Weekly Update// Pastor Will
Hi church!
As most of you know, the youth and I were in Melbourne, Florida last week for Brevard Mission Week (BMW). We went and stayed at Suntree United Methodist Church, the church at which I previously served for almost eleven years. Part of my time at Suntree UMC was getting BMW up and running. I couldn’t remember the first year we started BMW but asked around and found out it was the summer of 2009. We started BMW after much consideration and prayer, and a desire to get our youth involved not only in service in general, but service in the local community. Since then, it has grown into an annual summer service week where multiple church youth groups have come together to help out. This year, we were blessed to be able to join in.
In total, there were ten worksites with which BMW was involved. Some of the worksites hosted students each day, whereas some worksites only hosted students on specific days. One of the main worksites with which we were involved was Joe’s Club, which is part of the Brevard Alzheimer's Foundation. Joe's Club specializes in elderly care for those with memory loss. Our students were involved in helping care for the facility with simple yard work and helping out with some technological needs that get overlooked on a daily basis at the facility. One of the directors said our students saved them close to $5,000 in lawn care that can now be directed towards the care of the members. Other students from our group got to interact with the members by helping them create scrapbooks, and even dancing with them! On our final day at Joe’s Club, I had multiple employees sing praises of our youth and even asked what churches we were a part of in hopes of bringing their families there!
Another organization we helped with was Harmony Farms, which is a horse farm that (according to their website) “[provides] equine assisted therapy and activities to disabled individuals of all ages, to improve their physical, mental and emotional well-being.” At this location, our students helped care for the animals and their shelters so they could be ready for the next group of individuals who will love the animals. One more worksite was Harbor City Elementary School, a school that has needs for which Suntree UMC has sought to provide. At this worksite, our students helped clean classrooms and doors, as well as some landscaping. Just like other worksites, our help frees up funds, and efforts can be directed toward those for whom the organization exists. I was able to speak with Joel, the Youth Pastor at Suntree, and in their calculation, with over 100 students and adults helping out for the week, the total hours of service work was close to 1,700. The key verse of the week was Mark 10:45 which says, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many” (NLT). Although we had fun throughout the week, our students understood that this was a week not to be served, but to serve others, just as Jesus did! I’m already looking forward to next year and so are our students.
In worship this Sunday, we continue our “Behind the Veil” series in which we are looking at women in the Old Testament. Last week we heard from Pastor Chris about Miriam and her shrewdness. This week we will learn about Rahab who hid spies in Jericho. We will also hopefully hear from some of our youth and their experience at BMW. As always, it is shaping up to be a wonderful Sunday, so we hope you can join us! We have our two services, the 9:30 am Celebration/Contemporary Service, as well as our 11:00 am Traditional Service, both of which are streamed on Facebook and YouTube.
God Bless and have a wonderful weekend!
Pastor Will