Missions

Anne Fritz, Chairperson | clarissafritz@att.net

3. Community Services

Food Distribution - Food Distribution provides food boxes to eligible households. Over 250 boxes of food are given to families monthly through our grocery ministry. Boxes typically contain enough food to feed the household for two weeks. The numbers reached well over 3,000 boxes last year, which means thousands of lives were impacted.

Furniture and Household Items - Furniture and household items are provided free to families each year. These families are experiencing emergencies due to fires, people fleeing an abusive situation or looking for work and have arrived in the area with little more belongings that can fit in their car. Assistance is given to families for loss of home contents due to fire, tornado, flood, or emergency relocation in the event of domestic abuse.

School Supplies - An increasing number of children are given school supplies each year, especially at the beginning of the school year.

Utility Assistance - RRM offers utility assistance in emergency situations, particularly for older adults. As funds are available, this resource is distributed when clients are referred by another helping agency.

Thrift Store - The Thrift Store makes good used clothing available to families at affordable “dime-to-dollar” prices. Many parents buy all their children’s school clothes at The Thrift Store. Many of the school counselors send families who are in need of affordable clothing to the Thrift Store. You can participate in this program by depositing clothing, toys, and household goods in the bins located in the back hallway of the Fellowship Hall or by donating your unsold children’s clothes after our children clothing sales, which are held by the church in the spring and fall.

ReelHOME - Reelfoot Housing Outreach Ministry Exercises. The ReelHOME program serves eligible low-income households with an intentional focus on helping older adults stay in their homes by making them safer, more accessible, and more efficient. This work is primarily performed by volunteer teams (e.g., Work Camps) that stay at the RRM center to deploy in the surrounding community each day.

We Can Help by:

Donating Goods - Gently used clothes, housewares, tools, and other items are always helpful to the RRM Thrift Store. Collection bins are in the hallway west of the kitchen. Please make sure whatever you give is clean and works properly.

Donating Funds - Funds are always helpful. Make a donation by making your check payable to Germantown United Methodist Church and writing Reelfoot Rural ministry on the “memo” line of your check.

Volunteering - Contact any member of the Missions Committee, and they will get you in contact with the Reelfoot team. We especially need help transporting donated goods to the Reelfoot store in Obion, TN.

As you can see, the Reelfoot Rural Ministry’s Programs are positively impacting the people of Northwest Tennessee in many ways, both physically and socially. Thank you to the people in this congregation who have supported this ministry with your prayer, gifts, and service. If you have not been involved, we welcome you.

Anne Fritz, Chairperson | clarissafritz@att.net

Moscow Seminary

One of the missions supported by GUMC’s Missions Committee is the Moscow Seminary. Sasha Tsutserov, the seminary’s President, recently shared a letter with Senior Pastor Tim Carpenter, written by Andrey Hramov, a former gangster now a student-minister at the seminary. Portions of the letter are reprinted below:

“I was taught judo since my early childhood. In my teenage years I decided the best application for my judo skills would be to join a gang. I did and plunged into rascality – robbery, scam, racket and assault. My God was Arnold Schwarzenegger – Commando With a Gun. My Bible was ‘Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding.’ In the end of my “career” as a gangster I was completely broken – literally, my spine and knees. Physically, the gang did not need me anymore. Psychologically, I felt abandoned.

In those days, my sister accepted Jesus Christ as the Savior. She started hosting church’s small groups at our place. Old habits die hard – I would threaten them, ‘I will bring you to light!’ Just the opposite – they brought me to the Light! Instead of confronting me (as I was used to with the gang) they would say ‘God loves you!’ Instead of fighting me back (as I did with the gang) they would pray. I realized I did not need the gang to belong anymore – I could belong to the Body of Christ! And so, I prayed the sinner’s prayer. Jesus became my God. The Bible became my Book. The Lord built my body – healed my spine and knees. The Lord built my family –Natasha, my wife, and our three kids: Valery, Simeon, and Ksenya. The Lord built my ministry – to prevent others from following my gangster’s route.

The ministry is twofold: I reach out to those who may potentially follow my old paths. I built a gym in Lyubertsy, Russia…my thinking being: Let them build the body but also the spirit. And I also teach the Bible to kids, just as it is written, ‘Start children off the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.’ (Proverbs 22:6).

But I want to build more. I want to build up evangelists, preachers, and teachers. I want to build a worship center, youth camp, rehabilitation facility, and prayer chamber. To this end, I study at the Moscow Seminary – learn from the wise and the experienced, those who have been there and done that, so keeping our ‘connection with the Head, from whom the whole Body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.’ (Colossians 2:19) – that I call True Bodybuilding!”

To support the training of ministers like Andrey Hramov at the Moscow Seminar, you can donate online or make a check payable to One Mission Society (put 301710 Moscow Seminary in the memo line). It costs the seminary $1200 a year to train a student-minister. To support Sasha Tsutserov in ministry as the President of the Moscow Seminary, you can donate online or make a check payable to One Mission Society (put 370410 Sasha Tsutserov in the memo line). Checks should be mailed to One Mission Society, P.O. Box A (941 Fry Road), Greenwood, IN 46142.

Missions

Anne Fritz, Chairperson | clarissafritz@att.net

Endowment and Missions Committees Jointly Aid Earthquake Victims

Thanks to a matching grant from GUMC’s Endowment Committee, $5,000 is being sent to assist the victims of the February earthquakes in Turkey. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is working with its long-standing partner, the International Blue Crescent, to provide blankets, tents, warm clothes, ready to eat meals, and first aid kits to those displaced by the earthquakes in both Turkey and Syria, many of whom are women and children.

As the humanitarian relief and development arm of The United Methodist Church, UMCOR assists United Methodists and churches to become involved globally in direct ministry to persons in need. UMCOR comes alongside those who suffer from natural or human-caused disasters – famine, hurricane, war, flood, fire or other events to alleviate suffering and serve as a source of help and hope for the vulnerable. UMCOR also provides technical support and training for partners to address emerging and ongoing issues related to disaster relief, recovery, and long-term health and development.

Churchwide

Each month we recognize a volunteer or volunteers who makeanimpactby selflessly sharing their time and talents for the betterment of our church and community.

This month we recognize Gretchen Blair and Colette O’Coners, two women GUMC counts on every week! Rarely do they miss coming in on Friday mornings to insert a copy of the congregational prayer list, and occasionally a flier, inside the worship bulletins. We affectionately call them our “bulletin stuffers.” They enjoy their time together on Friday mornings and often go out to lunch when they finish their job.

Gretchen, and her husband, Phil, have been members of GUMC since 1981. She began volunteering as a bulletin stuffer when she retired about 20 years ago. At that time, the bulletin stuffers were Len Greenwalt, Helen Horan, and Gretchen. She recalls that back then it would take them all morning because machines would frequently break down. Gretchen also volunteers with other ministries of the church. She is dedicated to her church family and enjoys doing what she can to help.

Colette became a bulletin stuffer because of her life-long friendship with Helen Horan. Colette attended XYZ events with Helen and about eight years ago began helping her stuff the bulletins. Gretchen and Colette met through XYZ programming and became friends, too. With the passing of Len Greenwalt, and with Helen Horan moving to Florida to be near her family, Gretchen and Colette are the remaining“bulletin stuffers”. Interesting note – Colette is not a member of GUMC but stated she remains a faithful volunteer to honor her friend, Helen. Thank you to our volunteers of the month – Gretchen and Colette!