Mount Vernon UMC of Danville, Virginia

GARDENING FOR GOD, SUMMER 2009

Mount Vernon's Younger Youth Group planted a large garden and harvested more than 1,000 pounds of vegetables during the summer of 2009. They donated the vegetables once or twice each week to God's Storehouse, Danville's church-supported food bank.

A church family with a farm in Sutherlin, Va., offered the use of some of their land for the garden, plowed it with their tractor, and helped and entertained the youth along the way. Everyone involved learned a lot about growing food and the joy of giving fresh, locally grown tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, corn, and squash to people in need here in our city.

READ THE REGISTER & BEE ARTICLE ABOUT THE GARDEN

DANVILLE'S UNITED METHODIST HABITAT HOUSES

Mount Vernon Church, along with other Danville United Methodist churches, is building a Habitat house, contributing funds and volunteer workers.

Mount Vernon Church worked with several other United Methodist churches in Danville on another Habitat house in 2004.

Mount Vernon members work year-round with our local Habitat for Humanity office. This ecumenical Christian housing organization builds or renovates simple, affordable housing in partnership with people in need.

Clara Biswas, United Methodist Missionary in Cambodia CLARA MRIDULA BISWAS, MISSIONARY

Mount Vernon church supports Clara Mridula Biswas, a missionary of the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church. She is assigned as a community worker in Cambodia, where she works to improve the lives of impoverished children in Phnom Penh, many of whom are homeless and live in the street. Clara has worked in Bangladesh and Japan, and she has extensive experience as a volunteer in the Student Christian Movement. Her training in international, cross-cultural, and women's empowerment meetings is vast. She speaks English, Bengali, Hindi, and Japanese.

Born in Barisal, Bangladesh, Clara holds a BA degree in Social Science and a diploma in Rural Leadership and Development from the Asian Rural Institute in Tochigi-Ken, Japan. She is a member of the Church of Bangladesh.

MORE INFO ABOUT cLARA BISWAS AND HER WORK

ASP: CROSSROADS

In July of 2009, a team of 41 youth and adults from Mount Vernon traveled to Marian, Virginia, to make repairs for low-income families in rural Appalachia. As always on our mission trips, the goal was not only to make needed repairs but to offer transformational experiences for the volunteers as well as the people served.

This was the eighth consecutive summer that a team from Mount Vernon has spent a week helping others in Appalachia.

Each spring break, for three years in a row, members of our youth group made the long drive south to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. Most recently, in April 2008, they joined with GWHS Christian Athletes and adults from Mount Vernon and other area Methodist churches, to work in Waveland, Mississippi, repairing homes.

Adult and youth volunteers from Mount Vernon meet at the church on designated days, usually Fridays and Saturdays, and form teams that go to the work sites. Other volunteers provide meals and snacks for the teams, and still more Mount Vernon members support this effort with monetary contributions and prayers for the teams and the families served.