Churches come to the service of dozens of local projects

For some local churches, Saturday was a day of fellowship and a day of service.

Methodist churches in the River Region came together to take part in projects around the area in what was called a “Great Day of Service.”

“It’s a day the church decides to get outside of their buildings and into the community,” said John Brooks, pastor at Metropolitan United Methodist Church.

The church spent the morning at Davis Elementary School, painting the bathrooms and hallway of the fifth-grade floor. Brooks said there were about 15 people helping throughout the day, with volunteers from both the school and the church.

Renovations made Saturday are the first of many to come to the school, including landscaping and downstairs work. Brooks said they feel committed to the school since the church is only a few blocks away, and some members are mentors to the students.

Brooks said one aspect of the day he particularly appreciated was that each person was making a difference.

“It’s not the number of people, but the quality of work,” he said. “Even a little will get the job done.”

Kris Johnson, a staff member at Frazer Memorial United Methodist Church, spent Saturday with a few other volunteers painting walls at the Common Ground headquarters. She said in all, there were about 2,400 volunteers taking part in 57 projects across the River Region.

Examples of service included yard work, groups from the Boys and Girls Club visiting retirement homes, and Sunday School classes giving assistance to widows on various projects.

With most events taking place early in the morning on a day scheduled for wet weather, Johnson said everything turned out nicely.

“We have been blessed that the rain held off,” she said.

The service day is usually held every spring, with it being called “Christmas in April” one year. Johnson said the selected date is sometimes dependent on when Easter falls on the calendar to give the churches time to organize.

Taking part in the event for the first time this year were the Methodist churches in the Wetumpka area. Ashley Davis, pastor at Trinity United Methodist Church in Weoka, said about 133 United Methodist volunteers were gathered at First United Methodist Church in Wetumpka for the Stop Hunger Now campaign.

“Since it was the first year the event spread to Wetumpka, we just wanted to get everybody together,” Davis said.

Emily Kincaid, associate minister at First United Methodist Church, said the volunteers worked in an assembly-line style to produce packages of food for the Stop Hunger Now program. The packages containing rice, soy and dried vegetables will be sent off to schools and orphanges across the world.

The goal on the day was to package 30,000 meals, but Kincaid was happy to report they had exceeded that with a total of 36,000.

“It was an amazing success. Everyone had a great time,” she said.

Even the children got into the packaging, but couldn’t resist a sampling for themselves.