Missions

HOW HARMONY IS MAKING A DIFFERENCE – MAY HAPPENINGS

Wednesday night dinners (report for 2018/2019 outreach) –  a total of 18 dinners with up to 100 guests were served each dinner. That’s about 1800 people served!  What does it take??  Teams of 8+ volunteers each dinner to set up, serve, and clean up (and this doesn’t include those that step up to help with cleanup that aren’t part of the teams) equaling 144+ volunteers; and 7 desserts each week from an amazing list of 35 volunteers equaling 245 desserts provided (even more because some folks brought desserts without being asked).
BPB (report for 2018/2019 school year) – a total of 24 volunteers supported this program. Fourteen volunteered to shop for food and 15 volunteered to deliver food bags to Hamilton Elementary.  Harmony supported 5 children this year delivering a total of 185 backpacks filled with healthy weekend food and snacks.  Hamilton Elementary hosted a Tea for all volunteers to thank us and we were blessed to be sung to by the kindergarten class!!
Family Emergency Assistance – Harmony provided financial resources to a family in need of emergency support during a challenging time in their lives. Missions provided care packages (food & personal items) for this family. It was a blessing to know the mom had found employment and began her new job the very same day she came to us for help.
Potato Drop – received a thank you note from Seven Loaves Services expressing their sincere thanks for the potato donation they received which enabled them to provide nutritional food for many families.
Rise Against Hunger – received a thank you note from Round Hill Methodist Church thanking us for our monetary donation ($300).
Loudoun Hunger Relief – delivered 87 lbs of food.
Mobile Hope – Since it’s hard to understand the issue of youth homelessness when there is only 1 official count done 1 time a year in the month of January, Mobile Hope is sharing their monthly numbers in hopes that this helps in understanding that this is a real issue, right in our very own county!  Following are the numbers for April 2019…

• 1     Living in a group home
• 26     Truly homeless (living in cars, tents, barns, places of employment, etc)
• 49    Precariously housed (couch surfing, sharing rooms)
• 3    Living in the jail but homeless upon release

ONGOING:
Loudoun Hunger Relief – Every 4^th Sunday – June 23rd, SUMMERTIME NEEDS

JUNE EVENTS

From Mary Balderson (BPB Coordinator and Parent Liaison at Hamilton/Lincoln Elementary) —

To our friends at Harmony United Methodist Church,  Thank you so very much to all of you that have donated your time and resources to the students of Hamilton and Lincoln Elementary Schools for our Backpack Program.  The Backpack Program serves several purposes for our students in need.  It serves the more obvious purpose of providing much needed food to our financially unstable students who might otherwise not have food to eat on the weekends.  However, the Backpack Program also serves a less obvious purpose to those students…it serves as a reminder to them and their families that they are seen and cared about and that there is hope for their future.  The time and resources that you have given so generously to our students have played such an important role in the success of the Backpack Program and the students enrolled in it.  This partnership is a gift to our community and we’re so grateful to all of you for being a part of it. The flowers in the church today are just a small token from Hamilton and Lincoln Elementary Schools in honor of all the wonderful Backpack Program volunteers.  Thank you all!

KITS FOR CONFERENCE

Thanks to everyone who participated, we were able to deliver 15 hygiene kits and 59 school kits to Annual Conference.

ALL GOD’S CHILDREN CAMP:

The UMW will be providing supplies for 6 girl campers at the first camp (June 16-21), Camp Chance – Richmond. The sewing group is making and contributing stuffed animals (displayed on the alter railing and there are a couple of new animals so take a look!).  Barbara & Donald Jennings have volunteered to deliver the supplies to the camp.  What a blessing – thank you UMW and the Jennings family.

REVISED:  June 9^th-June 23^rd:  Mobile Hope “TRANSITION ROOM” Collection

Harmony is collecting basic kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom items to help supply a Transition Room that Mobile Hope is setting up. What is a Transition Room??  It’s a room stocked with basic household items and cleaning products they plan to make available to their young adults who are transitioning to independent living. These young adults have nothing to begin their lives other than what’s in their duffle/garbage bags they carry.  They need help with basic items to help begin their lives. For example:

Mobile hope shared that for this year, they are planning for 3-4 young adults to transition. A signup genius has been created which lists a variety of items that we could donate and 4 sign ups are available for each item listed. You can sign up for one or multiple items. Donated items do not have to be new, but should be in good condition. If you struggle with signup genius, please feel free to talk with Roxanne Tipton or any Missions Committee member and we’ll sign you up.  You can call Roxanne at 540-454-4654 or email her at tipton04@aol.com to let her know what item(s) you’d like to donate. The signup genius listing of items to be collected has been posted in Driscoll Hall. Also, if you would like to donate something that is not on the list, please feel free to do so.

Mobile Hope would also like to be able to offer furniture, but due to their lack of space, they just don’t have enough room for storage. If anyone has furniture pieces they’d like to donate, that would be awesome, but they need for you to keep the pieces until there is a need. Please email Roxanne Tipton at tipton04@aol.com with any furniture donations you have and Missions will maintain a list.  A table has been set up in Driscoll Hall for anyone wishing to donate to this cause.  All donations are due to the church June 23rd.

The link to sign up to donate: Sign Up Genius – Transition Room