God Moments: Lon Kaylor celebrating retirement of over 35 years serving

GOD MOMENTS

Lon Kaylor celebrating retirement of over 35 years serving locally & globally through Hyde Park Community UMC

Janet and I came to HPCUMC from a small UMC in Anderson Township in 1986. I had held most lay leadership positions in our church, including UMYF counselor and Sunday School teacher. We came to HPCUMC at the suggestion of a long time church member and neighbor, Ann Burrows. We were looking for a church where we could find more spiritual teaching (Bible and adult studies) and I had a heart for outreach, but being in a small church there was not much of an opportunity to serve. I felt that the Lord had blessed me and I wanted to give back. At that time Ann Burrows was the chair of the Missions Committee and invited me to join that committee. I have been a member of the Missions (Outreach Ministry) ever since until I recently retired in January 2021, about 35 years!

Working with so many people from all walks of life over the years helped me to grow in my love of God and people. I chaired the Project 5000 Ministry for over 30 years, including delivering hundreds of Project 5000 boxes and bags to many food pantries all over Greater Cincinnati. At the same time I was asked to help our church form a church committee to support building low-income housing in support of Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity. This church project (Shalom Project) soon became the Shalom Coalition, where several other churches joined with HPCUMC to build new houses in low income neighborhoods of Cincinnati in partnership with Cincinnati Habitat for Humanity. Together we built over 25 houses. I not only served on the Shalom Coalition Board but served as a weekly construction volunteer for over 30 years. I also served on 3 mission teams with our church, one as a construction volunteer with a Cincinnati District UMC Mission Team to the New Orlean’s area after Hurricane Andrew. More recently, I went to Haiti twice with our church’s Haiti Mission Trips to volunteer at the Faith Academy School.

During this time I also taught Sunday School for 6 years, 4 - 6th grade ending with the 4th grade. This led me into volunteering at Wesley Chapel Mission Center (WCMC) and I volunteered weekly there for 13 years, and also serving on the Board of Directors for 12 years. I had previously retired and prayed to God what I could do to serve Him. I feel that working with at risk, inner-city children

in OTR was the answer to my prayers. I am a member of a Men’s Sharing Group that have been meeting for many years and with the encouragement of our prior Senior Pastor, Rev. Tim Bias, we decided to start a weekly tutoring (mentoring) opportunity for our church membership. Since I was active with the children of OTR, I contacted the principal of Rothenberg Academy (Pre-school - 6th grade Cincinnati Public School) and we set up a partnership with them for a weekly mentoring program, starting with one grade at a time. We signed up about 40 adult church members and started with the second grade class. Our hope was that the mentors would stay with their students until they graduated from the 6th grade or left the school. We tried to recruit more mentors at the start of each new school year to increase our student/mentor relationships. I left after my student graduated from the 6th grade. The Rothenberg/HPCUMC partnership still continues today.

I have been blessed in my life, just knowing that by serving those in need is what God has called me to do. I especially feel that I have a heart for children and feel the love of the Lord when I am in the presence of children, be it in OTR, HPCUMC or Haiti. My favorite times would be whenever I would be at Rothenberg School, just walking in the halls, I would hear” hi Mr. Lon” and several kids would run up to give me a hug! These would be the kids that I worked with when volunteering at WCMC, they would be excited just seeing me at their school. These were definitely “God moments”!

MINISTRIES SUMMARY

1988 - 2018 Shalom Habitat House Coalition Building Ministry: Organizing committee and Coalition Board Member, weekly volunteer 1988 - 2020 Project 5000 food Ministry: Ministry chair 2006 - 2020 WCMC Board Member and weekly volunteer 2012 - 2018 HPCUMC Vacation Bible School: volunteer 2016 - 2019 Summer Reading Camp: HPCUMC joined the local non-profit Summer Reading Camp Organization providing a site and funding, weekly volunteer