Past Missions

We are grateful for all of the opportunities God gives us to serve our neighbors near and far. Below are some past missions that we were blessed to have supported with our time, talents, or treasure.

PEOPLE IN NEED HOLIDAY CLEARINGHOUSE - COAT LAND SUCCESS!

The 68th PIN Holiday Clearinghouse went very well and could not have happened without the support of our church family. Thank you to everyone who donated money or coats, hats, and gloves. We also appreciated the many hands that came to the fairgrounds to help prepare the donations and transform that barn into a festive Coat Land. We had more than 1,300 coats for the parents to choose from on Distribution Day, and they were so grateful for all the toys, food, and coats they re- ceived. PIN will continue to distribute the excess coats throughout the winter. We pray that the 345 registered families will know that they are loved by God and their community.

WiLSON WEIGHT CHALLENGE EXCEEDS 5K POUND GOAL for PIN- AUG 2022

Have you heard the good news? LCUMC met and exceeded its 5,000 pound goal for People in Need! This year’s drive garnered 5,022 pounds of goods for the Delaware County ministry. LCUMC volunteers are shown above packing the donations after worship last Sunday. Thank you to all who donated to and volunteered for this beloved missional tradition.

32 pairs of BACK-to-SCHOOL ShoeS DONATED - June 2022

Our June communion offering went to support People In Need’s School Shoes and Supplies program. The $1,301 that our church donated will help provide $40 gift cards to help buy back-to-school shoes for 32 children in Delaware County.

MEMORIAL DAY FLAG DISPLAY SUCCESS- May 2022

LCUMC welcomed about 150 visitors and served 74 meals to Orange Township fire- fighters and Delaware County Police officers during its second annual Memorial Day Flag Display. Some 130 flags stood proudly on the east side of the property, including 14 memorial flags honoring former public servants and military veterans.

Coordinator Stan Hildreth thanked the many volunteers who helped make the display pos- sible, including Office Manager Amy Hafner for her assistance with marketing and display signage and Boy Scout Troop 843, for its help with set up as well as the leadership of the flag retreat ceremony on Monday evening.

The church also collected donations for the MASH Pantry and Resource Center, which supports veterans in Delaware County.

WORLD VISION GLOBAL 6K For Water - May 2022

The Lewis Center Water Warriors walked, ran, and scootered the 6k for water while others cheered them on. We had 46 people in attendance (plus 8 pups) and raised over $2,000 to provide life-changing clean water to 40 kids around the world.

$11k Donated to Ohiohealth for mental health support - April 2022

This year LCUMC partnered with OhioHealth for our annual Easter Mission Project. We surpassed our $10,000 goal and raised $11,051.72 to support mental health initiatives in our local community. We are grateful for our most generous church family. Two thirds of the funds were designated towards grief support to provide support for bereaved children and families. The remaining one-third was used to support healthcare workers that have definitely been strained over the past two years. For both programs, half of the funds raised were used locally in Delaware County. OhioHealth shared some updates with us regarding the use of the funds and said, “We are grateful for Lewis Center United Methodist Church’s 2022 support for programs to enhance the mental wellbeing of residents in Delaware and Delaware County, including frontline healthcare workers at OhioHealth Grady Memorial Hospital. Thanks to your congregation’s generosity, the Delaware Bereavement Program and the Grady Provider and Associate Wellbeing Fund provided essential resources to meet emerging and ongoing needs for care and support at some critical moments.” Our youth group also had a speaker from Ohio Health talk to them about mental health and we plan to offer other programs and information related to mental health awareness throughout the year at the church.

COAT BARN GIFTS BLESS LOCAL FAMILIES- DECEMBER 2021

It took a lot of hard working elves to get the Coat Barn ready for this year’s People in Need Holiday Clearinghouse. None worked harder than Missions Chair Annie Johnston.

“Thank you to everyone who supported the 2021 PIN Holiday Clearing House,” Annie said. “Whether you donated your old hangers, contributed money towards our coat shopping funds, purchased coats/hats/gloves, or gave of your time in the Coat Barn, we could not have done it without you.”

More than 1,000 children and more than 400 families were registered for this year’s event, which took place at the Delaware County Fairgrounds. At nearly 1,500 coats, Annie reports that the coat inventory was the highest it’s ever been. “Forthe first time, we had coats of every size to offer to the families that were last to come through."

OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD - NOVEMBER 2021

A big thanks to the LCUMC Operation Christmas Child volunteer team, who collected and packed 1,313 community shoebox donations this week! LCUMC donations totaled 194 shoeboxes (including 22 online). That's a lot of kids who are going to receive a tangible expression of God's love this Christmas!

PIN RESTOCK THE SHELVES - August 2021

A big thanks to everyone for supporting our food drive to help restock the shelves at People in Need. LCUMC donated 2,343 pounds of crackers, soup, boxed dinners, jelly, coffee, tea, baked beans, canned tomatoes, shampoo, body wash, and shaving cream. Special thanks to our youth volunteers who helped load the items and to those who helped unload at PIN. 

VBS RAISES MONEY TO HELP LOCAL KIDS GET READY FOR SCHOOL

The children and youth that participated in our Treasured VBS program last week raised $3,488.35 for People In Need, Inc. The funds will be used to help provide new back-to-school shoes, headphones, and a vision check for almost 70 children. As a reward for their fundraising efforts, the kids got to drench 9 VBS leaders with water guns. So much fun for a great cause!

YOUTH TEAM SERVE LOCAL COMMUNITY - JUNE 2021

Mission Week 2021was a huge success for the LCUMC Youth Program. A total of 30 youth and nine chaperones participated this past June. Projects included making and packing sandwiches for PB & J Helpers, painting office spaces at People in Need in Delaware, staffing a Kids Fun Day at Church for All People in downtown Columbus, general cleanup tasks at the Turning Point Shelter in Delaware, and some residential landscaping. They even squeezed in some time to cut down a dead tree on the church property. The youth wrapped up their week with a prayer drive to all the service locations, an excursion to play laser tag, and worship led by Lauren Sutton and the GenX Band. “LCUMC is blessed to have such amazing youth and chaperones,” Youth Leaders Dave and Chasity Staats said. “It was a great week of helping others and learning how to continue helping them even after Mission Week.”

Amina’s dream - 208 kits packed

Back on March 20th, 17 volunteers worked to pack the reusable menstrual kits as part of our Amina's Dream work. Many thanks to this team that packed a total of 208 kits in about 2.5 hours - 165 kits were made by our church's team and 42 kits were made by our sister group in Lithopolis. We are so grateful for the many hands that worked at home throughout the past year to make each of the pieces that go into each kit. The kits were blessed during services on March 21st and will be making their way to the refugee camps in Chad, Africa. Special thanks to Cathy Hanover and Jean Bricker for leading this ministry for us!

CHURCH FOR ALL PEOPLE - SCHOOL SUPPLY SUCCESS

Thank you to everyone who donated school supplies or made a monetary donation to Church For All People. Pastor Matt delivered the items down to Church For All People at the end of February and the items will be put to great use at their learning centers.

AMINA’s DREAM - UNDIE SUNDAY SUCCESS

We are so grateful for the 200+ pairs of underwear that were donated on January 24th for our Undie Sunday benefitting Amina’s Dream, our local chapter of Days For Girls International. We also collected just over $1,000 in donations - which will be used by the team to continue their mission to create reusable menstrual kits. Thank you for partnering with us to help keep girls in school and change not only their lives, but the lives around them. Amina’s Dream wants to help EVERY GIRL. EVERYWHERE. PERIOD.

PIN HOLIDAY CLEARING HOUSE 2020

In a challenging COVID-19 world, we are beyond grateful for the way our church family and the community stepped up to support the PIN Holiday Clearing House.

The coat supply was abundant and distributed across the sizes needed! We had more than enough coats for the over 900+ children. Thank you to everyone who donated coats, hats, and gloves and to those who donated a collective $2,940 to fund additional coat shopping.

Our volunteers were simply amazing and spent 284.5 hours prepping/sorting the donations, shopping for each of the 378 families, and distributing the coats. Thank you to our team of 64 volunteers who worked hard and enjoyed the additional "shopping" work that had to be done to support the drive-thru distribution days. The entire PIN HCH team was so efficient at getting families through the drive-thru process on the Distribution Days that we spent a lot of time waiting for cars to come.

We pray that all of these families felt the love of God and that their hearts will be filled with hope and joy for the new year ahead.

OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD - 170 Shoeboxes & 1st TIME COLLECTION SITE

Our church family always looks forward to participating in Operation Christmas Child each year and 2020 was no different. We appreciate everyone who filled a shoebox - to share the hope of Jesus with children around the world. Our grand total was 170 shoeboxes and we look forward to hearing where all of our shoeboxes end up. We also served as a local collection site for the first time in November and collected/prepped 1,371 shoeboxes for shipping. A big thank you to our 29 volunteers (many from our youth group), who gave 161 volunteer hours, to power the collection site.

Youth Group Drive-Thru Food Drive

In June, the Youth Group hosted a drive-thru food drive benefitting People In Need Inc. of Delaware County. They collected 2,872 pounds of donations and more than $700 for our friends and neighbors who needed assistance. Thanks to our church family, Boy Scouts, and Cub Scouts for supporting this food drive.

Thank you, Lewis Center Water Warriors!

It was a beautiful day for the virtual 2020 Global 6k for Water on May 16th.  Our 36 team members were part of the 21,800 world-changers who virtually joined to provide over 32,000 people with life-changing clean water. 

Most of our team did their 6k on land by biking, walking, or running - but Jeff Jordan did his 6k on the water!

PEOPLE IN NEED - Restock the Shelves

Did you hear the wonderful news?  We exceeded Sarah Wilson’s God-sized goal of 6,500 pounds of donations for People In Need.  Our final total for this February campaign ended up being 7,828 pounds.  Grateful for all who donated - including our church's Boy Scout & Cub Scout troops! Thank you God for blessing us so that we may bless others. We pray that these donations will help them feel your love.  

PEOPLE IN NEED - Holiday Clearing House

Thank you to all of our volunteers who donated over 190 hours to prepare/distribute brand-new coats, hats, and gloves for PIN's Annual Holiday Clearing House event on December 8. Over 361 families were served by the event. Of the 996 winter coats we had to distribute - over 400 coats were donated by our church. We are grateful for the church’s continued support of this long-standing mission.

THANK YOU, COOKIE BAKERS & COOKIE BUYERS!

Thank you to all of our cookies bakers who provided for over 159 trays of cookies for the United Methodist Women (UMW) annual Cookie Tray Sale. With 5 dozen cookies on each tray - that’s over 9,000 cookies! We also thank everyone who purchased a tray (or 3) this year. Over $4,000 was raised - which the UMW will use to support the ministries and missions of the church.

Blanket DONATIONS

Back in early December, church members donated 56 quilts/blankets - many of which were homemade. These blankets were donated to many local charities to bring God’s love and some warmth to those who may need it.

YOUTH GROUP DONATED STUFFED ANIMALS TO NATIONWIDE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

The youth group collected 40-45 stuffed animals to be donated to Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Before donating them, they got together to decorate them with festive bows and attached a personalized note to each of them. We pray the children that received those special stuffed animals will feel loved and special.

Operation Christmas child

We set a goal of collecting 200 filled shoeboxes to support Operation Christmas Child. Thanks to everyone who filled a shoebox - we exceeded our goal and collected 208 shoeboxes. If you printed a tracking label for your shoebox - you can use the Follow Your Box Look-up Tool to see where it went. Find the world map hanging up in our church lobby and plot the destination of your shoebox with a sticker.

People In Need - Volunteers brightened a rainy afternoon

It was a rainy afternoon at the PIN Produce Market on October 30th - but our volunteers brightened the days of many! 7,958 pounds of produce and a wide assortment of Halloween items were distributed to 98 households, 283 people, and over 91 children.

Church For All People - Men’s Clothing Drive

Thank you for another successful men's business clothing drive for Church For All People. We appreciate everyone that dug through their closets and thank our youth/pastors for another entertaining fashion show. We pray that the men receiving these items will feel God's love as they look for new job opportunities.