Night to Shine at Westbrook Park

This story is about settling in and becoming too comfortable with what you think is normal, and then God’s way of stepping in shaking things up. I’ve been going to Westbrook Park for about 13 years. For as long as I have been here our goal has always been to be an outreach to our local community. Unfortunately, other than our food pantry, we have never been able to achieve that. We became comfortable going to church with people that look like us, act like us, and check off our little boxes. All along we were missing the mark of meeting needs of people literally across the street. To make matters worse, we often had a difficult time being united in our own church family. We had different groups with different goals, and we would rather sweep our differences under the rug than actually deal with them. If what I’m saying sounds familiar to you, then know you are not alone. This is a tough situation many churches deal with. The congregation got way too comfortable with this form of “normal” and just settled into it. We had become stagnant.

Thankfully God had different plans and decided to shake things up a bit. With the leadership of Rev Adkins, we brought an outside consultant in to help assess our situation and give us direction on options for the future. Well, I’ll say it was not very easy hearing an outsider confirm all our issues and problems, but it was very eye opening. One thing we got from the group was an assessment of our local community and their needs. What we found out was our local neighborhood is filled with single parents with a big concern. They are worried about finding a safe place to take their kids while they work. And they are worried about how they are going to afford that childcare. This revealed a wonderful opportunity for Westbrook Park to fill a need for our local community. Rev Adkins and our childcare director started on a journey to build a childcare program that helps parents and guardians to keep their children at one place for their entire work shifts. They also completed the process to allow families to apply for public assistance to her pay for the childcare. Covid slowed down the growth, but this gave the director and staff time to get it right. Now it is rated as a 5-star program and is really taking off. Now Monday through Friday, when you come to Westbrook, you will see our local community reflected, because it is our local community. From the children that attend, to the parents and guardians dropping and picking them up, to the staff. All during this time, our church community has been working on our internal issues and becoming a more unified family. We still have different views and disagreements, but in the end when we agree on something as a church family, we move forward with that decision. We have each other’s back. And now, the families are seeing the love of Christ that the staff are showing their children, and they are venturing in on Sundays to see what we are about. And the beautiful thing is… we are ready! We have worked on our issues as a church family and are ready to grow our community. And people are coming back week after week. We are still far from where we want to be, but it’s a wonderful start.

Then God opened another door for us and the community. Through networking, pastor Joel came in contact of a church that was offering their community occupational training. Now we are on a mission to create a training program that will offer free training for people in our local community to progress their careers and help them support their families better. But God isn’t stopping there. Seemingly out of nowhere he has given us the opportunity to show Christ’s love to our community through another outlet. Westbrook Park has been accepted to be the Stark County host of A Night To Shine. For those who haven’t heard about of before, it is a prom for people with developmental disabilities ages 14 and up it is sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation. We limited in person guests to 100 for our first year and reached 100 only 3 days into registration. To me this is a sign from God that we are on the right track. But I believe God is also working another angle here to help us strengthen another community. You see, to pull this off, we need about 250 volunteers. God knows that Westbrook is not nearly big enough to run this with our current members. I feel like this is God’s way of helping us to strengthen our local church community. So, Here’s my selfish plug. If you or anyone you know is interested, we would love you have you with us. You can call the church office to get some info. This is going to be an amazing way to show Christ’s love to the special needs community, and we would be honored to work on this with all of you.

In closing, I’d just like to say, we still have a long way to go, but we are so excited to see where God is taking us and how he is using us to grow His community.

Scholarships Available for Methodist Students

Don’t let finances get in the way of achieving your dreams of a quality education! Applications are open for scholarships from the United Methodist Higher Education Foundation. Every year, UMHEF awards $2+ million to students planning to attend one of the 100+ UM-related colleges, universities, and seminaries across the country. For complete details, eligibility requirements, and to apply, visit https://umhef.org. The deadline is March 1.

UMVIM NCJ Mission Project and Youth 2023

Charter Bus to Youth 2023

The deadline to request a spot on the charter bus for the UMVIM NCJ Mission Project and Youth 2023 is January 23! The bus departs from the Area Center on July 22, travels to Charlotte NC for an UMVIM NCJ Mission Project, then onto Daytona for Youth 2023. The cost of the bus is being covered by the conference, seating is limited, and will be offered on a first come first, serve basis. However, there is a refundable $100 per person deposit to hold a seat. The full deposit will be refunded after the trip, as long as the person attended. ‘No shows’ will not be refunded; other refund requests will be considered on a case by case basis.

Please note that requesting bus seats does not register you or your group for the events or lodging. Find out more about Youth 2023 on their website. Contact Stefanie Williams by email at [email protected] with any questions about the NC mission project. Bus request deadline is Jan. 23.

Request a Spot on Youth 2023 Charter Bus