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Minute for Mission
Christmas Eve Special Offering
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by Rick Greene
MISSION GRANTS TEAM MEMBER
35. “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36. I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” 37 Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?”’ 40The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:35-40
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Christmas Offering
The Christmas Offering at First Community for 2024 will be split between Friends of the Homeless and Back Bay Mission. There has always been homelessness in America, but in 2024 it has been rapidly increasing. Experts are calling both numbers of the homeless and refugee seekers a crisis of epic proportion. Your donations will support the programs working with these populations.
Friends of the Homeless
Approximately 1.6 million children will experience homelessness over the course of a year. For any given day, researchers estimate that more than 200,000 children have no place to live. As recently as June, homelessness in the U.S. was estimated at between 750,000 and 1,500,000. In Columbus, the count of the nation’s homeless shows a continuing increase in the number of families with children who have no place to go. From July 1 to Sept. 30, the city’s shelter system hit its highest-ever occupancy rate for families. At the same time, barely a third of families who left shelters achieved a “successful housing outcome,” an all-time low.
First Community Church became involved with Friends of the Homeless men's shelter in the Fall of 1983 by providing a hot meal to this East Main Street shelter every Monday evening throughout the year—that’s hands-on volunteering for 38 years. This shelter currently houses 125 men, and the Monday Meals volunteers have continued to provide meals throughout the pandemic.
Our support has extended beyond Monday Meals with our volunteers continuously providing not only food, but socks, gloves, toiletries, and other necessities. In the past, we helped Friends of the Homeless provide air conditioning, a sheltered outdoor eating area, as well as replacing tables and chairs.
Back Bay Mission
As a ministry of the United Church of Christ, the Back Bay Mission in Biloxi, Mississippi, draws on a national network of support. It brings a network to bear on poverty and marginalization on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Through the UCC, it draws on supporters who are invested in serving the people of the area. Christian values are the basis for a loving, respectful approach to serving the poor and marginalized.
The Mission began in the 1920’s and has been active in the community continuously since that time. In 1962, the Mission began hosting integrated activities. In 1963, Mission staff and volunteers were arrested at the final wade-in on Biloxi’s beaches. In 1963, the Mission hosted the Annual Ministerial Banquet of the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP and was subjected to attacks for several months afterwards, including a cross burned at the Mission.
The Back Bay Mission in Biloxi, Mississippi offers a variety of ministries including education and empowerment, emergency assistance, housing rehabilitation, mission trips and internships, supportive housing, homeless outreach services and a safe and hospitable place for homeless residents to gather. This Center is unlike homeless shelters in that it is not an overnight shelter but a community resource facility that includes a day center for homeless individuals and families equipped with showers, laundry services, mailboxes, computer and telephone access, and other basic services. It is a Center where people may find respite from the outdoors and attend to personal hygiene while also connecting with vital, mainstream social services, all under one roof.
First Community Church has had a close relationship with the Back Bay Mission for over 30 years, often sending small groups to work at the Mission. Members of our congregation have supported this Mission, with some even acting as members of their Board of Directors. The church has sponsored several Shrimp Boils to raise needed funds for its operations. Members and friends of First Community have also participated in mission trips to Biloxi and contributed donations to the organization.
Members and friends of First Community have also participated in mission trips to Biloxi and contributed donations to the organization. To find more information about ways to help Back Bay’s mission to the community, please see thebackbaymission.org
Donate to the Christmas Offering
Your donation will help support these two missions of our church.
- If donating by check, please indicate on the memo line "Christmas Offering". Send a donation to First Community Church at 1320 Cambridge Blvd, Columbus, OH 43212
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Donations can also be made online in December. Please choose "Mission Designated Funds" from the drop-down menus, then "Christmas Mission" in the Sub-Fund drop-down.
If you would like more information about the Christmas Offering, Friends of the Homeless, the Back Bay Mission, or First Community Church Mission programs, please email us at mission@fcchurch.com.
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Heart to Heart
Food Pantry
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Monthly Update
by Yohan Kim
FOOD PANTRY MANAGER
The generosity of the holidays has been overflowing this year. As of November 19, there were a dozen or more donation drives scheduled for deliveries over the course of November and December. First Community alone, provided 2,229 pounds of Thanksgiving foods during worship. There have been many other individual donations since then, with over 25 boxes of food ready for the deacons to pack for Heart to Heart’s Drive-Thru on November 21 and 26. The deacons packed those boxes November 21 which included donations from Tremont Elementary, First Community Preschool, and the Grandview Heights High School Key Club.
We give thanks to the people who make the pantry possible. This effort has required the work of many volunteers. Jeff, Kevin, and Dave did a scheduled holiday produce pickup at the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, filling the entirety of our room in the Annex with produce. Volunteers will also be preparing the food destined for the deacons. Our Pop-Up Pantry is hard at work nonstop, serving many at several sites. The Heart to Heart Ministry Team provided a lot of great ideas for some things we’d like to try in the future. And the Youth Ministry always goes above and beyond, having donated cereal, decorated banana boxes, and so much more.
In October, Rev. John Girard told some students from Jones Middle School that Heart to Heart has 1 full-time employee and there were over 200 volunteers last year. Those volunteers are anybody from anywhere, who sign up for a variety of reasons. They come from schools, work outings, Girl Scouts, church members, traffic court, retirement, etc. Upper Arlington High School students started a club and regular donations of birthday cake kits, both with lines of succession in place. We’ve had Eliana and Omar do a fantastic job leading during this round of Semester of Service (SOS) at The Ohio State University (OSU). One of our first OSU SOS student volunteers, Maria, still shows up, even though her obligation ended long ago. I hope that’s a sign of things going right, and of faith in humanity forged through fellowship with neighbors in need.
Heart to Heart is a place of gratitude given back tenfold. It is the lifeblood of the church, along with every other group in Missions and Justice, comprising the heart of First Community. A church without principles put to the test is a study group and social club. But our collective action produces beats thundering through the lives of our neighbors, staff, and volunteers. May it keep pumping out blessings for the benefit of all who knock. It’s what Jesus would do.
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The Christmas Kindness Project
by Amy Caskie
DIRECTOR OF MISSIONS
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The Christmas Kindness Project was created to ensure gifts under the tree for children of Heart to Heart food pantry’s clients. Clients were interviewed by volunteers to collect information from their children's wish lists. Those items are now available for donors to choose at either church location. Once all donor gifts have been collected, they will be provided to the clients.
All the information below is available in this printable document and on the Heart to Heart webpage.
Donate
Visit the 9-foot wall-mounted Christmas tree displays outside worship spaces at either First Community location. Take a look at the remaining gifts and choose ornaments off the tree! These paper ornaments include information about the child and one gift to be provided to them.
Don't throw away that ornament! When you have purchased the gift/gifts, you will return to the church with the gift, unwrapped, and with that ornament tag attached. This is imperative for the volunteers picking up and sorting the gifts for each family. Also, please include a gift receipt with your donation if possible, especially for clothes!
We are supporting a total of 83 total in the 20 the families chosen. As each child was given the option to list 4 wish list items, we will collect a total of 332 gifts. As of November 25, there are 120 remaining ornaments between both locations!
We will not be accepting financial donations toward this project. If you would like suggestions for your financial donations, we suggest a contribution to Adopt-A-Family for the FC Youth Program, or directly to the operating funds for the food pantry.
Volunteer
Clients will be allowed to pickup the gifts for their families during three designated slots in the days before Christmas. A few volunteers will be needed during each of those shifts to help with organization, distribution, etc.
We will also need a few volunteers willing to meet clients that are unable to pickup gifts during our designated times at the church. Families may ask that you meet them somewhere in public, or invite you to meet them in their home with these gifts. Our goal is to make this as simple as possible, putting the needs of these families first.
If you have any questions, please contact Amy Caskie.
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$20,000 Matching Grant Fundraiser in February
by Amy Caskie
DIRECTOR OF MISSIONS
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updates provided by Janice Rook
POP-UP PANTRY VOLUNTEER AND GUILD RSZ MEMBER
Guild RSZ Bean Soup Project
In October, Women’s Guild RSZ came together to support the ministry of Heart to Heart and its Pop Up Pantry.
The Pop-Up Pantry provides weekly food deliveries to families at sites around the Central Ohio community. After many years of preparing frozen casserole dinners for Heart to Heart’s walk in and drive through pantry, Guild RSZ has continued its support of Heart to Heart by preparing jars of dry bean soup for families served by the Pop-Up Pantry.
Guild RSZ members Ginny Culver, Jane Belt and Elaine DiSalvo planned and coordinated the mission project. Planning involved developing and testing a recipe that would meet the dietary preferences of families. Over 100 pounds of dry beans were needed for the soup.
Members worked in teams, first filling mason jars with five types of dry beans. Packets of dried spices were prepared and placed on top of the beans in the jars. Pieces of colorful cloth were cut and placed on the jar lids. Lastly, labels with a simple, but delicious recipe for making the soup were affixed to the outside of the jars. In all, 156 jars of dry bean soup were prepared and delivered to the Pop-Up Pantry for distribution to its families.
This is the second year Guild RSZ has donated the dry bean soup jars. It has shown to be both a meaningful and enjoyable mission project for our members. We hope the families receiving this donation will enjoy the soup as our weather turns colder.
Pop-Up Pantry Christmas Project
For the past few years, the Pop-Up Pantry (PUP) volunteers and students at Wickliffe Elementary have collaborated on a project for Southpoint Place, which provides supportive housing for the formerly homeless and disabled. This year, over 25 families will be supported through the donation of approximately 170 gifts.
By November 18 all of the wish lists for the children at Southpoint had been fulfilled due to the generosity of Wickliffe Elementary and the PUP team! The team will gather on December 5 to pick up gifts from Wickliffe, sort and bag the gifts for each family. On December 6, they will meet again a to load the bags of gifts into vehicles and deliver gifts to Southpoint. Team members say it's always special day knowing that the children will be opening these wonderful gifts at Christmas!
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Service Statistics
Households Served 938
- Families Served by Drive-Thru Pantry 673
- Families Served by Pop-Up Pantry 265
- New Families Served 227
Individuals Served 3,150
- Seniors Served 367
- Adults Served 1,610
- Children Served 1,173
Meals Served 28,350
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Incoming Materials
in pounds
First Community Church 4,047
Giant Eagle 1,247
Marc’s 207
Penzey’s 55
Mid-Ohio Foodbank 31,465 (total weight)
- Shop Thru weight 15,312
- Order weight 16,153
- Total Cost $6,721.54
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by Shirley Barney
REFUGEE MINISTRY TEAM LEAD
For Thanksgiving and any time of the year, we are so grateful to the members of the church for supporting the RMT team through volunteerism, donations, etc. Thank you!
Our CRIS (Community of Refugee & Immigration Services) partners discussed the impact of the upcoming administration. During the last Trump administration, CRIS lost funding, which would subsequently force them to lay off key team members. Additionally, the amount of refugee families resettling in central Ohio greatly decreased. Before the administration turns over, CRIS is trying to process as many families as they can.
Below is an excerpt from a CRIS Facebook published on 11/6/24:
Today feels hard.
CRIS’ work is driven by hope for the type of community we want to live in, but today many of the people who make up our community feel scared.
During President Trump’s previous administration, the number of vetted, legal, vulnerable people the US welcomed as refugees dropped by 86%. We saw policies put in place that targeted the people we serve, and we grieved with local families whose loved ones were kept apart and left in danger. We watched funding for CRIS and other immigrant- and refugee-serving organizations get cut over and over, even as our team did all it could to address the needs that exist in our community.
We will take every opportunity to demand that the incoming administration work harder to live up to the US’ historic identity as a country of refuge and opportunity. But today feels hard.
Read the entire post here.
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To support families arriving, we are looking for Welcome Kit household items click on the image to access the full list of items. You can drop off the donations at the CRIS office 4645 Executive Dr, Columbus, OH 43220.
The RMT is also looking for these donations:
- Washer & dryer
- Unused toiletries (soap, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, feminine products, etc)
Please contact Shirley Barney if you have any questions or are interested in volunteering.
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In The Garden
Updates from the Share & Learn Garden
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The Share and Learn Garden at First Community North sits on the property behind the Mary Evans Child Development Center. All the produce grown in the garden comes directly to Heart to Heart. The garden is managed and harvested by a small but mighty and fun group of volunteers. Master Gardeners Cheryl and Loren VanDeusen, and their daughter, Kate Paulson, are the group's leaders. The group convenes on Tuesday mornings, weather permitting. We receive weekly updates from Kate Paulson during the growing season, including these excerpts below. | |
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October 25
Hi all!
Thanks you so much for all of the hard work this past Tuesday! Our final weight for 2024 is: 936 pounds!
...our last session will be NOV 5. We do need one more clean-up session to finish cleaning up zinnia/cosmos pile, clean up Okra, clean up kids beds, and cover shallots with mulch (after they are planted).
I did get all of the garlic planted, fed and covered with mulch last week. I hope everyone has a good week or so…get out and vote 🗳️ early and see you on Election Day…Nov 5.
Kate, Loren, and Cheryl
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November 2
Hi all,
So here we are - the final session for 2024.
Final activities include:
- removing okra plants. Will require digging up with a shovel as the roots are pretty tough.
- cleaning up green bean vines off arch.
- finish bagging up zinnia/cosmos plants.
- plant and feed shallots and cover with mulch.
- clean up wave petunia plants.
My back is badly injured, and will be for the foreseeable future. That being said, I can be there to direct and a little pruning, but cannot do any lifting (of ANY kind). I hope if you are free, you can come help wrap things up.
Thank you and see you Tuesday!
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Community Justice & Missions
Monthly All Teams Meetings
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News from our Mission Partners | | | | |
