Community Service by Sharon Holbrook

Rainsboro United Methodist Church

Churches have always played a vital role in community service. This article is about one of them; one where I am proud and blessed to be an active member.

Rainsboro United Methodist Church sits between two lakes in the little community of Rainsboro, Ohio. This is a small church serving a farming community and is open to all who seek Jesus in a friendly, come as you are atmosphere. Being in a rural area, our pastor serves this church and another nearby church, Marshall United Methodist Church.

Our church is open for in-person services but also offers streaming of our services on Facebook for those who cannot attend or prefer not during the COVID pandemic. Sunday morning worship is preceded by Sunday school classes, which include preschool, middlers, teens, and adults. To further serve the community, our Pastor, Jamie Darling, has started a Zoom Bible study which includes an interactive question and answer feature.

Rainsboro UMC is very involved in scouting programs. A Cub Scout pack formed at the church 10 years ago with approximately 20 active members, including both girls and boys, in grades K-5th grade and two leaders over the age of 16. This outreach has become very popular in the community and has brought new families into the church. The Boy Scouts, which formed 3 years ago, meet on a separate night, and include boys in grades 6-12th.

In 2021, an all-girl troop is scheduled to be formed. Both troops will have activities including camping, fishing, hiking, building, and lots of community service.

On Wednesday mornings, you can come to church for the best breakfast in town. A group of church volunteers serves coffee, juice, fresh fruit, biscuits and gravy, eggs, and bacon. This ministry started when the local restaurant closed down, leaving the community without a place to drink coffee and congregate. A church member, Ted Rhoads, who passed away in 2019, decided that the church could open its doors, kitchen, and fellowship room to the community and serve some coffee. Coffee Is On was born. Over the years, it has grown with leaps and bounds. Each week, we serve an average of 70 and sometimes as many as 109 people during the 3 hours we are open. That is a lot of eggs and coffee! The Coffee Is On volunteer crew take orders, cooks, serves at the tables, and cleans up. What a blessing to be able to provide this outreach.

Saturday mornings the church is open and hosts groups of AA & ALA-NON. They are also served coffee, water, and donuts. This is a safe place and a common area for conversations. They take up a love offering to help offset the costs of letting them use the church. There are around 10-15 people who come every week.

At Christmas time, our church volunteers put together Blessing Bags. These bags contain items like shampoo, soap, deodorant, razors, Bible, paper, pens, tissues, toilet paper, snacks, water, and a clothing item. Volunteers distribute these bags in the immediate and surrounding communities. When someone is located who is in need, we have a bag to give them. In the area, some people stand at the stop signs asking for food, money, or whatever their need might be. It isn’t always comfortable to give them money. These bags contain some essential items which they can use, and they always include a blessing. This idea has led our church to put together COVID-19 blessing bags. The pastor and I have both had the virus and know how much certain items really help get us through the sick days. She and I, along with Dr. Julie, one of our church members, put together a list of items to ask to be donated so we can deliver this blessing to anybody who might come down with the virus or are just sick. The outpouring has been great.

Rainsboro UMC might be small, but our congregation is ready and willing to move our hands and feet to put Jesus out into our community.

Thank you to troop 5316 of the Rainsboro United Methodist Church for washing my porch down. They did a terrific job. Also a big thank you to Sharon Holbrook. One of the leaders. -Marlene Cooper