“…for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me…”
Matthew 25:35
How does one quantify our call to reach out to God’s created? There are so many needs. Our goals for these ministry teams are to plan and coordinate ways for our church (and community) to provide resources and support for local, national and global causes.
Beyond worship, opening our hearts to a culture of hospitality and the fellowship experience, God calls us to create the realm of God as best we can in all the ways we can. Our goal, then, is to empower all our church members to engage with people and God’s created in ways that heal and create wholeness. We believe involvement and ministry service isn’t an optional moment when we feel like being charitable, but rather it is an integral part of what it means to be a Christian living Christ’s Way.
Shifting like the light streaming through an open window, we must follow where the need and most effective impact might be felt. We do this as a faith community and we do this by participating in our social justice oriented denomination, The United Church of Christ. The following ministry outreach ‘missions’ are a reflection of our reach in this time and place. With you, who else might be transformed by our ministry? What else might we wonder into being together?
Our current ‘faith in action’ ministries:
Avon Social Services
Avon Congregational Church Nursery School
Day of Caring (to benefit Loaves and Fishes, Warming Ctr Salvation Army, Journey Home)
Family Village Farm (sponsoring education costs for a child in India)
First Friday Dinners (monthly meals served w/ tithe benefiting the building of a water well in Africa)
Food Packing event with Farmington Valley Muslim Center
Giving Thanks Tree (gift items for Avon’s Gifts of Love Holiday store)
Guiding Light Orphans of Uganda
Hartford Interval House (women and children facing domestic violence)
IRIS Refugee Resettlement
Prison Letter Writing
Quilts of Valor (quilts made and presented to Veterans)
Reading Mentoring for Gaffney Elementary School 3rd grade students
Salvation Army Bell Ringing
Simply Smiles (Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe SD and Oaxaca, Mexico)
Stone Soup (monthly meals prepared and brought to Loaves and Fishes, Hartford)
Thanksgiving Food Baskets (benefiting Avon Social Services clients)
Unicef (benefiting children’s needs in over 190 countries and territories)
United Church of Christ Global Ministries
Warming Tree (benefiting Salvation Army street ministries)
And outreach also through….Hospitality (opening our doors to eight Alcoholics Anonymous groups, Guiding Eyes for the Blind dog training, League of Light events, meditation groups and local church bible studies)
Outreach Ministry Teams:
Outreach and Christian Service
Stone Soup
Sew Thankful Quilters
UCC Delegates
