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LYNN HAVEN UNITED METHODIST CHURCH LOCAL MISSION PROJECTS

FOR MORE INFORMATION on how you can Serve Christ by Serving Others through these and other local missions outreach projects involving you, your family, your Sunday School class or Small Group, contact Rick Dye, Chairperson, LHUMC Local Missions

**This is a great activity to do with the children and grandchildren.

FEED THE HOMELESS: Every Tuesday and Thursday evening at 6:30 pm, join other local churches in feeding the homeless in McKenzie Park. Local missionaries are needed to assist in serving the meal and in participating in a brief outside worship service.

**SERVING MEALS TO THE POOR: Weekdays at 11:00 am and evenings at 5:00 pm, the Panama City Rescue Mission needs local missionaries to assist in their feeding of the homeless who are staying at the Mission and others who attend. This is a great activity to do with the children and grandchildren.

FAITHWORKS INTERFAITH MINISTRIES is recruiting local missionaries for community wide projects. Local missions projects include: repairing and painting blocks of homes in low income neighborhoods, organizing games, events and having fellowship with orphaned children, collecting canned food for local food pantries, cleaning up roadway litter, respond to the needs of community and regional disasters, reading to, tutoring and mentoring low income children and their parents, cleaning up local public parks, playgrounds and neighborhood cementaries, visiting local nursing homes, group homes, retirement villages and the Sims Veterans Retirement Center, delivering hot meals to shut-ins on holidays and participating in other large service projects that benefit our community.

**ANGEL FOOD MINISTRIES needs local missionaries to assist in the distribution of pre-ordered, discount grocery boxes the last Saturday of the month from 10:30 to 12:00 noon. Drivers are needed for delivery to home bound elderly and disabled customers. This is a great activity to do with the children and grandchildren.

HOMELESS DAY RESOURCE CENTER needs help in assembling a HOME BOX that is given to individuals and their families who are coming out of prison, graduating from local residential rehab programs or coming from living on the streets and who are ready to set up housekeeping. Local missionaries visit local garage sales and flea markets looking for good deals on used, but in good shape, household items that are on the recommended list. The cost of these household item purchases are then reimbursed back to the local missionary by the church.

Everyday, local missionaries are needed at the HOMELESS DAY RESOURCE CENTER, located on the campus of the Panama City Rescue Mission. Volunteers can assist case managers working with clients, fellowship and minister to the homeless, receive training in directing the poor to local community resources for needed assistance, help keep the facility and Courtyard clean, conduct Bible study, launder clothes for the homeless who live on the streets, etc. all under the supervision of the local Catholic Charities Organization.

BRIDGES OUT OF POVERTY & COMMUNITY CIRCLES MINISTRY: Receive professional training on proven methods to support local individuals and families who are desperately trying to move out of poverty into the middle class. Local missionaries, who are called Allies, work with an assigned, qualified family who may need general advice, independent living skills training, budgeting, assistance in setting short and long term personal goals, accountability, positive encouragement, and prayer. The family’s head of household serves as the Chair of the group that is called the Community Circle Team. A Community Circle Team meets monthly and Team Chairs meet weekly with each other over a meal in a self-help envirnoment with a trained facilitator.

FEDERAL, STATE & PRIVATE GRANT WRITING MINISTRY: Assist local not for profit organizations in applying for grants to enhance and grow their local ministry to the poor, elderly and disabled. Grants are written for creating more affordable housing for low-income families and other special-needs populations, medical services for the poor, food for the hungry, job training for the able body, support for local homeless military veterans, hurricane mitigation funds to structurally strengthen homes in low income neighborhoods, educational grants for assisting teachers working in schools that have a high number of free lunch students, etc.

LAUNDRY SERVICE FOR THE HOMELESS MINISTRY: Local missionaries are on a telephone call list as part of an organized, anonymous personal laundry service provided for the working homeless through the Homeless Day Resource Center. Before leaving for work, homeless men and women who are living on the streets place in a laundry bag their dirty clothes and drop them off at the Resource Center. On a rotating basis, the Resource Center calls a local missionary on the telephone call list who comes by the Resource Center, picks up the laundry bag, washes and dries the clothes at a local coin laundry facility, folds them, prays over them, writes a hand-written note of encouragement and delivers the clean clothes back to the Resource Center before 4:00 pm for the homeless worker to pick up. When called by the Resources Center a local missionary can pass, due to a schedule conflict. When this occurs, the next local missionary on the telephone call list is called.

MOBILE SHOWERS & LAUNDRY TRAILER MINISTRY: Join with others in designing, constructing and operating a mobile showers and laundry trailer to be used weekly by the homeless living on the streets in downtown Panama City and on call to respond with the American Red Cross to local and regional disasters. Hurricane season is coming and local missionaries are needed to get our church ready to respond to the needs locally and in the region.

PERSONAL INCOME TAX PREPARATION ASSISTANCE: Become certified to assist the elderly, disabled and the poor in the completion of their annual personal federal income tax return, making sure they are taking advantage of all eligible tax credits and deductions such as Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, etc. This assistance can increase their tax refunds by thousands of dollars. This additional money can then be used for their food needs, medical care, utilities, home repairs, child care, higher education, etc.

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY MINISTRY: Join with others in our community to build new residential affordable homes for eligible families. Either working on the construction of the home or supporting those who do, local missionaries are needed to help shorten the time it takes to get a new home built and a new family moved in. Assistance is also needed in mentoring Habitat families.

HARDLY ABLE MINISTRY meets every Saturday morning at 7:00 am in the church’s parking lot to go out to pre-arranged homes and construct wheelchair ramps for those individuals who can no longer go into or out of their homes without a ramp. Work is ususally completed by noon.

IDLE TIME MISSIONARY MINISTRY: Got a few hours you would like to invest in doing the Lord’s Work from time to time? Then sign up for our IDLE TIME MISSIONARY MINISTRY. With one telephone call or email from you, we can have you involved in a local missions project or an on-going ministry to the poor, in just minutes. You can be a part of creating, planning, organizing or implementing local missions projects during the day or at night, weekdays or on the weekend, 24/7/365, when ever you have some idle time, just give us a call at 832-3014.