Outreach at Hope

2011 Outreach Activities

Several movie nights were held during this winter's "cabin fever" months of January, February, and March. The Centerburg bible study group held the 2nd Annual Hope Chili Cook-off in prior to the February movie and this year's winner took home a great prize. The chili cook-off is fast becoming a favorite of ours with 9 pots of chili competing this year!

Mothers will be greeted with a carnation in remembrance of Mother's Day on Sunday, May 9th. Our deep appreciation is felt to all the mothers in our congregation always.

Hope is coordinating the first Big Walnut CROP Hunger Walk on Sunday, May 16th. Several other area churches will join with Hope to walk to fight world hunger. The CROP Hunger Walk is sponsored by Church World Services.

Other planned 2010 Outreach Activities are:

Pumpkin booth at the Oldtime Farming Festival in Centerburg

2009 Outreach Activities

Hope joined the national Back to Church campaign on September 13th and encouraged members to invite famliy, neighbors, coworkers, and friends to join us in worship. Pastor Riggs also visited with several Hope famlies during this time.

Thanksgiving Dinner was provided to 55 families in the Sunbury and Centerburg areas. Hope families filled grocery bags with the ingredients of a great Thanksgiving meal and also provided a gift card for the turkey! Bags were distributed to Big Walnut Friends Who Share in Sunbury and Interchurch Social Services in Centerburg.

Our Christmas giving was different this year as our focus was on the seniors in our area. Our program called, Slippers (with grippers) for Seniors, requested Hope families to purchase slippers that were safe for older folks. We provided them to our neighbor in Condit, Country View Nursing Home. The residents at Country View were delighted when Santa brought them new slippers this year!

On Sunday August 31st, Operation Christmas Child was supported in many ways. During the children’s message, Lejla Allison, via video, shared her story of a life of fear and poverty as a child in Bosnia Many participated in the after church gift shopping event held at the church’s Operation Christmas Store, which benefits Samaritan’s Purse Ministry’s Operation Christmas Child project. While parents and our high school and college students were available to guide children in their shopping for gifts, several high school students and their families helped with handling the check-out of purchases, counting income, and packing and cleaning after the store closed.