Missions Committee Meeting Minutes

Please contact Beth Stough (bethstough@hotmail.com) or Roy Beth Kelley (rkelley@lakewood-umc.org)  to serve or support any of these great ministries.

Reports on Active Missions:

ACE      

Food bags are being sent home with 40 Lakewood Elementary School  children weekly.  They no longer need shoppers except for peanut butter and jelly.  (Items that cannot be purchased at Sam's.)

CANVAS COMMUNITY

Michael O'Connor has his group of cooks, delivery people, and servers lined up to serve a meal one Wed. per month for the next few months. Our Wednesday delivery to Canvas continues with more and more food being donated by members of our church.  That food is greatly appreciated.

FAMILY PROMISE

Rosemary Watson reported that LUMC volunteers provided dinner meals for 3 families during the week of August 1, 2021.  The families are living in apartments provided by the Wingate Foundation.  Volunteers met VJ Jones of Family Promise, in the church parking lot to pick up the meals, and he delivered them to the families at their apartments.

GARDNER FOOD PANTRY

Rex Winkley reported that they are serving 120 families per week. Lakewood UMC will be collecting food stuffs for Thanksgiving to be passed out at  Gardner Pantry.

JASMINE'S CLOSET 

Rosemary Watson reminded us that this mission is in memory of Jasmine Sheppard who was a 2007 graduate of NLRHS.  Jasmine was murdered in 2010.  Her mother works at NLR 7/8 grade Middle School.  This will be a resource closet for students and their parents.  The goal is to have a stocked closet for high needs students to use throughout the year. The mission is to remove any obstacle that keep students from performing their best at school or from coming to school. There is a box in the church hallway labeled Jasmine's Closet for items needed.  Items needed are food, snacks ,personal hygiene products for female and male students, clothes, jackets, school supplies and many other things. We will be collecting throughout the year and beyond.

KAIROS

Linda Remele requested that our congregation purchase candy the day after Halloween to be used in the Christmas Bags for inmates at McPherson Prison.  Candy must be individually wrapped and cannot include sticks (like suckers).

Hint:  These ladies love chocolate, but rarely get any!

SISTERS 'N STITCHES

Mary Lou Martin, Recorder - We were saddened by the death of our founder, Marilyn Vaughan, last month.  We will carry on in her honor. Thanks in part to Zoom, we have blessed and distributed 77 prayer shawls so far this year despite limitations attributed to Covid-19.  This makes a total for our sixteen and a half years of service of 1,497.

We met in person for our October meeting to bless nine scarves to be sent to LUMC young adults who graduated from high school last spring.  This is to remind them that they are remembered and prayed for by the church. We would be happy to add stitchers to our group to either knit or crochet future prayer shawls.

THERAPY DOG TRAINING

Pat White reports that the LUMC Therapy Dog Training class is full with 8 teams.  These teams are preparing to pass the Pet Partner evaluation before volunteering in the church and community.  Pet Partners is an international organization that certifies teams to visit, providing comfort and/or joy to those who may need it.  Teams are evaluated on skills as well as aptitide.  By going through this process, the church can show due diligence in preparation for visits.  Our hope is to have teams participate in church services, escort unhappy children to class, be greeters on Sunday morning, Bible School, funerals (?), shut-in visits, etc. as well as represent LUMC in community events.  This class will conclude Sunday, October 24 with the "final" being the LUMC Fall Fest!

New Mission Opportunities

ANGEL TREE PROGRAM

Tori Percifield presented a video and talked to us about Project Zero, a mission that promotes adoption through the foster care system with the goal of finding forever families for every child who is waiting.  Learn more at  theprojectzero.com

Our part in this is to fill the Christmas wishes of some of these children. We will have a Gingerbread Tree at the church and on-line where you can choose a child and purchase a gift(s) on their list.  We will hear more about this soon.

HELPING AFGHAN REFUGEES

Michael O'Connor is coordinating efforts for our congregation to provide a home and help adjusting for an Afghan family coming to NLR.  He will work with Catholic Charities of AR Refugee Resettlement Office.  This is an amazing opportunity for us to answer the call:  "I was a stranger and you welcomed me."