Outreach to Others

Missions Supported by the Hyde Park United Methodist Church

• Our Local and Regional Missions

• Our National Missions

• Our International Missions

• United Methodist Volunteers in Mission

• Contact Our Commission on Missions and Outreach

Our Local and Regional Missions

Outreach supported by our time and financial contributions

• Local Emergency Needs - The pastor has access to funds to distribute at his discretion for emergency situations in the church and community. When this fund is depleted it is replenished by The Mark-It Place (our consignment store whose proceeds fund mission projects).
  
• Dutchess County Coalition for the Homeless - We support this organization's homeless shelter at Hillcrest House by sending volunteers, dinner, and breakfast on the third Sunday each month. To volunteer with others from our church, call Karen Becker (229-1006). Dutchess County Coalition for the Homeless is part of Hudson River Housing.
  
• Dutchess Outreach has helped county residents locate resources for the basics of life since 1974. One of the Dutchess Outreach programs which we participate in is The Lunch Box. This soup kitchen operated in St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Poughkeepsie serves a free lunch to those in need. Our church provides volunteers on the fourth Monday of each month. To volunteer with other church members, call our church (229-2114). In addition, our church school children bring specific food items for the Lunch Box on the first Sunday of each month.
  
• Hyde Park Food Pantry is supported by the churches of Hyde Park and individuals. It is located in the historical Episcopal church on Market Street. We support it through food collection on the first Sunday of each month, donations from United Methodists and The Mark-It Place, and offerings from ecumenical worship services. Our church provides volunteers to staff the pantry on the fifth Friday from 10-12.
  
• Meals on Wheels operates from our kitchen and is supported by The Mark-It Place and United Methodists. It delivers a hot meal and a cold supper to persons who cannot prepare meals for themselves. A fee is charged, but our support helps to keep the cost to a minimum. Volunteers are needed to pack and deliver meals. Call the local Meals on Wheels group from our church (229-5896) or visit the Meals on Wheels Association of America for more information.
  
• Community Cares Holiday Program ("Alternative Christmas") - At Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, our church and community provide food and gifts for families in need. To volunteer or make a donation to this program, contact Ruth Jones (Co-chair of Missions and Outreach at our church) at 889-4933.
  
• CROP Walk - Members of our church obtain sponsors and participate in this 10 kilometer walk each October. Twenty-five percent of the money stays in Dutchess County and is used by Dutchess Outreach. The rest is used by Church World Service for hunger relief throughout the USA.
  
• Foundation for Religous and Mental Health of Dutchess and Orange Counties - Several counseling centers are located around the Hudson Valley. Our budget support is used to subsidize those needing family, marital or personal counseling who cannot afford the fees. Poughkeepsie office: 471-6619
  
• Habitat for Humanity of Dutchess County is an ecumenical, non-profit, locally operated self-help housing ministry designed to make home ownership possible for low-income families who otherwise could not afford a conventional mortgage. Phone: 221-0126
  
• Mid-Hudson Rural Migrant Ministry supports and empowers farm workers, migrant agricultural workers, hotel workers and the rural poor through community-based programs and advocacy. Based in Poughkeepsie, it is supported by six Christian denominations throughout the Hudson Valley. Executive Director: Richard Witt; Phone: 485-8627
  
• Dutchess Interfaith Council - Our budget supports this organization of churches and temples in Dutchess County. This group works together to organize prison ministries, senior citizen ministries, interfaith dialogs, religious radio programming, Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers Program etc. Phone: 471-7333
  
• Interfaith Volunteer Caregivers Program (IVCP) - Our budget supports this program sponsored by the Dutchess Interfaith Council. The program offers training to volunteers willing to offer friendship, transportation and care to the elderly who may be alone or respite care so that primary caregivers may have some time away.
  
• Hospice, Inc. provides nursing care as well as support to patients and families facing illness with no chance of recovery. Our church budget supports this program in Dutchess and Ulster Counties. You may contact Dutchess Hospice at 485-2273.
  
• Grace Smith House - Our budget supports this safe house in Poughkeepsie for battered women and children. 24 hour hotline: 471-3033
  
• CareNet Pregnancy Center of the Hudson Valley - The Care Net Pregnancy Center is an information and referral service with caring staff who provide understanding and support in a confidential setting. The Center has a wide variety of resources and offers free pregnancy tests, trained counseling, maternity and baby supplies, sexual integrity workshops, post-abortion counseling and education, nutrition and parenting information. Phone: 471-9284
  
• Anchor House is a United Methodist drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in New York City. For more information contact:

  Anchor House
  Substance Abuse Program
  976 Park Place
  Brooklyn, NY 11213
  718-756-8673

• Epworth, Quinipet, and Kingswood, our conference's church camps, are a favorite project and source of fun for Methodists of all ages.
  
  • Church members volunteer as summer camp counselors, manage the camps during summer family camping, and assist with construction as part of our volunteers in mission program.
    
  • Our church's Education Commission provides scholarships for children's summer camping experiences. For information about scholarships, contact Holly Moore, co-chair of the Education Commission, at 229-5895.
    
  • To learn more about family camping, summer programs for youth, or retreats, visit the New York Annual Conference's camping home page.
    
• We support Camp Olmsted, a United Methodist camp in Cornwall on Hudson, New York. Operated by the United Methodist City Society, it provides a rural camping experience for urban children and youth. For more information e-mail cmpolmsted@aol.com or call (845) 534-7900.
  
• Through The New York Annual Conference, our regional division of The United Methodist Church, we support both local and global projects seeking to share God's love and further his work.
  

Our National Missions

• The Henderson Settlement, in Frakes, Kentucky, is a United Methodist Appalachian Project which strives to meet basic needs in a community where coal mines have closed and the economy is depressed. The Settlement operates programs focusing on agriculture, health care, education, youth issues, senior care, transportation, shelter, food services, emergency aid, recreation, and other community issues. Visit their web site and join us in supporting their work through the Campbell's Label Program. This project receives 100% of donations sent for it through UMCOR, and is supported by United Methodists.
  
• The Red Bird Mission provides education, health care, and outreach ministries to parts of five counties in the Cumberland Mountains of Southeast Kentucky. It is an agency of the Red Bird Missionary Conference and is comprised of Red Bird Mission, Inc. and Red Bird Mountain Medical Center, two national mission agencies related to the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church. Our local church supports this mission through gifts from The Mark-It Place, our consignment store.
  

• Human Relations Day - This offering supports the work of more than 30 church-based community developers in low-income, racial- and ethnic-minority communities; an interracial network of grass-roots social-justice organizations; and local church Youth Offender Rehabilitation projects.
  
• One Great Hour of Sharing - This offering goes to the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) for its work in more than 70 countries providing disaster relief, rehabilitation, refugee ministries and solutions to the root causes of hunger. Sunday School classes also respond to One Great Hour by filling collection boxes with coins. Call the UMCOR Hotline at 1-800-841-1235 to get up to date information about emergency needs.
  
• Native American Awareness Sunday - Our offering supports Native American urban and rural ministries and provides scholarships for Native American students preparing for the ministry.
  
• World Communion Sunday - This special offering provides Crusade Scholarships for U.S. and international racial-and-ethnic-minority students to pursue graduate studies; Ethnic Scholarships for undergraduate students; and In-Service Training grants to encourage and enable racial- and ethnic-minority students to enter such fields as Christian education, church music, youth ministry, and hospital and prison chaplaincy. For more information, visit the web site of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
  
• United Methodist Student Day - This is the oldest special Sunday in the United Methodist Church, having begun in 1872. The money is used each year to provide loans and scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students.
  
• Peace with Justice Sunday - This offering is used to reach out to youth and help them find alternatives to violence; provide education and resources to help end global violence and injustice and to improve human rights for all peoples; and to support the work of leaders who stop violence and restore peace to families, communities, and nations. Fifty percent of every dollar you give is put to work here in New York, in our annual conference.
  

Our International Missions

• The World Service Fund underwrites Christian mission and ministry worldwide, supporting evangelism, church growth, Bible studies, and other efforts to strengthen spirituality.
  
• The Ministerial Education Fund helps provide churches with pastoral leaders by supporting United Methodist seminaries and continuing education programs for clergy; providing scholarships to seminary students; and sponsoring events and training to help individuals explore the call to ministry and church conferences better evaluate and support their pastors.
  
• Focus 2000: Mission Initiatives supports four special efforts:
  
  • The Shared Mission Focus on Young People is a four-year initiative encouraging creative ministries and pilot projects targeting young persons ages 12-30.
    
  • Asian-American Language Ministry Study
    
  • The Connectional Process Team is conducting a study for the General Council on Ministries, seeking to identify key issues for the church as it meets changing global needs.
    
  • The Korean-American Task Force is charged with studying the ministry needs of Korean Americans and submitting recommendations to the 2000 General Conference. This 24-member task force represents clergy and laity, men and women, and the Council of Bishops.
    
• The Black College Fund nurtures eleven historically Black United Methodist-related institutions which recognize, recruit, and graduate students of promise.
  
• Africa University, a United Methodist college in Zimbabwe, serves over 700 students from 16 African countries. Its mission is "to provide higher education of high quality, to nurture students in Christian values, and to help the nations of Africa achieve their educational and professional goals. Africa University will play a critical role in education of the new leaders of African nations."
  

• We have a covenant relationship and provide financial support for Bob and Nancy Osgood. The Osgoods are United Methodist Missionaries, currently stationed at the Sager-Brown Center in Louisiana. This center is a hub in our global response to disasters through UMCOR - the United Methodist Committee on Relief.
  
  
• Operation Christmas Child distributes millions of gift-filled shoeboxes and Christian literature to needy children, worldwide, each December. This project, run by Samaritan's Purse, is an opportunity for individuals to share signs of God's love by preparing shoeboxes with toys, school supplies, and hygeine items for children in over 60 countries. To contribute to our church's collection of Christmas shoeboxes, contact the church office at 229-2114.

United Methodist Volunteers in Mission

• Serving in the world is easy when you are a member of the United Methodist Church. There are many opportunities to serve in the 159 countries and the U.S. where our church is in mission. More than 6,000 persons serve as short term missionaries: caring for babies in refugee camps, setting up computer labs, giving technical advice, giving dental and medical help, assisting with construction, etc. More than 45,000 men, women and teens serve as volunteers-in-mission in areas like Mozambique, Bolivia, Puerto Rico, Haiti, and throughout the United States.
  
• United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) is a missionary movement within the Methodist Church designed to provide an official channel whereby Christians, both lay and clergy, may offer their skills and talents for Christian service at home and around the world, on short term assignments at their own expense. Volunteers' work includes construction and renewing of mission facilities, teaching, witnessing, conducting medical clinics, conducting Bible study or Bible School for children, and serving in disaster relief efforts around the world.
  
• Members of this church have participated in Volunteer-In-Mission teams to Jeremie, Haiti; La Gonave, Haiti; Kansas City; UMCOR Sager-Brown Depot in Louisiana; Iowa; Camp Allegheny; Camp Epworth and Camp Quinipet.
  
  • 1989/91: The second and third floors plus a canteen were added to the John Wesley School in Jeremie, Haiti.
    
  • 1993: House repairs and clean-up were done in Iowa following devastating floods.
    
  • 1997: A water cistern was repaired and covered as part of Rebekah at the Well, a larger water project in La Gonave, Haiti (led by the Kansas East Conference, UMC).
    
  • 1997: A church was moved from the flood plains to a plateau north of Kansas City.
    
  • 1998: At Camp Epworth, in High Falls, NY, a large deck, several smaller decks and porches were built, electrical repairs, painting, a bathroom was remodeled, kitchen cleaned and brush cleared.
    
  • 1998: At Camp Allegheny in Stoysville PA, volunteers built a large dining hall/administration office/gym.
    
  • 1999: Volunteers in Mission working at the Sager-Brown Center in Louisiana checked and repacked Health Kits and School Kits, loading a tractor trailor with emergency response items for Columbia, South America. The Sager-Brown center is a hub in our global response to disasters through UMCOR - the United Methodist Committee on Relief.
    
  • 1999: At Camp Quinipet (Shelter Island on Long Island, NY) a porch and roof were replaced, a barn shed replaced, a set of stairs built to meet the fire code, electrical work, some painting and cleaning of the kitchen were completed.
    
  • For over 13 years youth from our church have spent a week each summer at Camp Hope, a work camp experience in the Appalachians. Year-long fundraising allows the team of youth and chaperones to assist the elderly and others in poverty in making repairs to their homes. We support our team of youth through the budget, special offerings and projects, allowing them to pay their travel expenses and purchase building materials. During the week God works in the lives of those who go to Camp Hope. A change in heart occurs with what the participants sees and how they feel when they see or work with others less fortunate then themselves. Participants get a chance to practice their faith in a real and meaningful way. This chance to see God witness to them through others and for the participants to witness to others and to act on their faith is an important part of our youth and mission programs. Our church leader for this project is Julius Jones, who may be reached at 889-4933 or at w2ihy@prodigy.net.
    
• Volunteers are needed!
  
  
  • To find out where volunteer-in-mission teams are going and contribute to their efforts, call Jack or Lucille Dockery at 229-5471.
    
  • Or, visit Projects in the Northeastern United States to read about on-going needs and find project contact persons.
    
  
  
• Still have questions? Read these Frequently Asked Questions and visit the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission home page to learn about this opportunity to serve.
  

Contact Our Commission on Missions and Outreach

• The Commission on Missions and Outreach, part of the Hyde Park United Methodist Church, helps to set priorities and enable mission projects both locally and on a broader scale. To get involved, contact the co-chairs of Missions, Karen Becker (229-1006) and Barbara Wells (471-5426).