MONTHLY MISSIONS

“SERVING GOD THROUGH SERVING OUR COMMUNITY”

“Serving God through serving our community” is our church’s motto. To fulfill that joyful, generous vision, we have a Missions Committee which you are welcome to join. This committee developed a list of local and far-reaching mission projects for 2023. As the months go by, you are invited to contribute to whichever particular projects appeal to you. Monetary donations can be made on this website by clicking the Donate Online button above, or by mailing a check to the church with the project designated in the memo line.

The committee hopes that you will look on this website to remind yourself about MONTHLY MISSIONS FOR 2024. As the year progresses, you might wish to set aside items or money to support the causes that call to you.

Each month, look in Tidings, on our website, and/or emails for further details about the upcoming month’s mission project. You can also ask for further information from committee members who currently are: Pastor Amanda, Debby Sandberg, Charleen Caulk, Mary Gardella, Jeannine Alexandro, Winsome Downie, and Lisa McGuy.

In addition to these scheduled monthly projects, the church will continue with additional efforts including collecting food every first Sunday of the month for local food pantries. Look below for more information about ongoing mission projects and programs.

Thank you for joining us in serving God through serving our community… near and far.

Food Pantry Sunday is the first Sunday of the month. Our next Food Pantry Sunday will be April 7th. Donations of non-perishable food can be brought to in-person worship, or left outside the office door (first door with an overhang) anytime the week prior.

During the month of March we collected 182 pounds of food.

Monthly Mission for April:

RiverKeeper

Riverkeeper is New York’s clean water advocate.

From their website:
Riverkeeper protects and restores the Hudson River from the source to the sea and
safeguards drinking water supplies, through advocacy rooted in community partnership,
science and law.”

Here’s what Riverkeeper stands for:
Guarding your waterways,
Defending clean drinking water,
Finding solutions.

To read more about the organization and all the good they are doing to protect our beautiful Hudson River and New York waterways, go to riverkeeper.org

Donations by check should be made to our Church with Riverkeeper noted or via the button on our Church website newcityumc.org Thank you!!

FACILITIES USE

We offer the use of our building to several great groups: Narcotics Anonymous and AA meetings help attendees in their quest to recover from drug and alcohol addictions. Meals on Wheels, which provides nutritious meals and social contact to home-bound people in our community, uses our location. Another Step offers developmentally and physically challenged clients exercise classes, social interaction and fun, and life-skill teachings such as how to prepare meals. The Rockland Garden Club meets to learn and to plan ways to beautify our area. Several concerts have been performed here, benefiting from our sanctuary’s wonderful piano and acoustics. Our Thrift Shop is housed in our education wing.

The building and grounds also provide a setting for our traditional church functions including worship, prayer, Sunday School, choir and other music, baptisms, weddings, funerals, parties, dance classes, ice cream socials, international pot luck meals, and meetings of various church and community organizations. Our facilities enable us to perform all of our outreach and community projects.

THRIFT SHOP

Our thrift shop, shown in greater detail on the Angel's Attic page, is an outreach project of the church. Clients in all economic situations benefit from being able to purchase very low cost clothing, household supplies, and other goods. Some people send these items to people in need in their home countries. One woman says she likes to encourage children to read by placing our children’s books in various medical and other offices throughout the town. We also have sent many books to our friends in the Rosebud Lakota Reservation. Many items that cannot be used in our shop are passed on to The Salvation Army, while donated, damaged blankets are taken to an animal shelter for their use. This shop is important environmentally. Every item that is reused instead of being thrown into our landfills prevents greater energy use and pollution that is inevitable whenever something is manufactured. And last but not least, our shop has become a mini-community, as volunteer workers and shoppers get to know each other, sharing some personal stories, concerns, and laughter.

CUMAC and PEOPLE TO PEOPLE FOOD PANTRIES

CUMAC is the Methodist church's outreach project in Patterson New Jersey, one of the poorest locations in the nation. CUMAC has a food pantry, thrift shop and job training programs. Several of our members volunteer weekly. Many others donate food and clothing and also attend the exciting fund raising auction each spring. The first Sunday of every month, congregants bring food to be donated to People to People's food pantry.

ALTERNATIVE CHRISTMAS

Our members have raised many thousands of dollars for good work through our Alternative Christmas. We offer gift cards for donations to conservation and community assistance organizations.

SUNDAY SCHOOL

Our Sunday School classes has sponsored collections of supplies for several great organizations such as TOUCH which helps those with AIDS, Heifer International which provides farm animals to help families sustain themselves, and People to People which provides food and clothing to Rockland residents. Every fall, the children also Trick or Treat for UNICEF.

LOVING OUR NEIGHBOR

Many people are familiar with The Good Samaritan story in the Bible. In the story, a man was robbed, injured, and left to die beside the road. He was seen by members of his own community, including religious leaders, but they passed him by. Finally, a person with love in his heart, took the man to an inn and paid the innkeeper to provide for the injured man’s recovery. Jesus told this parable in answer to the question, “You say I am to love my neighbor as myself, but who is my neighbor?” The person who showed love in the story belonged to a group (Samaritans) that was more or less an enemy of the injured man’s group. Nevertheless, the Samaritan showed compassion, concern, and caring to his unknown “neighbor.”

In this spirit, our church strives to live in love and respect for all of God’s creatures… including people who might be perceived to be different from us by background, nationality, race, personal life styles, religion, etc. Our congregation is enriched by having members from six continents of the globe - if we can be humored by counting a spouse who has spent time working in Antarctica! (Any Australians out there who would like to join us and complete our continent list?) We support organizations and programs such as The Martin Luther King Center, CUMAC and People to People food banks, Project Joy, Health Lifeline Clinic, traditionally black colleges in the US, and Africa University. We help fund many projects locally, regionally and internationally through our gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing, World Services, and a project that continues to rebuild after the destruction from Hurricane Sandy. Many of us participate in projects for social justice. We strive to support all of our innocent neighbors who get caught in backlash when world and local news frightens people into forgetting the answer to the question, “Who is my neighbor?”