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18 adults / 7 congregations meet mission needs at Sager Brown Depot

enlarge>> Sue Jones and Lena Montgomery, both members of St. Paul UMC, Hurst, assemble school kits for children.

Written: 11/13/2009

   Sue Jones of St. Paul United Methodist Church in Hurst can’t say enough good things about her first experience as a volunteer at the United Methodist Church’s Sager Brown UMCOR Depot in Baldwin, La.
   She was one of 18 people from seven churches in the Central Texas Conference who answered God’s call to be in ministry wherever they see a need. “I worked on assembling School Children’s Kits,” she said, “and had a wonderful time doing it. It was a very rewarding experience, and I would go again.”
   Also in the group from St. Paul UMC was associate pastor Rev. Marilyn Schiffman who worked on assembling Layette Kits for babies. “It’s funny,” she recalls, “that as I worked with all the baby items I couldn’t help but wonder when I might become a grandmother.”
When she returned from the Sager Brown trip, her daughter had a wonderful surprise — Marilyn will soon be a grandparent!
   Others in the group from the Central Texas Conference are Lisa Hines, Lena Montgomery and John Schiffman, all from St. Paul, and Rex Hooten, Cindy Jacobs, Gordon Johnson, Mary V. Johnson, Lori Maples, Homer Perryman, Candace Richter, Rev. Judy Sands, Nancy Smith, Carolyn Thompson, Rosin Watkins and Terry Webb. Jennifer Bellamy, conference director of humanitarian services, was group leader for the mission trip.
   Central Texas Conference churches represented besides St. Paul were First United Methodist Church, Hurst; Godley United Methodist Church; Arborlawn United Methodist Church, Fort Worth; Pidcoke United Methodist Church; Ovilla United Methodist Church; and New World United Methodist Church, Arlington.
   The volunteers’ mission to the world and local community at Sager Brown involved assembling, packing and boxing various kits (health, layette, school and sewing); electrical work by one CTC volunteer; and cleaning, painting, cabinet building and repair work for Chez Hope, a domestic violence shelter.
Other volunteers they worked with were from Mississippi, Missouri and Louisiana.