We collect cereal for NIN several times a year!

Our Mission Trip Group visited Nicaragua in February 2008!

Collecting supplies for the trip to Nicaragua!

We are an energetic, interactive, loving and diverse Christian community. We seek to expand our community through spiritual growth and scriptural reflection to connect faith and life within ourselves, our local community, our denominations and the world.

Feed the Need

To Feed the Need is our hope and our goal at Ballard Vale United Church. We strive to feed the needs of our members through spiritual growth, education and fellowship. We strive to feed the need in Lawrence, the Merrimack Valley and the world beyond.

Neighbors in Need (NIN)

Our church has made an ongoing commitment with Neighbors in Need to provide cereal to the children of Lawrence. We have a large wooden ark in our church's narthex that we fill with boxes of cereal. When it is full, members of the Outreach Committee deliver it to NIN. We also provided Christmas dinner boxes this past year to families at NIN in Lawrence. Our church families filled the boxes with the makings of a holiday dinner, and the boxes were delivered and distributed to NIN. We delivered 28 boxes this past year, and look forward to doing it again for Christmas 2008.

Mission to Nicaragua

February 2008 Mission Trip (Read trip summaries & view photos!)
The New England Conference of the United Methodist Church has been in covenant with the Iglesia de Christo in Nicaragua for over twenty years. We have supported medical missionaries, sent material aid, and visited Nicaragua during the winter of 2005. While there, we visited the medical initiatives that bring medicine and treatment to the homeless and destitute. We saw schools that brought education to kids who would otherwise remain unschooled. We were touched by the children's feeding programs that provide meals to the poorest of the poor in the Managua area. In February 2008 we continued our relationship with the Iglesia de Christo when we visited Nicaragua with a five member delegation.

Samaritans of Merrimack Valley

New Partnership
We have established a partnership with the Samaritans of Merrimack Valley, which provides crisis hotlines specifically targeted to suicidal individuals. They also provide preventative workshops and trainings to caregivers and workplaces. Because they are an all-volunteer agency, they have been in dire need of funding and volunteers. Our church has made the decision to back the Samaritans in whatever way we can. We have committed ourselves to providing volunteers for their hotlines, funding a teen crisis hotline, and our pastor has joined their advisory board.

The Samaritans report that the Teen Hot Line is coming! They have their first volunteer in place and recruiting is underway for others. The plan is to have it up and running by November. We will keep you posted on the progress. The next training to become a Samaritan volunteer is scheduled for Saturday, November 1 and Saturday, November 8 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Lunch is served. Our pledge to the Samaritans was to offer our support in many ways, including providing volunteers. The qualifications are simple - you need to be able to listen with an open mind, with compassion and without judgment. They provide the training, you need to do the rest. And you can make your own schedule. They are grateful for any help you can provide. Please email them at samaritans@familyserviceinc.com, call 978-688-0030, or let Pastor Ed or Noni Yount know if you are interested in the volunteer training in November.

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Ballard Vale United Church
23 Clark Road / Andover, MA 01810 / (978) 475-2506 / Reverend Dr. Ed Deyton
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