out of their homes when they came out to their parents as LGBTQ+. 

We went to the Breed and took shoe orders on three separate evenings.  Teens were given an opportunity to choose the color and type of shoe they wanted, as well as give us the size they needed.  We asked for two choices and explained to the teens that we would work hard to find their shoes. On the third night, we had collected orders for 90 pairs of shoes.  

Our community of faith at National Avenue Christian Church was invited to make donations to purchase shoes.  Each pair cost approximately $40.00 and we also invited community members to purchase the shoes in honor of a person who had guided them in their understanding of faith and exemplified the Spirit of the Church. Funds were also raised in other ways – one of our favorite pie makers Benny Ellis, a retired teacher, baked custom-made pies offered with over five delicious toppings. The $10.00 fee charged for each pie, allowed Benny to make a sizeable donation towards the purchase of shoes.

As part of our celebration of the church, we blessed the shoes on Pentecost morning in worship. During the Children’s Conversation, our children took boxes of shoes into the congregation so that everyone could have the opportunity to be part of the blessing. Those in attendance that morning were asked to look at the name of the teen who would be receiving the shoes written on the box. As they held the shoes during worship, they were invited to pray for the teen and the feet that would be wearing these shoes later in the week. 

Following worship, the congregation was invited to come into our Gallery and write a note of love and support for their teen and then, place that note in the box along with a new pair of socks and place a colorful ribbon around these wonderful new shoes.  It was amazing to watch how joyfully these tasks were carried out.

 

Beginning that day, and in the week following, we heard so many stories of how members of our faith community felt they had been blessed by the opportunity to pray for the feet that would be wearing these shoes. There was a realization that it is one thing to talk about Street Dependent teens as a group of young people, and an entirely different feeling to pray for one individual young person who lives on the street day-in and day-out.

As we listened for the Spirit through the liturgy, music, and message that day, we were reminded that we are constantly being swept out of the Church to love and care for a world that is waiting for the marvelous Good News of the Gospel. And we felt certain that the Spirit walking around among us on this Pentecost Sunday – was wearing a pair of pink Chuck Taylors and celebrating with all of us.  

story and photos courtesy of National Avenue CC's Rev. Jenn Simmons

33 Years of Making Pies for Mission in Neosho

For several years the Neosho Christian Women’s Fellowship had a fall bazaar to raise funds for national and state outreach projects. When flea markets and craft shows became so numerous, it seemed time to make other plans. A church in Springfield, Missouri, had a very successful apple pie program. It was decided to give it a try in Neosho.

The first year 78 pies were made. They sold well but rolling the crusts slowed production. A few years later a man in the church bought a used pizza roller. Production quickly increased. It became a total church project as the men came to help. Sixty bushels of apples were purchased from an orchard and the production goal grew to 1000 pies. They were sold “as made” or frozen.

Dough makers come on Monday and Wednesday afternoons. Ladies weigh dough for each crust. Others make it into 4 inch “biscuits”, ready for the pizza machine. While dough is being made, sugar and spices are mixed. On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, men come in at 6 am and start peeling apples. Women come in and cut them into slices. Two or three women take pie crusts from the roller and check them for proper size and shape. The kitchen crew weighs the apple slices, adds spices, and puts the apple mixture in the crust. Toppers add the upper crust. The pies are then bagged and taken to the freezers.  Time is taken for coffee break and fellowship. Women other than church members have come to help, and some have started coming to church.

People buy from one to 10, 15 or more pies. They have their pies for the year. Sugar-free pies are made on order. Due to demand, cherry pies are made twice during the year. Top pie production has been 1108 apple pies and 400 cherry pies.

It is amazing how the pies sell, as well as how some of the pies are sold. One man, a non-member of the church, who mows lawns and does odd jobs for the elderly in town, has bought as many as 100 pies at a time and then delivered them to his customers. Some who have moved away, still come back to buy pies.

Proceeds from sales are used mainly for various outreach projects, such as, “Goats for Mozambique”, “Windmills and Wells”, and other mission activities. The first batch of pies was made in 1982, so this ministry will celebrate 33 years in 2015.

by Margaret Coulter, who has been part of this ministry since the beginning

Webster Groves Christian Church Hosts Girl Scouts April Showers

On Saturday, April 25, Webster Groves Christian Church served as the collection point for local Girl Scouts and their families and leaders as they organized over 30,000 personal care items to be used by neighbors in need in the St. Louis area. The items will be distributed through WGCC mission partner Webster-Rock Hill Ministries. WGCC members, along with many other volunteers, served as organizers and sorters for the thousands of items that were donated on April 25.

 

Improving a Park in the Northwest Area

Shelter Blitz Build On Weather Permitting!

On Saturday, May 9th NW Area Disciples will bring power tools and prayers to finish work on a roof for the park shelter being reconstructed in Orrick.  Posts were set and braced and concrete poured Monday.  Art Endsley ran an auger to drill the post holes and hauled lumber for bracing.  Dale Pontius, Dan Kercher and Bill Rose-Heim helped to finish preparations for the work that will start at 9 am.  Orrick Christian Church is providing lunch.  Volunteers should bring work gloves and other personal protective clothing and gear.  Those with ladders, cordless drills, and hammers can bring them.  We anticipate the work to be complete by 3 pm.  For more information call Bill Rose-Heim at 816.617.7020.

Mid-America Moderator Travels with Broadway CC Team to El Salvador

My wife, Martha Jolly and I are back from an amazing mission trip to El Salvador during the last week in March.

Broadway Christian Church (Columbia) has been a U.S. church partner with Enlace (El Salvador) for five years, and has sent a mission team there each year during that time.  Enlace has been working in country in El Salvador for 22 years.  The cumulative developments, all done in partnership with local churches, according to the priorities established in those communities, are truly impressive.  Check out their website.

Broadway member, Dave McGee is Enlace’s Communications and Partnership Development Director.  More below on their excellent process of networking many partners around locally-determined, sustainable projects that make a real difference in peoples’ lives over time.

Broadway has walked together (“caminando juntos”) with two churches during those years, and our team visited both. The first was in the rural community of El Espino, Pastor Santos Carpio’s Tabernaculo Biblico Salem Church. 

The second church, Fe y Gracia Church, in the nearby rural community of La Labor was where our team worked on building chicken coops for families, who were chosen by the local partnership.  Our team of fifteen divided into five teams, and worked alongside church members, community members, Enlace staff, and the homeowner.  Our team worked with two families.

On our last day, we celebrated in Pastor Jose Molina’s church in La Labor.  Some of the women treated us all to a delicious lunch of “pupusas.”

Our Broadway gift to Pastor Jose and his wife was a handmade altar cloth.

We were fortunate enough to be in El Salvador on the 35th anniversary of assassination of Oscar Romero, Catholic Bishop of El Salvador, who will be beatified next month.  March 26 was a national holiday in his honor, and 500,000 Salvadorans all in white shirts marched from all corners of the capital to a central square to celebrate a national day of peace.

Salvadorans are beautiful, happy, hard-working, loving and deeply Christian people; it was a privilege to get to know some of them.  They taught me (and all of us) a lot about ourselves, about our relationships with Jesus, and about how to partner in community for the long term.  As for us, we worked with them to make some progress on some chicken coops!

 For more on the Enlace process and how Broadway has participated, follow this link to Senior Minister Tim Carson’s article here.

by Mid-America Moderator Guy Adams

The Words and Images of Good Friday: Through the Eyes of Youth From Rare Breed

How can we provide a meaningful way for people to connect with their faith and the community on Good Friday?  This was the guiding question as ministers from Brentwood, National Avenue, and South Street Christian Churches met to plan our Good Friday activities.  We’ve been hosting an ecumenical Good Friday service for several years, but we wanted to do something in addition to our service.  We realized that Good Friday fell on First Friday Art Walk, an event where people flock downtown to check out the newest galleries and stores, which are very close to South Street Christian Church.  How serendipitous that Good Friday and Art Walk would fall on the same day!  We knew that there had to be a way to communicate the poignancy of Good Friday through art.  After some brainstorming, we came up with the idea of asking the homeless, runaway, or at-risk youth from Rare Breed Youth Services to produce art for the evening and Rev. Jenn Simmons made the contact.  Creating an art exhibit would be a way for the youth to give voice to their struggles, as well as, help our faith communities encounter Christ in the midst of those who are leading very difficult lives.

We decided to give the youth words associated with Good Friday around which they could create their art.  They used cinder blocks, representing the weight of their struggles, complete with phrases and pictures that they had cut from magazines and newspapers.  The art was striking.  It gave us a window into their lives, which had been filled with hurt and brokenness.  In addition to the art, there were candles laid out to form the shape of a cross, where people could light a flame to represent a prayer.  People could also write a prayer, roll it up, and place it with others.  Perhaps the most heart-breaking, yet hopeful part of the exhibit, however, was a short statement that the youth had written.  The statement was placed next to several small stones in a basket with words like “crying,” “hungry,” and “tender” on them.  Their statement, which encouraged us to take a stone with us, read:

Please take a stone with these words of reflection on them.  Remember us, our journeys, our thoughts, hopes and dreams.  Though our paths may not cross, we are sharing this life now.  Our souls are experiencing the same love, the same pain, the same energy.  Think of us often.  We need to be loved.  We need to be valued.  We need to be worthy.  We need you.  All. Lives. Matter.

Indeed, all lives matter.  It is in the faces, or in this case the art, of those on the margins that we encounter the living Christ, even on Good Friday…or perhaps, especially on Good Friday.  Their lives call us to stand in solidarity with all those who are hurting. The exhibit drew around 150 people from local congregations, the First Friday Art Walk crowd, and loyal supporters of Rare Breed.  We raised $636.05 for Rare Breed and we are grateful that were able to walk with them on their journeys.

Rev. Caleb J. Lines
South Street Christian Church

Hamilton Christian Church Donates Assets

 
 

Hamilton Christian Church in St. Louis will hold a final celebration of worship on Thursday, April 9th as they have closed and now sold their building. The service will take place at noon in the Commons at Eden Theological Seminary. 

Their legacy will continue, however, with the many gifts they are bestowing on their mission partners including Caring Solutions, Heifer International, Memorial Boulevard Christian Church Food Pantry. and St. Monica Preschool in Creve Coeur. They have also made a very generous financial contribution to the Southeast Gateway Area and donated their organ to the seminary.

Read more here.

Communion by Clown

Bowling Green First Christian Church and New Harmony Christian Church hosted Psalm 126:2 Clown Ministry on March 15, 2015 for a performance of Communion by Clown.  In attendance for this unique service were 59 people of all ages from several churches and beyond the local community.  The reaction were laughter, poignancy and surprise.  The most common comment was, "I didn't know what to expect and I was moved by it."

clowns in sanctuary.png

Communion by Clown holds it's roots in the Cursillo and Walk to Emmaus movement.  Each clown or clowns create their own routine of this service which celebrates Jesus' birth, life, death and resurrection through the art of clowning, music and mime.  Pastor Dawn Marie and her husband Ron Turner transrorm themselves into BB Lee and Tinker.  They were trained by Maureen Mould of Kalliodescope Konnection in Washington state.  BB Lee and Tinker can be seen at many community events and are willing to visit churches with their ministry.  You can contact Pastor Dawn Marie at pastordawnie@gmail.com and she will let BB Lee know.

Woodson Chapel CC Youth Raise over $5,000 for a Well in Uganda

Congratulations to the youth of Woodson Chapel Christian Church in St. Joseph! They learned of the need for drinking water wells in Africa when one of their mothers visited there last summer, and they got to work!

They raised the funds by making a well to put in the entryway for people to drop their change in, holding a trivia night, arranging a garage sale, and fixing the lunch at the church's retreat weekend in February.

After seven months of work, they reached their goal with their Way to the Well 5K - Walk for Clean Water at a local high school track. With about 70 participants including walkers and those who couldn't walk supporting, the event raised over $2,500 and put the group up to their goal.

 

Pastor Lois Kelley is very proud of the youth who did all the planning and most of the work involved with this project of supplying clean drinking water to a village in Uganda through Living Water International.

Great job!

Ozark Christian Church Celebrates Their 175 Years!

In celebration of our 175th Anniversary, we will be doing many service projects throughout the year.  These projects will spread the celebration of Ozark Christian Church's 175th year, not only throughout our community, but also to our world.  We started the celebration in February by setting a goal of collecting 175 cans of food for the Least of These.  By the end of the month we had exceeded that goal and collected 229 pounds of food!

shoe collection.jpg

 

In March, we have started on our "Celebration Shoes" - collecting 175 pairs of shoes for Shadow of His Wings orphanage in Guatamala. The directors of this orphanage are Bryon & Tiffany Applegate, who are friends from Ozark, so even though we are taking our celebration worldwide, we still have an Ozark connection.

 

 

Another project is the "Tree of Kindness" with the goal of 175 random acts of kindness recorded on individual leaves. Though it seems that modesty is preventing the recording of all acts, the tree has 94 leaves so far! They read things like "picked up trash along the road" and "took neighbor's trash can to the curb."

We will also begin our personal health journey of "175 Miles of Moving" allowing our members to celebrate, while also benefiting themselves.  We are hoping those wishing to participate will complete 175 miles of walking, swimming, biking, jogging, vacuuming, horseback riding, water aerobics, or whatever way they chose to do, and in any combination, just as long as they are moving.  There is no time limit on this celebratory activity and members can track of their own progress on a chart.

Other ideas being discussed include planting 175 flower bulbs on our church property, preparing 175 foster care kid kits and collecting 175 books to donate to a worthy organization.  Our minds are racing with ideas, our hands are busy fulfilling those ideas and our hearts are growing with God's love and blessings. We would like to continue this celebration method all year long, because 175 is a BIG number and definitely worth celebrating.

Celebration Sunday is May 3 at 10:00am.  Anyone wanting additional information or to RSVP should call the church office at 417-581-6796.  We are planning a special celebration service with lots of music, remembrances and recognitions, followed by a catered lunch (hence the RSVP is necessary).  Our old church site, which is now known as Bell Tower Chapel, will also be opened that afternoon for anyone to visit and reminisce. 

There's lots more information on the church's website and Facebook page!

Thanks to Marna Strahl for this information and photos.

 

A Mission Project for EVERYONE!

The Disciples Women and Disciples Youth are working together on a mission project for the General Assembly coming up this July. They are making blankets/sleeping mats for the homeless.

You know the bags... you get way more than you need from the overzealous bagger at the grocery store, you see them blowing down the street on a breezy day, a collection of them probably exists in your house right now waiting to get hauled back to the store's recycling container.

Put them to good use! The Disciples Women and Disciples Youth want them to become plarn (plastic yarn) that will be crocheted into a blanket/sleeping mat for a homeless person. 

This project has a skill level for absolutely everyone. Of course there will be crafty crocheters fashioning the finished product but we also need people to contribute scissors and crochet hooks, cut the bags into usable strips, tie the strips end to end (making a long string of plarn), ball up those strings into organized units for the crocheters, and COLLECT THOSE BAGS!

This Disciples Women web page has all the information including:

  • Where to send your plarn balls
  • What to do if you want to participate in this project at the Assembly
  • Other resources, including a video of how to perform each step of the process
These crocheted mats are remarkably comfortable, and offer just enough to create a barrier between the ground and the body, to help retain body heat while sleeping.  It’s no problem if the mats get wet as they can easily be dried. 
The mats are also a cleaner way of sleeping. Bugs don’t like them. And when dirty, they can be easily hosed off, shaken out and be good to go again.
They are portable as well. The crochet plastic makes for a very lightweight mat. With the accompanying strap, these crochet mats can easily be carried over a homeless person’s shoulder. 
Not only are they  free to make, each  mat will keep 500-700 plastic bags out of the landfill!


First Christian Church in Harrisonville Becomes Third Mid-America Green Chalice Congregation

Green Team Chair Cheryl Tinsley shares First Christian Church's process of becoming
a Green Chalice Congregation.

 

 

 

Our first step was to start using Equal Exchange coffee in our kitchen.  We also offer coffee, chocolate, and other EE products to the congregation for sale once or twice a year.  We focus these sales on awareness more than fundraising, but do make a little money to help defray the costs of kitchen coffee.  We want members to understand that fair trade coffee and chocolate represents fairness to farmers, and thinking about the farmer makes it worth the extra money.  Plus, a portion of the sales supports Week of Compassion, a program very important to our congregation.

We also began collecting used inkjet cartridges a few years ago.  We recycle these through an organization that pays us.  We use this money to purchase eco-friendly hot and cold cups and plates for the church kitchen.  We don't make enough to totally underwrite the costs of these products, but it helps out a little, and encourages recycling.  We do have a small line item in our budget for purchasing cups, plates, and coffee. 

We have had eco fairs a couple of times on the church lawn for the community, highlighting ways to recycle in the community as well as local businesses who recycle.  More recently, we've had eco fairs inside the church, to highlight both the Equal Exchange products and other products that members can purchase that are more environmentally friendly than others.

We have paper recycling bins at the back of the sanctuary as well as other places throughout our buildings to encourage people to recycle their worship bulletins.  We recycle the paper through a local Boy Scout troop.

Articles in our church newsletter, and now short notes in our weekly bulletins, encourage members to make eco-friendly choices each day.

Our recent formal commitment, as a Green team, of signing the Alverna Covenant was the last step in our process of becoming a Green Chalice congregation.  Our new Transitional Minister Rev. Rick Butler included references to the Alverna Covenant and Equal Exchange in a recent sermon.  His sermon reminded us that we needed to make official what we've been doing for several years.  The Green Team is hoping our new "official" designation as a Green Chalice congregation will further inspire our members to live more planet-friendly every day, and also inspire other congregations to take this step.  We will definitely be looking into the process of becoming a Certified Green Chalice congregation.

Two Illinois Churches Doing Great Mission Work

In January and February, the members of Crossroads Christian Church in Caseyville, IL organized a “Dry Diaper Drive” in order to collect various sizes of disposable diapers. Since these items are not covered by food stamps, they are one of the top items requested by food pantries. Over the course of the drive they filled their nursery crib with over $1,100 worth of diapers, wipes, and other baby care items to donate.

 

 

God made us all creative in many different ways. The women at First Christian Church in Edwardsville, IL saw a need to help others and came together to use those God-given gifts to make fleece blankets, prayer shawls, crocheted and knit baby hats, sweaters, and other items for St. Louis Children's Hospital at Barnes and SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center. Already this year they have donated 19 fleece blankets, 160 mesh bands, 36 baby hats, and 30 baby blankets with matching hats.

Find more about this project via the
Edwardsville Intelligencer here.

Wine into Water

Candlelit tables.  Delightful ambiance.  An elegant display of food almost too beautiful to eat.  Delicious wine being poured.  Wonderful conversation with old friends and new ones.  Would you believe that all this happened on a Friday night in a church?  Jesus may have turned water into wine, but four Disciples congregations in Springfield Missouri decided to perform the modern miracle of turning wine into water at their second annual “Wine into Water” event.

Brentwood, Central, National Avenue, and South Street Christian Churches came together on February 6 to sponsor a wine tasting to raise money for the water projects of Week of Compassion and its partner agencies in Africa.  This fun, yet meaningful, evening featured (mostly) African wines, a beer tasting station, a wine and beer pull, a silent auction, conversation with Week of Compassion staff member Rev. Dawn Barnes, and information about water projects in Africa.

Last year, these Disciples churches decided that they wanted to work together to raise awareness about the good work that Week of Compassion is doing, create a fun night out for church and community members, and raise money for those without clean drinking water or access to water for basic hygiene.  The event was so successful that they decided to make it an annual fundraiser.

This year, in preparation for Wine into Water, the youth met together the week before the event for a “Clean Water Lock-in” to learn about what it was like to live without clean drinking water and to make informational displays for the wine tasting.

Those who attended, were excited to get to know people from other churches, raise money for Week of Compassion, and sample some good wine!  At the end of the night, as people raised their glasses to another successful event, conversation turned to how the event could be even better next year.

Have We Got a Cabinet for You!

Disciples Volunteering, Disciples Church Extension Fund, Disciples Home Missions, Disciples Women, Reconciliation Ministry, Week of Compassion, National Convocation, Disciples Great River Region, and Hope Partnership for Missional Transformation have partnered to assist Real Faith Christian Church in Clarksdale, MS with the construction of a new facility. The congregation had begun construction on this new facility a number of years ago, after outgrowing the old sanctuary and limited classroom space. In 2009, however, work came to a halt. In the midst of their building campaign, the congregation went through a crisis.  Many Disciples volunteers and others are working onsite with the pastor and members of the congregation to get the infrastructure secured so further construction can proceed.

Real Faith Christian Church provides a vital food ministry to the children and youth in Clarksdale.  Currently they are operating this food ministry off-site.  Completion of this project will assist the congregation in returning this feeding ministry to their church facility.

 (See story at https://www.discipleshomemissions.org/dhm/dhm-ministries/disciples-volunteering/sending-teams-in-mission/special-projects/, Disciples Church Extension Fund “The Journey” newsletter or visit Disciples Volunteering on Facebook.

 Because of South Joplin Christian Church’s experience of building cabinetry in the remodeling of its own kitchen, the congregation was approached about undertaking the building of kitchen cabinetry for Real Faith Christian Church.  We have said yes! 

During the month of February through mid-March the congregation of South Joplin Christian Church will be building the kitchen cabinetry for Real Faith Christian Church.  We are inviting our family, friends, other churches and coworkers to help us raise $5,000 to cover the costs of building and installation.  We will build approximately 40’ of cabinetry to include a 5’ x 3’ island.

Donations:  Purchase 1 foot of cabinetry for $125 or cabinet hardware for $10 per unit (approx. 50 units). 

Donations can be mailed to:  South Joplin Christian Church, 1901 S. Pearl Avenue, Joplin, MO 64804, (417-624-2522).  Please make checks payable to SJCC Outreach. 

Online donations can be made at: www.southjoplindisciples.org

 Thank you so much for your support!

South Joplin Christian Church Outreach Committee

Coat Giveaway at FCC in Festus

The folks in Festus saw a need and are now meeting it. Here's the story of this growing program as told by Outreach Program Chair
Cathy Hankins.
Photos courtesy of Lisa Reilmann

In August of 2013, several of the women of our church were at the all church picnic and sat discussing what kinds of things our community needed, and where we could be of service to others. Carma Howard said that she had heard of people having clothing or coat giveaways, and she would like to see us do that as part of our outreach. We talked about how one of our local schools had 75% of its children at poverty level and qualifying for reduced or free lunches. We knew these families must be struggling, and coats are expensive.

I mulled this over for a few weeks, then brought it up again at the next Cabinet meeting of the church. Everyone thought it was a great idea, but was unsure how to do it. I decided to take it on, and started making announcements in church that we would have a coat giveaway in late October, on a Saturday. Since this was our first try at this, I was a little unsure of what to expect. The congregation began bringing in coats of all sizes and kinds, and we stored them in the basement. The week before the giveaway, I went through them to see what needed to be washed or mended, if any of the items were not appropriate, etc. I was surprised to see that almost every coat was clean and didn't need any mending. I had 3 to fix with minor repairs, and did so. On Saturday of the giveaway, Karen Stoll helped me and we put all the coats out on some clothing racks and the tables in our fellowship hall. We had over 200 items to give away!

The response was tremendous. We had people come in with their children in just t shirts, that went away wearing a warm coat. One little girl in particular came in with her mother and several other siblings, found a long, quilted coat that fit her perfectly! She looked up at her mother with shining eyes and said "Mom, its so WARM!". Needles to say, we were in tears. After the morning passed, we had seen about 30 or 40 people come in with no coat on, and go out with something warm on. I can't tell you how rewarding it was, and fun! We loved helping the children especially shop for a coat, then encourage them "well, you're going to need a hat and gloves, too" and watching their faces light up.

We did not require proof of income, residency or anything else. If they came in and ask for a coat, they got one. We had called the local residential homes and let them know we had free coats and several of them brought in their residents and were able to outfit them with warm winter clothing. Several people would ask "can I get a coat for my grandchild/neighbor/sister, etc. We welcomed them all to take anything they could use and welcome to it. The smiles, the faces,  - they were incredible.

We held the coat giveaway again in January 2014. The result was the same. I thought that since the congregation had already given all their "gently used " coats, we might not have enough to give away, but that wasn't true. We had more coats the second time around! Congregational members starting watching the clearance racks and buying new coats cheap, talking to their neighbors and families. The local St.Vincent de Paul society cleaned out their clothes closet and brought us all the coats and warm clothing they had. During our 3rd giveaway in October 2014, a gentleman drove up in his pickup, brought in 3 small boys coats that he went out and bought that morning. He said " I saw your sign and wanted to help". We have had everything from designers coats to Wal Mart specials, and all have found a home.

3 weeks ago we had our most recent giveaway and started with over 700 items including coats, jackets, sweaters, warm clothing, hats, gloves and scarves. I had 6 church members come in and help me sort and wash and mend. We had a wonderful time in fellowship, and we gave out over 300 items and have enough for a good start for the October date.

This project has blossomed from one person's idea, to a county wide event, providing warmth and comfort to many people. I have been blessed to be a part of it. Thank you, God for placing me in this spot.

Broadway Christian Church Hosts Room at the Inn

From December 11 to January 10, Broadway Christian Church hosted Room at the Inn, an organization designed to shelter the homeless during the winter months when other local
shelters are sometimes full to capacity.

This was the first year that space was available on Christmas Eve and the 20 guests were treated to food, movies, and even gift bags provided by the church’s Christian Women’s Fellowship.

It takes many volunteers giving their time to plan, staff, cook, and clean but it's definitely worth the effort as the congregation keeps serving the homeless population part of its mission focus.

The overnight accommodations have now moved on to another local church but the program will continue to run until March.

Find more information here and here.