We participate in missionary work in a variety of ways, including "The Bees", a "Blessing Box", special missions, recurring monetary support, mission trips and support of a co-located Hispanic ministry.
A group of ladies, members and non-members, meet weekly to make quilts, blankets, pillow covers, scarves, sleep mats, Easter gifts and Christmas gifts for shut-ins, nursing home patients and assisted-living residents. In terms of effort, this ministry is easily the biggest in our congregation.
Our "Blessing Box" is, physically, about 3' by 2' and mounted near the road in front of the church. Into it we put food, diapers, dog food, gloves, etc - whatever we think folks might need. We do not require any sort of identification or proof of need - if you need something, take it. It has been a blessing in more ways than just that, however, since people unassociated with our church stop and put in canned goods and other material because they think it's a wonderful idea. We have been very pleased with the success of this effort.
We often establish a special mission project with a goal of $5,000. It usually takes us a year to satisfy our goal. The following are the projects we have completed (except the last, which is active):
Beginning
in mid-2013 we tried a new mission approach, a "year of service".
From June through May 2014 our rather small congregation logged over 3000 hours
of community service. Examples include volunteering at the Good Samaritan
pantry, Habitat for Humanity Store, the Good Neighbors Shop and Family Promise
of Knoxville, building with Habitat for Humanity, visiting nursing homes, doing
yard work, delivering meals to shut-ins, working at the animal shelter, helping
Toys for Tots, and on and on. Then in 2014 we returned to the $5000 projects with "the Water Angels", a Christian outreach to the homeless and at-risk in Knoxville.
Operation Christmas Child
Loudon County Habitat for Humanity
Loudon County Animal Shelter
Family Promise
Child Advocacy Center of Lenoir City
Second Harvest food bank distribution
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
Good Samaritan Center of Lenoir City
Camp John Knox
Hospital kits for soldiers wounded in Iraq
Compassion International
Iva's Place
Distribute water bottles at Fourth of July parades
Possibilities Africa
Central Plateau Scholarship Program (Haiti)
RIP Medical Debt
Street Hope
Sunset Gap
Morgan Scott Project
Community Food Connection
School of New Vision - Haiti
Faith Mission - el Cenizo, Texas
Katrina recovery, New Orleans, Louisiana
Tornado recovery, Moore, Oklahoma
The Iglesia Misericordia (Mercy Church), a Cumberland Presbyterian congregation, is not quite large enough to support themselves in a dedicated building. Our building is large enough to share; the Mercy Church helps us by sharing the cost of utilities and by helping in maintenance. Due to language difficulties our interactions are not as frequent as we might like, but we do the following together:
Our "Blessing Box" is, physically, about 3' by 2' and mounted near the road in front of the church. Into it we put food, diapers, dog food, gloves, etc - whatever we think folks might need. We do not require any sort of identification or proof of need - if you need something, take it. It has been a blessing in more ways than just that, however, since people unassociated with our church stop and put in canned goods and other material because they think it's a wonderful idea. We have been very pleased with the success of this effort.
