wfn.org | Small church uses grant to help needy families

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Aug. 8, 2002 News media contact: Kathy Gilbert7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.   10-71BP{355}

NOTE: Photographs are available with this story.

By Annette Bender*

MOSHEIM, Tenn. (UMNS) - By responding to a need in the community, members of
Mosheim Central United Methodist Church ended up creating a center that
today serves struggling families.

The church, which averages 60 in weekly worship attendance, operates a
ministry that supplies food and clothing to needy families at no cost.
Located in the Holston Annual (regional) Conference's Morristown District,
Mosheim Central is one of 31 congregations in the denomination that received
$5,000 grants this year from the national Bishops' Initiative on Children
and Poverty Task Force. Churches receiving the grants ranged from large,
urban congregations to small, rural ones like Mosheim Central.

In awarding the grants, Bishop Donald A. Ott says the initiative's goals are
proclaiming the gospel in word and deed and providing resources to achieve
those goals. "The grants are a small and positive step in these directions."
Ott is coordinator of the initiative.

"Seeing and understanding the need is the first step toward creating
community with children and the poor," he says.

Mosheim Central's introduction to the needs of the community began when a
Sunday school class decided to adopt two needy families at Christmas in
2000.

Class member John Waddle remembers visiting those families.

The furnishings were sparse. The children were hungry. The parents didn't
know how they would pay the next electric bill. "It just makes your heart
bleed," Waddle says.

Waddle and his classmates at Mosheim Central also were appalled that a local
food bank restricted the number of visits that families could make. The
class decided to take action.

"Any church is going to help people at Christmas," Waddle says. "We wanted
to do more. What we were doing was not enough in our Christian life."

The new ministry known as Mosheim Community Center opened in September 2001.
News of the $5,000 grant came the following March, the same month that a
chili benefit supper raised $3,000 and the Modern Woodmen insurance
organization donated $2,500.

At the time, Mosheim Community Center was operational but struggling to
survive, Waddle says. When the grant and other monies came through, "I
thought, 'This is good. God is looking down on us,'" he says.

Months earlier, the East Tennessee congregation had been inspired when the
town of Mosheim - population 1,754 - donated a former library building to
the church's outreach effort. The original plan was for the building to be
sold for use as a computer store. 

"Me and the aldermen got together and decided that an outreach center would
be good for the community," says Mosheim Mayor Billy Myers. The
1,000-square-foot building is provided rent-free; the church is only
required to pay utilities.

Since the center opened nearly a year ago, organizers have recorded 250
visits from families requesting food and 395 visits for clothing. The center
has also paid 60 months of rent, 110 electric bills and three gas bills.

People hear about the ministry center through word of mouth, Waddle says.
"They have their own little channel, these people do. They know where to get
help. You don't have to advertise." 

The situations vary from family to family. "The husband might have kicked
the wife out with the three kids, or the wife might have left the husband,
or the husband might have got sick and can't work," Waddle says. "It's just
the kind of thing that goes on everywhere."

Supplies and financial help come from community groups, including churches
of other denominations and civic organizations. Mosheim Central gives the
center $400 a month and supplies five to six volunteers for each of the two
half-days the ministry is open each week. The town hall also has Waddle's
phone number for families in emergencies. 

The ministry center has also benefited the volunteers themselves, according
to the Rev. Richard Patterson, Morristown District superintendent. "They
share with me how they have enjoyed the experience of seeing the church at
work, helping in the lives of others," he says. "It blesses them to be able
to bless others."
# # #
*Bender is editor of The Call, the newspaper of the Holston Annual
Conference.

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United Methodist News Service
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