Volunteer Ministries Wider Church Ministries United Church of Christ Partners in Service Volume 3, Issue 3 July, 2007 What Motivates You to Serve? INSIDE THIS ISSUE: What Motivates You to Serve? Highlighting Placement Possibilities Partners in Service Volunteers Begin and End Times of Service Local Congregation Honors Service of Justin Chick as a Partners in Service Volunteer Thanks to General Synod Service Project Participants Along the Way...News from Volunteers 1 1 2 2 3 4 Congratulations to Mary and Bill Ruth who recently received a Heart of Mission Award for UCC Volunteer Ministries during the Wider Church/Global Ministries Dinner at General Synod in Hartford, CT. Cally Rogers-Witte, Executive Minister of Wider Church Ministries, UCC introduced the award with the following: Mary and William Ruth have served for over five years as long term volunteers in several diverse mission settings in the United States. They hope to continue for many more years. The Ruths help to network different settings of the church as they connect with local churches in the places where they serve and encourage local churches in other areas to be involved in that setting. The Ruths refer to the experience as giftgiving: Volunteering in this manner is a bit like giving a birthday gift to a dear one. The giver strives to select just the right gift by first knowing well and listening to the recipient, and finally, the giver has no control or strings attached to the gift after it is received. Likewise, we arrive at an assignment to make a gift of skills and talents. We discover in what form that gift needs to be for the recipient agency. Then we leave the finished product gift in the hands of the agency when we move on for them to choose what to do with the gift. This type of giftgiving is fun for us! This Heart of Mission Award for Volunteer Ministries is presented to Mary and Bill Ruth in gratitude for their gift-giving and receiving. May each of us be gift-givers and receivers.. Thanks to each of you for your service. Highlighting Volunteer Placement Possibilities: Charles Hall Youth Services Volunteers are sought to serve as house parents and/or in arts programming with youth residents. Charles Hall Youth Services in Bismarck, North Dakota assists at-risk youth in making a successful transition form troubled adolescence to mature adulthood. Find out more about the organization at http://charleshallyouthservices.com/. Plymouth House of Healing Companions are sought to share community and companionship with formerly homeless residents who are in recovery after hospitalization for mental illness. Being a companion is an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of some of our most fragile, marginalized people. Good for a volunteer of any age. One year or three month placements available. Interfaith Action of Southwest Florida/Coalition of Immokalee Workers Volunteers are sought to work side-by-side with farmworker leaders and engage in faith-based community organizing around issues of improving farmworkers subpoverty wages and working conditions. One year or three month placements available. For a more full listing of placement possibilities see the mid-year up-date of the Partners in Service booklet on-line at www.ucc.org/volunteer or contact our office and we ll be glad to send you a copy. For multiple copies, contact United Church of Christ Resources. 800-537-3394
UCC Volunteer Ministries Newsletter Page 2 NEW PARTNERS IN SERVICE VOLUNTEERS Volunteers begin their Partners in Service assignments at various times throughout the year. Many thanks to volunteers who have begun their time of service during these summer months. You embody the diversity of volunteers and placement possibilities available through the Partners in Service program. WELCOME and THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE Jakob Moellers, Germany, serving with Merom Conference Center, Merom, IN July, 2007 Samira Kowalski, Germany, serving with Merom Conference Center, Merom, IN, July, 2007 Jonathan Helmick, Akron, OH, serving with the Still Speaking Initiative, United Church of Christ, Cleveland, OH, June August, 2007 Susan Sharp, San Luis Obispo, CA, serving with Ryder Memorial Hospital, Humacao, Puerto Rico, July-August, 2007 [Susan also will begin a year-long placement with Christ House in Washington, DC in August] Scott Kons, OshKosh, WI, serving with Back Bay Mission, Biloxi, MS, June November, 2007 Leah Lyman, Elmhurst, IL, continues to serve with Back Bay Mission, Biloxi, MS She began in March, 2007 [Leah was pictured in the April, 2007 Partners in Service newsletter] LOCAL UCC CONGREGATION RECOGNIZES THE MINISTRY OF CHURCH MEMBERS IN THE WIDER COMMUNITY Justin Chick, Partners in Service volunteer at United Church Neighborhood Houses in St. Louis during this year has recently been honored by his home congregation, First UCC of Williamstown, Massachusetts by a donation to Neighborhood Houses and to the Schlingman-Howell-Shellenberger-Bade Fund for Volunteer Ministries. Contributions to this Fund for Volunteer Ministries ensures future volunteer opportunities for people of faith to live out Christ s call to serve one another with the gifts each has received. The Board of Outreach of First UCC in Williamstown wanted to support program where their members are working. What a great way to honor the ministry of members of your congregation! Thank you. And Congratulations, Justin! MANY THANKS TO PARTNERS IN SERVICE VOLUNTEERS WHO HAVE COMPLETED THEIR SERVICE SINCE JAN. 2007 Your service and witness are an inspiration to others Richard Broussard, Disaster Recovery, South Central Conference in New Orleans, LA John and Faye Buttrick, Disaster Recovery, Florida Conference Christine and Benjamin Darr, Disaster Recovery, South Central Conference in New Orleans, LA John and Grace Drescher, Ryder Memorial Hospital, PR Penny Edwards, Disaster Recovery, Florida Conference Richard Freridge, Disaster Recovery, South Central Conference in New Orleans, LA Tom Gorham, Disaster Recovery, South Central Conference in New Orleans, LA Jean Grosbach, Ryder Memorial Hospital, PR and Cook School for Christian Leadership, AZ Marcy Magness, Disaster Recovery, South Central Conference in New Orleans, LA Eugene and Eileen McKinstry, Disaster Recovery, South Central Conference in New Orleans, LA Doug and Judy Moore, Disaster Recovery, South Central Conference in New Orleans, LA Lizanne Nuijten, Evangelical Children s Homes, St. Louis, MO Tim and Jennifer Rowles, Back Bay Mission, Biloxi, MS Betty Mae Sheer, Abernethy Center, NC John and Pam Small, Disaster Recovery, South Central Conference in New Orleans and with Back Bay Mission, Biloxi, MS Connie and Robert Waidmann, Heifer Ranch, AR
Many thanks to all who participated in Service Projects at General Synod in Hartford, CT Peter s Retreat, home for persons living with HIV/AIDS Assembling Teacher Appreciation Packets and Getting Involved in Hartford Public Schools FoodShare Regional Food Bank Garden Project FoodShare Regional Foodbank Warehouse Groundskeeping at Harriet Beecher Stowe Center Neighborhood Clean-Up with NINA (Northside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance)
UCC Volunteer Ministries Newsletter Page 4 ALONG THE WAY NEWS FROM VOLUNTEERS Participants in the General Synod Service Projects had the opportunity to serve in the Hartford, CT area as part of their General Synod experience. The General Synod is the bi-annual national gathering of the United Church of Christ. Delegates and visitors from all over the UCC and visitors from other churches and from partner churches around the globe gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the union that created the United Church of Christ. Service Projects allowed people to participate in and learn of the work of local HIV/AIDS ministries providing space and community to call home, the regional foodbank systematically addressing issues of hunger, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center maintaining historic connections to the abolition movement, a neighborhood rehabilitation project serving as catalyst for home-rehabilitation in the Asylum Hill neighborhood of North Hartford, and a project in the public schools of Hartford saying thank you to teachers and learning of legal issues related to racial integration. The public school/teacher appreciation project included a stop at the Learning Corridor, a system of Magnet and Montessori schools in Hartford that were formed as one result of a racial discrimination court case in which UCC member, Elizabeth Horton Sheff, was the plaintiff. Two decades later, Sheff v. O Neill continues as an active court case with other results yet to be implemented. Involvement in this case changed Elizabeth Sheff s life and she now serves on the Hartford City Council. Susan Eaton has documented and reflected on the story of Sheff v. O Neill by telling the story of one classroom at Simpson-Waverly Elementary School in Hartford, CT with award-winning teacher Lois Luddy and her students in the third and fourth grades. The book is The Children in Room E4 (Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2007). Two days after this service project, the United States Supreme court ruled on cases related to racial integration in public schools in Louisville, KY and Seattle, WA in ways that threaten to roll back integration legislation. One young adult participant in the Service project exclaimed that she thought that racial integration lawsuits were a thing of her parents generation! She paid special attention to the Supreme Court ruling of that week, considering the situation of her own school. Two other men worked side by side all morning at the School Service Project, assembling materials for the teacher appreciation packets. One from Montana and one from New York, both participants are husbands of retired public school teachers. Both spent the morning making connections and discussing issues of justice and public education in Hartford, in New York City, in rural Montana. It was the community that made the project, they said. THANKS TO ALL WHO PARTICIPATED!
UCC VOLUNTEER MINISTRIES Office of Volunteer Ministries United Church of Christ 700 Prospect Ave. Cleveland, OH 44115-1100 For the past 50 years, Volunteer Ministries has provided opportunities for people to share their gifts of service and witness to others. Through the act of foot washing, Jesus makes clear God s call to serve others. We are invited to ministries of service that reflect God s love by responding to the needs of the world and involving ourselves in efforts to challenge injustices. The logo of the towel and basin remind us of God s call to serve. Mary Schaller Blaufuss Executive for Volunteer Ministries blaufusm@ucc.org 216-736-3214 Toll free: 866-822-8224 ext. 3214 Diane Dicken Administrative Assistant for Program Global Sharing of Resources dickend@ucc.org 216-736-3216 Toll free: 866-822-8224 ext. 3216 NEW WEBSITE ADDRESS Tell Your Friends www.ucc.org/volunteer PARTNERS IN SERVICE MISSION TRIPS LEADERSHIP TRAINING SERVICE DAYS