January 11, 2016 Volume XXVI, No. 1 Nationalchurch.org
The Messenger
METROPOLITAN CHURCH
A MULTI-SITE UNITED METHODIST COMMUNITY
More Serving Opportunities Campus Kitchen DC Tues./Wed./Thurs., 4pm - 7pm Saturdays, 11am - 3pm St Luke’s Mission Center* Volunteer to make meals and recover donated produce and protein we receive from local food operators. Interested? Contact Rev. Dottie Yunger, dyunger@ nationalchurch.org or visit nationalchurch.org/volunteerhub. Grate Patrol January 24, 10:10 am, Vestry January 25, 6:30pm St. Luke’s Mission Center*
On Sunday, help make sandwiches and prepare meal bags in the Vestry. On Monday, volunteers are needed to load additional meals prepared by Campus Kitchen into the Salvation Army van and distribute them throughout downtown DC. If you can volunteer to put together meal bags on Sunday, just show up in the vestry or, if a group, contact Anita Seline, amseline@ aol.com. If you can go out on the van on Monday night, volunteer at nationalchurch.org/servenow! *3655 Calvert St. NW.
Grate Patrol February 7, 6pm St. Luke’s Mission Center*
Help assemble the meal (provided by our Campus Kitchen Program) in to-go containers. Then at 6:45pm, volunteers are needed to load meals into the Salvation Army van and distribute them throughout the city. You can volunteer to put together meals, serve meals by going out in the van, or both. No experience necessary. Volunteer at nationalchurch.org/volunteerhub! For more information, contact Rev. Dottie Yunger, dyunger@ nationalchurch.org. *3655 Calvert St., NW.
New Year and New Ways to Serve
If you are anything like me, you face a new year with old resolutions. “This year,” I tell myself, “I’ll eat better or exercise more or lose weight or clean out my closets.” While I may start out strong, at some point during the year I lose momentum or interest, and the resolutions and good intentions fall away. Maybe the challenge isn’t with you, it’s with the resolutions – maybe they are old resolutions, old ways of thinking. Maybe you need a new perspective, a new motivation, a new approach. The Serving Pillar invites you to explore new ways to engage in ministry in this new year. You can start by participating in service ministries in honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Come to the Campus Kitchen shift on Saturday, January 16. Cook in the kitchen with Chef Anthony, or deliver the community meal to Mount Vernon UMC in NE. Prepare a meal for the seven men who live in the St Luke’s Shelter. This weekend Campus Kitchen will also host college students from American and Catholic Universities participating in a Day of Service on Monday, January 18. They, too, will cook and clean in the kitchen, as they learn about hunger and housing issues in the District, and how they can be involved in the community. Serving isn’t limited to one day or weekend – you can serve once a week, once a month, or as often as you can. Campus Kitchen is recovering nearly 5,000 pounds of food a month and making about 1,500 meals a month. We have a dedicated team of volunteers, both church members and college students, who recover, prepare, and deliver this food. We have been invited by our partners to recover more food each month. At the same time, we receive more requests from those in need for meals. With your help, we could bring in more food that we can make into more meals that we can deliver to more clients. Help someone else keep their new year’s resolution to eat better and be more healthy by volunteering at Campus Kitchen. Many of the clients we serve are young children who don’t always know where their next meal is coming from. Or they live in a food desert – more than a mile from a full service grocery store. Fresh fruits and vegetables are scarce. They are developing food habits now that will impact them for a lifetime. We often provide meals for these youth at after school programs, where they also need help with homework, or reading, or anything else that is going on in their lives. They need a meal, and they need someone to share a meal with, along with conversation and fellowship. There are different kinds of nourishment you can provide to a child in need in the District, opportunities that would be nourishing and enriching to you as well. You can also serve by becoming an advocate for affordable housing in the District, and during these cold winter months, for accessible hypothermia shelters in all wards of the District. Closer to home, you can support our new efforts to streamline our shelter ministry based on our very successful model at the St Luke’s Shelter for men and the new women’s program out of Metropolitan House. Both provide much needed small group home settings with intentional case management and job training/placement with our partners at Friendship Place. Volunteers will be needed to mentor someone, or provide a meal, or offer fellowship. There will be more information about these exciting developments in the coming months. For more information about our Serving ministries, go to nationalchurch.org/Serving or contact me, Rev Dottie Yunger at dyunger@nationalchurch.org or 202-363-4900, ext. 111. Blessings, Rev. Dottie Yunger