At our January 25th Church Business Meeting, the Missions and Ministry Leadership Team gave the following report of church Mission and Ministry work in the last three months of 2016:
-Our church celebrated its 100th anniversary in numerous ways in October. As an act of generosity, we collected and delivered 100 school supply items to Ginter Park Elementary School, which was also celebrating its 100th anniversary.
-In November we provided snacks for the Governor’s School conference for LGBTQ students. Mandy was a speaker at that conference for a second time.
-We made a monetary donation from the budget to the Oregon Hill Baptist Center to help with the purchase of Thanksgiving food.
-Monetary donation of nearly $700 were given to the Christmas Store of the River City Faith Network.
-In December, a request was made to help a young family move from inadequate temporary housing into an apartment, and donations of household goods were collected and delivered.
-Cookies were collected and delivered to Battery Park Christian Church, which was hosting the Concerned Northside Churches Christmas party this year. This party is for the resident of adult homes in our area.
-Hundreds of food items were given through the Advent Blessing Boxes program in December. The food was delivered to the Oregon Hill Baptist Center for its food pantry.
-The group working on the new website worked diligently for most of 2016, and the new site was recently launched.
-Thirteen people went to the Carpenter Center one evening to see one of our young people dance in “The Nutcracker.”
-Monthly dinners for 25 people continue to be prepared and delivered to Side-by-Side for one of the groups meeting there.
-The Backpack Program for children at Ginter Park Elementary School continues to serve 30 children with backpacks full of food for the weekends. A fundraising event for the Spring is being discussed now.
**Looking ahead:
-We will provide additional dinners during February, March, April and May for a teen leadership group meeting at Side-by-Side.
-The first quarter mission offering will be collected in March and will benefit Midwives for Haiti and the Weekend Backpack Program.
-There will be a fellowship Chili Cook-off and Bingo night on Friday, February 24 at 6pm.
