Hands and Feet in Service and Outreach

By Darlene Thomas

Hands and Feet is a ministry that came to life in August of 2017 at Shiremanstown United Methodist Church (SUMC). The title for this ministry came from our church’s vision statement to “be the hands and feet of Jesus.”

Hands and Feet volunteers are comprised of not just members of SUMC but include youth and adults from several area churches. We meet monthly on a designated Saturday and form teams comprised of adults and youth to serve the community. The workday starts with a hot breakfast for the volunteers, followed by a worship service to help us focus on why God has called us into missions. 

The projects are identified through various referral sources and each site is assessed for viability prior to the workday by our Sites Manager. Materials, tools and supplies are organized ahead of time, so each team is ready for work at the beginning of the day. Each team has a leader who is experienced in the Hands & Feet procedures. Various leadership team members visit the sites throughout the day to ensure the teams have what they need and or troubleshoot any problems. We undertake projects such as: painting, yard work, repair, clean up/organization, small construction, etc.

We feel the work is important; however, we know God calls us to each of these homes for a purpose that sometimes isn’t visible to the human eye. We trust God has us there for a reason! Building relationships with the people we serve is part of what God calls us to do. We invite them to share lunch with us and have a devotional during lunch. This is a wonderful time of fellowship for the team and the neighbor they serve.

If your church is within the local community of SUMC, we invite you to join us on an upcoming Saturday. Adults and youth are welcome!

If you know of someone who could use our help within approximately 20-30 min drive of Shiremanstown, please contact us. We would love to show God’s love to these neighbors.

If your church is outside of our designated radius and you are interested in starting up a similar ministry, we would be happy to share our processes to help you build a similar ministry in your area.

We look forward to being in service with your church in whatever capacity God has planned! There is plenty of need in this hurting world. Won’t you partner with us to serve others and share God’s love??

For more information, contact Darlene Thomas, Director Hands & Feet at gabrielt0303@gmail.com or call Shiremanstown UMC at 717-737-6621.

This ministry is a Volunteers in Mission (VIM) ministry of the Susquehanna Conference. Key leadership positions of the ministry participated in VIM training several years ago and we report our monthly workday information to the conference for record keeping.

God’s Army is Coming to the Susquehanna Conference

United Methodist Action Reach-out Mission by Youth (U.M. ARMY) is a national youth mission organization offering summer mission opportunities for youth, young adults and adults across the United States. U.M. ARMY works with VIM at both the national and local conference level to ensure quality, faith-based, mission weeks.

Last summer, U.M. ARMY had to re-imagine our mission models so we could still answer the call to serve while working within the COVID guidelines. We did this, through God’s blessing, by creating LOCAL and VIRTUAL models. These models provide a balance of gathering across church groups for social interaction, showing God’s love in a hurting world, creating opportunities for spiritual development and encircling safety around everything we do.

We held one of these LOCAL mission weeks in the Susquehanna Conference last summer with great success and many blessings. Due to the ongoing concerns with the pandemic, we have decided to move forward on this LOCAL model again this summer. EXCITING NEWS! We are offering two LOCAL models in the Susquehanna Conference this year. We already have some youth groups lined up to participate in both weeks; however, we have plenty of room for your group to join us in this “day camp” model.

The theme this year is: GOD @ WORK:CREATING. Each day begins with morning worship to get us focused for the day, followed by service work out in the local community. All projects will either be outside or at a local community service organization with strict COVID guidelines. Each team shares lunch together with guided devotion discussion related to the weekly and daily themes. After a day of service, we gather again for group building activities and closing worship. During the week, we will experience a prayer journey that provides a time of personal reflection and time with God.

Each person is asked to eat breakfast at home, bring their own lunch each day, and eat dinner at home. Water supplies will be provided, along with pre-packaged snacks. We are hoping to offer a closing picnic at the end of the week, if we feel we can serve and eat food safely.

We will be at the following locations/dates this summer:

FISHING CREEK SALEM UMC (Goldsboro, PA) – July 18-23 

CHRIST UMC (Mt. Top, PA) – July 11-16 

NO WORRIES if you live too far away or if these weeks won’t work for your group. U.M. ARMY is also offering VIRTUAL opportunities this summer. These weeks still provide an opportunity to serve in your local communities in a day camp model; however, worship and interactive activities will be held virtually with other youth groups participating during your same week.

Won’t you join us to help share God’s love and experience God’s creation? God is already at work creating our mission work within the Susquehanna Conference. We just need to be His hands, feet and heart by answering the call to serve.

For more information on U.M. ARMY, please feel free to access our website: umarmy.org

To explore opportunities for your group, please contact Darlene Thomas, Regional Director @ darlenethomas@umarmy.org or 877-771-9484 ext. 1108