In just a few weeks, an eight person team from Hyde Park Community UMC will head to Liberia, West Africa.  We're going to meet with our partners in ministry at the Ganta United Methodist Hospital.  As a way of sharing the stories of Christ's love at work in another part of the world, during Lent we'll be sharing one story each day.

We invite you to follow us on the blog, www.40daysumc.org  We're in the middle of 40 Days of Prayer, so if you subscribe to the blog today, you'll receive a prayer each day until February 21. On February 22, we begin 40 Days from Africa.  We look forward to having you join us for the journey.  

One simple word about the picture above.I had the pleasure last summer of enjoying several meals, worship, and a prayer tour around the city with Bishop John Innis.  In addition to sharing with me the heart of the people of Africa, he shared stories of the transforming love of Jesus.  I'm looking forward to being with Bishop Innis again while we're in Liberia.  More soon.

For now, subscribe to follow us at www.40daysumc.org

Counting down the days until we're in Africa (19 days and counting...)

Sara

 

 Merry Christmas from Awaken the City!

One of my favorite traditions on Christmas Eve is watching as the candlelight spreads throughout the sanctuary.  I confess I have one of the best seats to watch the candlelight!  

As I was preparing for Christmas Eve, I began to reflect on the many ways Hyde Park Church, through the ministry of Awaken the City is sharing the light of Jesus Christ. This year, I'll be giving thanks for the ways Christ's light is spreading through the City as I watch the candlelight spread.

Here are a few of the City Lights I'll be remembering on Christmas Eve:

The 2011 Summer Impact Program

• Over six weeks, 5910 hours were given in ministry in the city.  

• 168 people from 13 churches to impacted Cincinnati in amazing ways. 

• Participants ate  2338 meals over the course of six weeks.

The gift of service from this summer continues to make an impact in the city.  Here's how the light of Christ continues to shine in the City:

In my office, across from my desk, sits a poster size picture of two boys from State Avenue UMC in Lower Price Hill. Philip and Anthony were with us every Monday this summer for VBS. Philip ate not one, or even two helpings of dinner, but ate as much as he could each time we served dinner. Philip is one of many without enough food in the Lower Price Hill community.



Some of you were able to join us this summer and experienced what I described. Others of you are involved in other ministries in the city and know the need for food has increased dramatically. You also know we just completed a special project 5000 collection because of the increased demand at food pantries and our own church.



I've been in conversations with Rev. Nilsa Saliceti at State Ave. UMC over the past couple days and learned the only pantry in Lower Price Hill has closed. The need in the community has increased, not gone away. Most people in the community do not have transportation to get to other places where help might be found. Nilsa told me the one person in her congregation who was employed lost her job. In Nilsa's words, "it's ugly."



How might we partner with State Ave. to address a chronic, yet, urgent need for food? The need is greatest at the end of the month when food stamps run out. Nilsa is checking to make sure powerpacks are still going home with the kids on weekends. I will continue to be in conversation with Nilsa.  While I do not know the answer, I do know we have a God who will help us understand how best we can come alongside the lower price hill community, if we ask. Will you please pray for discernment?



 One last thing, on November 20, we'll continue the long tradition of packing and delivering Thanksgiving boxes.  This year, 480 Thanksgiving boxes will be packed and delivered across the city.  I hope you’ll be a part of the tradition of packing the boxes.  Maybe you’ll plan to join us after the 10:50/11:00 am worship services to deliver a box to a family in the city.  I’ll be going with a team to take 24 Thanksgiving boxes to State Ave.  If you, your family, or friends would like to join me, please let me know.



Thanks for your faithfulness in prayer and for the many ways you serve with others in Christ's name.

Sara

 

 

The 45 minute drive from The Park @ Zoar UMC in Hamilton Township to Hyde Park Community UMC in Cincinnati is roughly the length of a few good songs on the radio, a can of Diet Coke, one or two phone conversations, or a bit of quiet time in a hectic day.

Heading toward Awaken The City, the 45 minute drive from The Park @ Zoar UMC to Hyde Park Community UMC is the length of a leap of faith.  In faith, our team stepped away from home, family and work to step into a world of homelessness, hunger, and unemployment.  We leave our “normal” behind in hopes to be a part of a new “normal” in the city.

The Park @ Zoar UMC and The Plains UMC are serving Week Two of Awaken The City.  Our first night begins with worship and The Prayer Tour.  Each stop on the tour takes us further into the heart of a city in need.   We end the tour at Bellevue Hill Park, circled in prayer.  The sound of sirens reminds us why we are here.   The sirens end, and in the stillness of sundown, the sound of church bells reminds us that we are loved by a God who lifts us to far greater possibilities than we can imagine or create on our own.   God, whose healing presence is all around us, calling us to be a healing presence in a broken world.

And so, our adventure begins… 

On Monday we split up into groups.  One group visited Wesley Chapel Mission Center, one group visited Stepping Stones, one group went to the Center for Respite Care, and our group visited New Life Furniture.  With New Life, we delivered furniture to families living in empty apartments.  These were families who were homeless only weeks earlier.  Time and time again, we stepped into completely empty apartments carrying dressers, beds, couches, chairs, TV stands, shelves, desks and kitchen tables.  At each stop, in under an hour, empty, sterile apartments were transformed into fully furnished comfortable homes.  At each stop, in that same hour, we entered into the stories of the families we met.  With each stop along the journey, their stories became a part of our own.

Tuesday, our groups served at MEAC, Wesley Chapel Mission Center, and Interfaith Hospitality Network.  We set up and hosted a food pantry and clothing closet, painted the new IHN building, worked in the community garden in Over-the-Rhine, and took 36 children swimming in the OTR Community Pool.  We were stretched – so obviously out of our comfort zones, so obviously far from home.  As morning turned to afternoon, cordial relationships turned to comfortable friendships; neighborhoods far from ours began to feel like home. 

A truck load of furniture to be delivered to an apartment three flights up can seem pretty daunting in the humidity of late June.  So can a building that needs repainted, a food pantry preparing to greet 50 – 70 families, the health care of someone who has nowhere to live, and an inner city summer program full of 30 or 40 wound up kids ready to hit the pool.  But, there is more.  In the midst of the heat of the summer city days there is transformation.  Transformation in the lives of the people we meet, and transformation in our lives as well.

Tomorrow, our journey continues.  Pray we continue to feel the presence of God working in us and through us in everything we do and in everyone we meet.  May we continue to be city lights!

 

Greetings everyone from here at the end of ATC 2011 Week One!

Mt. Moriah United Methodist Church came to serve with us this week, and we served the homeless and poverty-stricken at MEAC (Madisonville Education and Assistance Center,) helped out with the summer program for children at the Wesley Chapel Mission Center in Over-the-Rhine, facilitated a vacation Bible school at Nast Trinity on Race downtown, and served lunch at the Hyde Park Center for Older Adults.

It's been an amazing first week of serving here at ATC. After the whirlwind experience of getting our sea legs under us as interns, here are some of my thoughts on week one:

In the midst of our time in the city, I saw the light of Jesus shining brightly in the eyes of children all through the week. Each day's mission constantly reminded me of Matthew 18:1-4 --

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven?" And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven."

Children depend on others for everything, even their most basic needs. As for us, if we're real with ourselves, we have to acknowledge that we were created by God to love him and others, and to receive God's love and the love of others in our own lives. We are just as dependent as a small child on God's love; we're completely lost without it. We never, ever grow up out of our dependence upon God's love in our lives! Love, the ultimate driving force in the universe, is one thing we can never get for ourselves; we have to receive it from our Creator. As I entered into the lives of very needy (and very joyful) kids this week, I saw God in their faces, and especially in the bright light of their beautiful smiles. This week, I hope you'll reflect along with me about how we can better receive God's love humbly like a child in the midst of a crazy world.

I believe this helps us find our place in the story God has been telling since the beginning of time. When we're serving, we're seeing the tremendous transformational impact that the love of Christ can have in the lives of anyone and everyone. For me, hanging out with children and giving them the love they so desperately need and desire helps me truly feel a deep and unquenchable need for God's love in my own life.

So let this be our invitation to you: whatever your place in life, wherever you are in your thoughts about God's identity and how he relates to us, come serve with us this summer. Come see the face of God in the eyes of a child, and the need for his love in a world that's hurting beyond belief. Join with us, and allow yourself to have a life-transforming experience in the very midst of your own city. Let's stop hitting the snooze, throw some clothes on, and wake this city up!

Thanks, God! 

Two simple words have rolled off my lips more times than I can count in the past month.  Why?  As we get ready to welcome our second team of interns, I'm marveling at the flexibility of our first team of interns while giving thanks for the team preparing to serve this summer.

I'm also giving thanks for the individuals and churches who are getting ready to serve with us.  We're praying for you.  More importantly, we're looking forward to walking with you as city lights.

There are great opportunities coming our way this summer and I can't wait to see how Christ's light is going to shine in Cincinnati.

As we get closer to the summer program, I hope you'll join us in prayer.  Maybe you'll pray that we might be right where Jesus would have us be...as we walk unfamiliar places and encounter new people.

Perhaps you'll pray for wisdom and power to be a part of transforming Cincinnati one life at a time.

Or maybe you'll simply pray that each person will not only be a city light but might see the light of Christ by serving. Maybe you'll give thanks for the way God is leading us. 

I give thanks for the opportunity to be with you as you respond to the call to serve as part of the welcome, prayer, meal, worship and/or serving teams.  

Together with God, we'll Awaken the City.  May it be so!

Sara