Tag: missions

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Renew, Rebuild, Reconstruct – in Puerto Rico

 In the year since Hurricane Maria swept across Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, 2017, The United Methodist Church has been sending prayers and support. The United Methodist Committee on Relief has contributed more than $20 million, allowing the Methodist Church of Puerto Rico to establish the Renew, Rebuild and Reconstruct (Rehace) program.

From October 6 to October 13 a small band of enthusiastic Christians from Princeton UMC, and some from other United Methodist churches in New Jersey, will travel to Puerto Rico. “The reason we are going is to help people feel a little more love and more restored in terms of their homes and their lives, through the various kinds of work we will do,” says Rev. Ginny Cetuk. She and her husband, Norman, and Rev. Skitch Matson, are leading the team.

Princeton UMC’s Outreach committee is partnering with the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference, which is connected to the United Methodist Church of Puerto Rico and Bishop Ortiz. “He will essentially be our leader and director – to tell us where the need is, and that’s where will go,” says Pastor Ginny. “We will do everything we can from helping build a roof to having conversations with people to let them know we love them.”

Princeton UMC people making the trip along with the Cetuks and Skitch Matson are Susan Davelman, Lori Pantaleo, Timothy Ewer, Jennifer Hartigan, and TJ Lee. From other churches: Jesse Bickford, Jennifer O’Donnell, Paul Elyseev, and Eunice Vega-Perez.

Says Pastor Ginny:  “We are eager to do this work and ask everyone’s prayers that we will be maximally helpful and return home safe and sound.”

In this video we learn how United Methodists (UMCOR) provide both physical and emotional support

In this video we learn how one Puerto Rican woman was grateful for UMCOR help. 

Editor’s note: if you missed this trip but want to help plan or go on the next one, contact the Outreach Committee!

 

 

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Caring Kids for Summer Sundays

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Emily Gordonier reports on the Caring Kids program on July 19. “Carline Kimble and I led 7 delightful children in a crayon recycling program,” says Emily. “They enjoyed working together to sort broken crayons, gathered from throughout the church by by color, putting them into separate plastic bags. We wound up with a total of two gallons of crayons to be sent to a recycling company in Minnesota, Crazy Crayons, where they will be melted and used to make ‘new’ crayons for children in schools, hospital and churches.”

Children in preschool through rising sixth grade are invited to go to “Caring Kids” in Room 202 after the Children’s Time. Each Sunday they get to work on a different mission task. On July 12, the children wrote “encouragement” letters to soldiers.  Each week they take on a different mission task!

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Getting our fingernails dirty — close to home

These volunteer opportunities refer to organizations on PUMC’s outreach web page — or speakers at a United Methodist Men’s breakfast within the past two years. Each has current volunteer opportunities. The PrincetonUMC blog has live links to the web pages.

Boy Scouts of the USA.

CASA: Court Appointed Special Advocates: trained volunteers represent children at court.

Contact of Mercer County: compassionate listening, crisis intervention and safety services.

Cornerstone Community Kitchen: meal prep & cleanup, scheduling, sorting clothing.

Crisis Ministry: food pantry, assistance with rent, utilities, medicines: cooking demonstration assistant, and pantry intake helpers.

 A Future with Hope: rebuilding homes and lives after Hurricane Sandy: weeklong construction projects, or donate, or sell tickets to the Thunder game June 9th.

HomeFront : helping homeless families: tutors, computer tech, clerical

Housing Initiatives of Princeton : paint, probono services, advocate for affordable housing.

The HUB: drop-in Saturdays for those with unique challenges: friendly helpers.

Isles: garden docents, organizing IT equipment, event photographer, special projects

Mercer Street Friends: teach computer skills, write tech support or FAQ documents, collect and refurbish computers, one-time parenting workshops like scrapbooking, resume building.

Not in Our Town: an interracial, interfaith social action group, programs vs prejudice.

Princeton Community Housing: affordable rental housing. need PUMC representative.

Princeton Healthcare System: reception, visiting, retail.

Princeton Human Services: help with events like the Wheels Rodeo.

Princeton Senior Resource Center: Visit shut-ins, read to children, assist in office.

Threads of Hope: once monthly Saturdays — sort clothing, offer hospitality

Trenton Area Soup Kitchen: tutor, serve meals on 4th Tuesdays,

Salvation Army of NJ: teach brass instrument, event photographs, registration, teaching.

Urban Promise Trenton: afterschool and camp programs: tutoring, teaching.

Volunteer Connect: nonprofit for skills-based volunteer jobs

Womanspace: residential emergency shelter program for battered women and their children: tutors, Spanish translators, collecting newspaper stories for  grant applications.

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Sunday School Mission Project: March 2015

2012-12-kits-indonesia-350-1476In the spirit of service, the 2nd-3rd and 4th-5th grade Sunday School Classes will be sponsoring a mission project through Church World Service. The children in the 2nd-3rd grade class reviewed options last week and selected to prepare Hygiene Kits. According to Church World Service, “In the face of natural disasters, violence, or grinding poverty, Hygiene Kits can mean the difference between sickness and health for struggling families.”

(The photo shows a child displaced by the 2011 Mt. Merapi volcano eruption in Indonesia receiving CWS School and Hygiene Kits. Photo: Matt Hackworth/CWS)

Children can bring supplies from the list below to Sunday School from now through March 29. That day,  the children will assemble the kits. Then we will bless the kits in a church service and send them to Church World Service.

Supply List:

  • One hand towel measuring approximately 16″ x 28″ (no fingertip or bath towels)
  • One washcloth
  • One wide-tooth comb
  • One nail clipper
  • One bar of soap (bath size in wrapper)
  • One toothbrush (in original packaging)

When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant[a] is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.” John 13:12-17.

For stories about how the kits are used, click here.

by Tracey and the other Sunday School teachers

 

 

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Meet the Neals at VBS

Neal Family

Meet Josiah — Mercy — Wes — and Jerusha! Vacation Bible School students will have the chance to make friends with children who live 8,000 miles away. In our evening program entitled “Can You Hear Me Now? God Calls Kids Too!” preschool children through incoming 6th graders will meet — through videos — a missionary family working in Fiji. Set for Tuesday to Thursday, July 29 to 31, 5:30 to 8 p.m., the VBS program is free by registration. Dinner is included, and parents are invited to stay.

Twelve-year-old Mercy Neal and her eight-year-old brother, Josiah, are moving from their home in Belleville, New Jersey to Fiji, an island in the South Pacific. Their parents — Rev. Wesley Neal and Rev. Jerusha Neal, both graduates of Princeton Theological Seminary — will teach at a seminary there.

“The children and youth of Princeton UMC will be writing to Mercy and Josiah, and they will also support the Neal family with prayer and fund raising,” says Anna Gillette, associate pastor for discipleship. “VBS children will hear Bible stories about God calls children into discipleship.” Crafts, music, mission projects and games will tie the week’s theme together.

For information or to register — or sign up to help — call 609-924-2613 or email Anna@princetonumc.org.