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Arkansas volunteers ‘get up and give’ for kids

 
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6:00 P.M. EST April 12, 2010 | LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (UMNS)

Rebecca Mitts and 
friends work to prepare a flower bed for planting. UMNS photos by 
Patrick Shownes.
Rebecca Mitts and friends work to prepare a flower bed for planting. UMNS photos by Patrick Shownes.

Arkansas United Methodists spent a Sunday afternoon getting dirty so that children who’ve endured abuse and neglect might have a cleaner, prettier place to live.

More than 150 youth and adults on April 11 mulched flowerbeds, planted fresh blooms, carted away weeds, bagged up trash and generally tidied up the gardens and sidewalks on the 84-acre grounds of Methodist Children’s Home.

Also during the afternoon, members of other area churches dropped off donations of toys, school supplies, diapers and other needed items for Methodist Family Health, which oversees the home.

These activities were all part of the Arkansas Annual (regional) Conference’s campaign to “Get Up & Give” to a critical community need. In this case, the volunteers  — many wearing red T-shirts that proclaimed “Get Up & Give” — were serving a ministry that provides mental-health services for children and families statewide regardless of their faith.

An Impact Community Grant of about $25,000 from United Methodist Communications in Nashville, Tenn., made the event possible.

“Having money to market your program is literally a godsend,” said Ashley Coldiron, executive director of the Methodist Family Health Foundation. “This place is being transformed.”

Martha Taylor, the Arkansas Conference’s director of communications, suggested applying for the grant to Coldiron. Taylor said she used the money for radio and TV advertising as well as posters and direct mail. Representatives from one local radio station were out to do a remote.

‘Our passion is mission’

The grants from United Methodist Communications, offered as part of the Rethink Church initiative, support clusters of three or more churches, districts and conferences that move out into their communities, creating doors to welcome the unchurched.

The “Get Up & Give” event drew volunteers from eight churches in Arkansas’ Central and North Central districts.

Retired Bishop 
Kenneth Hicks offers a prayer at a service event in Little Rock.
Retired Bishop Kenneth Hicks offers a prayer at a service event in Little Rock.

Among them were Denise Fleming and her husband, Fred, members of Asbury United Methodist Church in Little Rock. Under a cloudless sky, the two were planting a bed of zinnias, mums and tiger irises.

“My passion is gardening, but more so, our passion is mission,” Denise Fleming said. “My husband said that this is a way to combine the two. We’re helping somebody.”

Methodist Family Health serves about 1,200 children and their families at facilities around the state. Most of the ministry’s young clients have experienced abuse, abandonment or neglect, and the Arkansas Department of Human Services has referred them for care. 

The ministry’s services include foster care, emergency shelter, outpatient counseling, acute psychiatric care and Arkansas CARES (Center for Addictions Research, Education and Services), a residential treatment program where women overcoming drug addiction can stay with their children.

CAREfully Catered, a company operated by recent graduates of the Arkansas CARES program, supplied the day’s refreshments.

Most of the congregations that participated in “Get Up & Give” have long supported Methodist Family Health with monetary donations and gifts for the clients at Christmas.

‘A church is like a family’

The praise team at FaithSpring United Methodist Church, a new church start in Little Rock that started weekly worship last fall, leads worship for Methodist Family Health clients every few months.

Rebecca Mitts, an eighth-grader at FaithSpring, has an aunt who works at the ministry, and she was eager to help the friends she’d made when visiting with her church and with her aunt.

“If they see that a church is like a family, they might want to join,” she said. “There are kids here that we’re really good friends, so I think it’s cool that I can help them out.”

FaithSpring UMC's 
praise band performs during the closing ceremony.
FaithSpring UMC's praise band performs during the closing ceremony.

Brock Patterson, FaithSpring’s senior pastor, said a service project like “Get Up & Give” has the advantage of giving his new congregation a chance to bond.

“We don’t have (our own building), so we don’t have the opportunity to have a potluck or a family picnic or things like that,” Patterson said. “As a result, we have to take every opportunity we can to find something that brings everybody together.”

While this year’s event only involved United Methodist churches in the central part of the state, organizers hope next year to make the gathering a conference-wide day of service at Methodist Family Health group homes and other facilities around the state.

Andy Altom, Methodist Family Health’s chief executive officer, said the event has helped raise his awareness about the work his ministry does not just among United Methodists but also among others in the community.

But the biggest impact may be on Methodist Family Health’s clients, some of whom joined the volunteers for a worship service after the work was through, Altom said.

Paul Stapleton, Methodist Family Health’s training coordinator, agreed. After being removed from abusive parents at the age of 4, Stapleton grew up under the care of an organization similar to the United Methodist ministry. Service projects like this, he said, leave big impressions.

“When they see people help them out, they’re more likely to give later on,” Stapleton said. “It’s an investment. You’re investing your time, but you’re also investing in these clients’ future. Seeing all these people stays in their minds.”

*Hahn is editor of the Arkansas United Methodist, the newspaper of the Arkansas Annual Conference.

News media contact: Joey Butler, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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