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By Heather Hahn*
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.
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.
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.
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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