The annual Neighbors in Need special mission offering will be collected for the next two Sundays. You will find envelopes in the bulletin. Your donations will empower individuals and communities to help themselves. One-third of NIN funds support the Council for American Indian Ministry (CAIM). Two-thirds of this offering is used by the UCC’s Justice and Witness Ministries (JWM) to support a variety of justice initiatives, advocacy efforts, and direct service projects through grants. Neighbors in Need grants are awarded to UCC churches and organizations doing justice work in their communities. These grants fund projects whose work ranges from direct service to community organizing and advocacy to address systemic injustice. This year, special consideration will be given to projects focusing on serving our immigrant neighbors and communities.
Category: Mission
Local Flood Relief Opportunities in NC
I have inquired of the Circular Church in Charleston, South Carolina as to whether they are aware of any funds similar in nature to the Waterbury Good Neighbor Fund, for those who might want to as directly as possible to people in need of assistance.
The minister of that church, The Rev. Dr. Jeremy Rutledge has a good friend who is the pastor of a church in Durham, NC (Watts Street Church). As their administrator informed me, “Since their folks have different interests and opinions, making it a challenge to focus on one thing, their church sent an email out to the congregation detailing ways to help.”
Except for the American Red Cross and Church World Service, the other funds are local. I’ve republished their newsletter below.
But you might also want to take a look at Chef World Kitchen. It’s an interesting organization with a decidedly compassionate and person to person approach. https://www.worldcentralkitchen.org/
Watts Street Baptist Church Newsletter
__________________________________________________________________________
Hurricane Florence response opportunites
Dear Watts Street church family,Our hearts are aching for people across North Carolina and South Carolina who have been impacted by Hurricane Florence and the subsequent flooding.
There are many compassionate ways to respond and we wanted to share a few of them with you:
EASTERN NC SOLIDARITY- A JUST FLORENCE RECOVERY
A coalition of grassroots organizations, including the Poor People’s Campaign and the Southern Vision Alliance, are working closely with local communities to organize drives for requested goods and donations. Information on how to volunteer time and donate specific goods or money can be found here. Please note that goods are requested for drop off this week in Durham.
More information and some valuable resources about self-determination of communities most impacted and the ongoing struggle against environmental racism can be found here: https://anothergulf.com/a-just-florence-recovery/
THE DIAPER BANK OF NC
The Diaper Bank, a Watts Street mission partner founded by Michelle Old, is the only relief organization providing diapers for families during the crisis. The Diaper Bank partners with state emergency services to fill this gap. To find out how you can donate money, diapers, or personal hygiene items, visit Diaper Bank of NC
FOOD BANK OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN NC
A simple donation form to provide food, water, and cleaning supplies to our neighbors in need: Food Bank
CHURCH WORLD SERVICE
CWS, the organization Watts Street supports with the Durham CROP Walk each year, provides a lot of services following natural disasters. To learn about CWS hygiene kits, blankets, and emergency clean-up buckets or their focus on refugee and immigrant communities, visit Church World Service
AMERICAN RED CROSS
The American Red Cross provides emergency shelter, mass feedings, and other forms of support during a crisis. Donate at American Red Cross or contact Watts Street member, Kirsten Kruhm (Kirsten.kruhm@redcross.org) for specific volunteer opportunities.
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH IN WILMINGTON
First Baptist Church in Wilmington is operating as a headquarters for a lot of relief work in the Wilmington area. Click here to donate or learn more: First Baptist Church, Wilmington
NC BAPTISTS ON MISSION DISASTER RELIEF
NC Baptists on Mission (formally known as NC Baptist Men) provides hot meals and waves of clean-up crews and home repair teams. They are exceptionally organized and committed to staying months/years until people are back in their homes. A team of WSBC senior high youth and adults worked with them in Warsaw, NC in 2016 following Hurricane Matthew. Click here to donate: NC Baptists on Mission Disaster Relief or contact Kelly Sasser at kelly@wattsstreet.org if you have interest in being a part of a volunteer work team this fall.
Thank you for your prayers and anything you can do, big or small, to offer support to our neighbors in this time of tremendous need.
Grace and Peace!
There are many compassionate ways to respond and we wanted to share a few of them with you:
EASTERN NC SOLIDARITY- A JUST FLORENCE RECOVERY
A coalition of grassroots organizations, including the Poor People’s Campaign and the Southern Vision Alliance, are working closely with local communities to organize drives for requested goods and donations. Information on how to volunteer time and donate specific goods or money can be found here. Please note that goods are requested for drop off this week in Durham.
More information and some valuable resources about self-determination of communities most impacted and the ongoing struggle against environmental racism can be found here: https://anothergulf.com/a-just-florence-recovery/
THE DIAPER BANK OF NC
The Diaper Bank, a Watts Street mission partner founded by Michelle Old, is the only relief organization providing diapers for families during the crisis. The Diaper Bank partners with state emergency services to fill this gap. To find out how you can donate money, diapers, or personal hygiene items, visit Diaper Bank of NC
FOOD BANK OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN NC
A simple donation form to provide food, water, and cleaning supplies to our neighbors in need: Food Bank
CHURCH WORLD SERVICE
CWS, the organization Watts Street supports with the Durham CROP Walk each year, provides a lot of services following natural disasters. To learn about CWS hygiene kits, blankets, and emergency clean-up buckets or their focus on refugee and immigrant communities, visit Church World Service
AMERICAN RED CROSS
The American Red Cross provides emergency shelter, mass feedings, and other forms of support during a crisis. Donate at American Red Cross or contact Watts Street member, Kirsten Kruhm (Kirsten.kruhm@redcross.org) for specific volunteer opportunities.
FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH IN WILMINGTON
First Baptist Church in Wilmington is operating as a headquarters for a lot of relief work in the Wilmington area. Click here to donate or learn more: First Baptist Church, Wilmington
NC BAPTISTS ON MISSION DISASTER RELIEF
NC Baptists on Mission (formally known as NC Baptist Men) provides hot meals and waves of clean-up crews and home repair teams. They are exceptionally organized and committed to staying months/years until people are back in their homes. A team of WSBC senior high youth and adults worked with them in Warsaw, NC in 2016 following Hurricane Matthew. Click here to donate: NC Baptists on Mission Disaster Relief or contact Kelly Sasser at kelly@wattsstreet.org if you have interest in being a part of a volunteer work team this fall.
Thank you for your prayers and anything you can do, big or small, to offer support to our neighbors in this time of tremendous need.
Grace and Peace!
____________________________________
The administrator of the Circular Church in Charleston wrote:
The Coastal Community Foundation (launched a Mayor’s Fund on Tuesday and also had links to their counterparts in NC. I made a personal donation and was able to designate geography, by county, and for disaster relief orgs. Their website is http://www.coastalcommunityfoundation.org.
I hope this helps you as you consider making a donation to help our southern neighbors.
Board of Outreach News
OGHS: We would like you to know what we are up to these days. As you know this Sunday, is One Great Hour of Sharing. For the past three weeks you have heard stories and information about what this money does around the world. Please consider a donation. Last year we sent a check to OGHS for $1,091.52.
Food shelf donations: We haven’t filled our basket much lately so we thought maybe we would set up a challenge. We are challenging the right side of the church (that would be the choir side) to the left side. From now until Easter Sunday there will be two baskets in the narthex. Depending on what side you sit on please put your donation in the correct basket. Let’s see how high we can stack those goodies!!
Work / Mission Trip: We are also in the process of gathering information on a possible mission trip. Please see our survey here.
Church World Service Depot: Again this year we will be a drop off point for the Church World Service kits. This event takes place the first week in May. They are badly in need of hygiene kits. In the next few weeks we will have information on what you can do to help us with a list of what you can provide.
Human Food Chain: The need for food during the summer is high as the children are out of school. We have been in contact with the director and asked if a June… Human Food Chain event would be more helpful than November. There are so many other organizations that do during the holidays we thought this might be a better time for us. They feel this is a good idea so stayed tuned. We have a tentative date of June 17th.
It sure will be warmer.
Enough for now but please, if you have something you might like to see our church become involved in, feel free to ask. The board would like to thank you all for the continued support you give.
Alice Durkin
Deb Utton
Carla Lawrence
Polly Sabin
Work / Mission Trip Survey
We would appreciate your input as we continue to work toward organzing a Work / Mission trip for the church. Would you please take a minute to fill out this survey? Even if you’re not interested, we’d like to know that. (Just answer the first question “No”) and press done.)
Thank You!
Mission / Work Trip Survey (Click here).
Harvey Cleanup Buckets
The Board of Outreach will begin a Church World Service Cleanup Bucket building campaign next week. Completed buckets from around Northern and Central Vermont will be collected by a truck from CWS. All currently available buckets will have been sent already to Texas. They are anticipating not having enough for the long haul, hence the call for buckets.
The CWS website says this:
CWS is responding through shipping material supplies and providing support to local organizations in Texas. In partnership with the Texas VOAD and the Red Cross, we anticipate that tens of thousands of CWS Hygiene Kits, School Kits and Emergency Cleanup Buckets will be shipped to affected areas. The most immediate need is for hygiene supplies for people in the shelters. Once the waters have receded and people can re-enter their homes, the need for cleaning supplies and buckets will be significant.
As of August 29, CWS has just over 1,800 CWS Emergency Cleanup Buckets in stock and anticipates running out. There is an urgent need for additional buckets to assist in this response. CWS is also preparing to commit most or all of the roughly 140,000 CWS Hygiene Kits that are in stock to Hurricane Harvey response. At that point, there will be a need to replenish the stock.
By next Sunday, we’ll have item tags for you to pick up from church. These tags have the name of one of the items needed for a bucket. Each 5 gallon bucket contains the following items:
- Four scouring pads
- Seven sponges, including one large
- One scrub brush
- Eighteen reusable cleaning towels (e.g. Easy Wipes)
- One 50 oz. or two 25 oz. bottle(s) of liquid laundry detergent
- One 16-28 oz. bottle of liquid disinfectant dish soap
- One 12-16 oz. bottle of household cleaner that can be mixed with water (no spray bottles)
- One package of 48-50 clothespins
- Clothesline, two 50 ft. or one 100 ft.
- Five dust masks
- Two pairs non surgical latex gloves
- One pair work gloves, cotton with leather palm or all leather
- 24-28 heavy duty or contractor type 30-45 gallon trash bags on a roll and removed from carton
- One 6-9 oz. bottle of non-aerosol insect repellent
