Welcome to the Outreach Committee's mini-newsletter page called "Outreach News." This page contains a small information piece about a featured Mission of the month and will contain information on fundraising events held by the many ministries that we support (through our time, talent and gifts). We have a separate Volunteer Opportunities page which will give you information on organizations that need your help.
Congo Ministry Participants
Our church will be sending a group of eleven church members and friends to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in July 2010 as part of a mission team to assist in the control and elinination of the disease Riverblindness. Plans for the trip are being made now. If you are interested in learning more about Riverblindness, please visit the United Front Against Riverblindness website or contact Tom Lank tom(at)princetonumc.org.
The Crisis Ministry Valentine Food Drive, Feb 6-14
On Sunday February 14, you can donate by placing your contribution into the "Valentine’s for Food" offering envelope from your Sunday bulletin and dropping it into the PUMC offering plate (checks payable to PUMC). Or you can send your donation directly to Crisis Ministry, 123 E. Hanover Street, Trenton, NJ 08608.
McCaffrey’s Supermarket will generously match every $3.99 "Valentine" bought at their Princeton and West Windsor stores, up to $5,000.
You can send "Virtual Valentines" to loved ones through February 11 by logging onto the Crisis Ministry Website.
Volunteers Needed for the Crisis Ministry
The Crisis Ministry in Trenton has Volunteer Openings in their Food Store on Thursday and Friday mornings to help with client intake in their newly expanded facility. They could also use two new financial assistants to work with clients in their Homelessness Prevention Program on Mondays and Wednesdays in the morning or Wednesday in the afternoon. The first step toward a rewarding volunteer opportunity is to email their Volunteer Coordinator Elizabeth Ferguson at cmvolunteer(at)gmail.com
Trenton Soup Kitchen Volunteering
Members of our church will help out at the Soup Kitchen each month. Specific dates and times can be found in the News Section of this website. We leave the church at 9:30 a.m. and return around 1:30 p.m. Activities include food preparation and serving from behind a cafeteria-style counter. There is a sign-up sheet in the Sanford-Davis Room (it includes the schedule for months to come) or you can contact the Church Office (see the Contact Us Page). To learn more about the work of this organization, please visit their website.
Magazines needed for Trenton Area Soup Kitchen. Please donate any recent general interest magazines (Sports Illustrated, Reader’s Digest, etc.); drop off in the box outside the church office. Patrons at TASK are always in need of reading material.
The Isles Affordable Housing Project
Trenton is experiencing a housing crisis. One out of five of Trenton’s housing units are vacant, many of them dilapidated and abandoned. Nearly half of all renters – and 20% of homeowners – spend more than 35% of their income on housing.
Princeton United Methodist Church has launched a partnership with a Trenton-based not-for-profit to help refurbish affordable housing in the Old Trenton neighborhood and is looking for volunteers. The team spends one Saturday each month working on one of seven historic units being rehabilitated by Isles, an organization with more than 15 years of experience in developing affordable housing. Photos of our Church members at work in Trenton in April through the present can be found on this page. Information on dates, times and location of construction events can be foundin the news section of this website or by contacting the Outreach Chairperson at outreach(at)princetonumc.org We ask that you do this so that we can send you (via e-mail) the details about this trip and preparations you'll need to make. Thank you.
This Month's Featured Ministry
Domestic violence affects people from every strata of society, from all walks of life and from every religious background. Some who suffer have friends, family and loving congregations to support them. Others are singularly isolated and alone, and since it appears that the world has no knowledge of their existence, they wonder if they have been abandoned and forgotten even by God.
As a chaplain at Womanspace, a non-profit organization that serves victims and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, I find the opportunity to offer a ministry of hope, point to the expressions of a community that cares, and reconnect them to communities of faith.
I had been working at Womanspace for four years and in May I was commissioned as a Provisional Deacon in the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.
The calling of a Deacon, ordained to the ministry of Word and Service, is to lead the people of God in extending and translating their worship of God to service in and to the world. Ordained clergy may be appointed by the Bishop to serve in a non-church setting to "extend the ministry of the United Methodist Church and the witness and service of Christ’s love and justice in the world," according to the UMC Book of Discipline. It is in this sense that our Bishop appointed me to serve at Womanspace.
Womanspace’s shelter program offers temporary emergency housing in a safe, confidential location. Staff or trained volunteers respond to police stations and hospitals to offer support and information to victims at times of intense crisis. We also provide 24 hour crisis hotlines, counseling and advocacy, legal clinic and court accompaniment, transitional housing, and education and training to the community.
At Womanspace, I serve as one of the counselors and as the agency chaplain. While every county in the country has an agency similar to Womanspace, in New Jersey, Womanspace is unique in that the agency is also committed to serving the spiritual needs of those we serve by supporting the chaplaincy program. As a counselor, I work one on one with clients who reach out to Womanspace for help. As the agency chaplain, I move through all parts of the agency meeting individually and in groups with those who need to talk about their faith, God, their religious beliefs and how all of that may have been impacted by the life situations they are in.
All around Mercer County there are communities that care and that express their caring in tangible and intangible ways. Our Monday Morning Bible Study Group has provided Bibles and faithfully prays for the Spirituality Group I lead each week. The Women’s Group has provided towels and toiletries and the church has always supported Womanspace’s Communities of Light. Other congregations have provided food, toys and gifts, hosted holiday parties for our clients and their children and made us the recipient of special offerings. It is as we reach out to those in need that we make real the prayer we pray each Sunday, "…Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…" Together as a church we then demonstrate Christ’s love and justice in the world.
Susan Victor, Chaplain
