CTC SERVE
CTC Serve 2017 - September 10th
CTC Serve is a one-day mission opportunity for Central Texas Conference churches in their local communities. On Sunday, September 10 (or a day of your choice), you are invited to engage your community by serving in some way that connects to hunger or a need you see in your community.
**Registration and more information available HERE!
Hunger Resources:
- What does my community look like??
- Who is already in my community feeding the hungry?
- What can my congregation do?
- Dallas Hunger Solutions
- Get connected with your regional director at Texas Hunger Initiative
- Get connected with your food bank:
Check out what some of our churches did in 2016!
CTC Served 2016!
by Kaitlyn Frantz* (click on any of the images below to view a larger size)
Several CTC churches went outside the walls of their building(s) and joined in service with their communities during the 2016 CTC SERVE events. On Sept. 11, 2016, close to 2,000 people worked for more than 2,000 hours in service to and, in many cases with their local communities. The emphasis of CTC SERVE 2016 was addressing hunger and food insecurity issues. The participating churches contributed $13,000 on outreach projects and the more than 12,000 meals or weekend bags that were prepared.
Thank you to all the churches and volunteers who participated in CTC SERVE. Be encouraged and know that you are truly embodying God’s call to seek justice in the world. We pray that you continue to grow relationships and serve with the people of your communities not just one day during the year but every day throughout the life of your congregation.
As part of the event, local churches were asked to share some photos and stories from their community service efforts. The following are some brief narratives and photos shared by some of the participating churches that provide some color and insight on the impact made on both the communities and congregations.
"I love the stories, both written and the ones the pictures tell,” said Rev. Dawne Phillips, CTC Director of Missions. “Even though we were all addressing the same need – food insecurity – our responses were as diverse as our congregations. Together, we made a significant impact on hunger in our conference!”
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Epworth UMC donned the fancy hair nets in their efforts to battle hunger. |
Dido
After worship, the church came together in the Fellowship Hall to put together snack sacks. After gathering for instructions and explanations as just what is a “snack sack” and why there is a need, the team got busy building the sacks. As the work commenced praise songs were sung, conversation and laughter filled the room and everyone had a wonderful time. After all the snack sacks were completed, the team prayed over the snack sacks and put them in their pantry for delivery to the local elementary school.
As a result of this CTC SERVE event, we have gotten to know the elementary school counselor and set up a time to serve lunch to the teachers at the school so we can discuss with teachers ways we can support them beyond just snack packs. Four people have signed up to be mentors/tutors to the kids at the school, and the church is going to help with Christmas for families in need at the school.
Hutto Discovery
We met early Friday evening (Sept. 9), and delivered pre-printed bags for food collection to a neighborhood near our church. We advertised ahead of time through the neighborhood's Facebook page, letting them know who we were, when we were coming and what our objective was for being in out and about. On Sunday (Sept. 11), we met in the early evening and returned to the neighborhood to collect the bags that had been filled with donated food. The neighborhood was very responsive, more than glad to help and appreciative of our efforts. Through the pre-printed food collection bag effort, we reaped just shy of 1,000 pounds of food (yep, that’s half a ton!), which was donated to Hutto Community Food Pantry.Meadowbrook
On CTC SERVE Day, several churches and civic organizations came together to provide fruits, vegetables and other produce for Eastside Ministries, a local food pantry and clothes closet. Recently, the pantry had lost its produce partner and we wanted to supplement what they were buying. As more and more churches got on board, we determined to have a Veggie-Palooza.
On the day of the event, representatives from three of the five churches were present as we loaded and unloaded several vehicles worth of produce and loaded them on to a truck decorated with posters and balloons. We then proceeded to drive that truck and anyone who wanted to follow from Meadowbrook, east on Lancaster Ave., to Eastside Ministries. Needless to say, the parade of cars led by a tricked out truck garnered some real attention!
Overall, we learned that hunger cannot always be visually diagnosed, that our churches are in an area of great need and that tere are simple things that we can do to alleviate hunger in our neighborhoods. Together, we collected more than 1,300 pounds of produce to benefit our neighbors. Glory to God!
Genesis and Christ UMC
We explained to the volunteers about some children in the Crowley ISD who needed food when school is not in session – weekends, holidays, etc. The Snack Sacks they would be packaging would help provide some nutritious food for the children and their siblings to take over the weekend would be distributed by the school counselors. There was great teamwork by our two churches who had partnered together for the project. They all had a great time and want to join in doing other projects for the community.Breckenridge
A team of adults and youth met at the community garden and built four raised beds in order to make the garden easier for adults to use and increase the overall efficiency of the garden. The event was not only quite enjoyable but our youth learned some good skills and gardening information. It was hot that day, but we kept everyone hydrated so that we could enjoy the opportunity CTC SERVE Day provides to help our community and challenge us to stay involved in outreach to those in need. |
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There's no hiding from the impact that the Florence UMC team had on thier local community |
A few of the folks at Smithfield UMC paused from their CTC Serve activities long enough to snap a photo for posterity. |
