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First United Methodist Church

Mission Ministry

The mission outreach of our church ranges from a strong local ministries program to our interest in improving the quality of life and the religious life of people in other countries.

Local Missions - Recent endeavors in local mission ministries include ongoing support of an interdenominational support group called Christian United Outreach Center (CUOC). CUOC provides assistance to area residents who are in need of money for utility bills, medical care, food, shelter and transportation. In kind goods are also distributed to people in need. We routinely collect food items from our members for donation to CUOC and encourage members to support the program finacially.

During the Lenten season of this year, under the leadership of our Minister of Youth and Children, Cheryl Skinner, we took on a new campaign to help people in need in our area. The camapign was called Project 5000. Based on Jesus's feeding of the five thousand, our goal was to assemble enough food to feed five thousand hungry people. Members were asked to purchase a predetermined list of food items that would feed a family of four for several days. Members then packed the food into boxes provided by the church. These boxes were given to CUOC and the Salvation Army for distribution to those in need. We hope to make this an annual campaign and enlist the help and support of other churches in the area and feed five thousand and more.

Concerns on the local level are filled on an as needed basis. Our church feels a strong need to help people in our own community.

Foreign Missions - First Church has a long history of supporting foreign missions. Women in our church have led the way in this effort through the activity of Sunday school classes and United Methodist Women. When the mission field was given the status of a work area in the church, all members have taken on the task of supporting foreign missions. Financial support has always been an important way of helping those in foreign lands, but in the past few years, our members have taken a personal role in mission work. A wide range of men, women and youth have served on district building teams to fill the needs of people in other countries.

One example of this type of activity is a team that has helped build a United Methodist church building in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. Our church has furnished members for the team as well as team leaders. Tasks performed by the teams included the obvious -- building trade expertise. In addition to those tasks, there were team members whos took on cooking responsibilities for the team. In one case a retired nurse was in the group. One team consisted almost entirely of some of our youth members with adult supervision. We feel we made it much easier for those people in Mayaguez to have a new church building.