By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current
It isn’t often that an entire church congregation can participate in a mission “trip,” but that is exactly what happened on Sunday at Grace United Methodist Church in Geneseo.
Karen Doy, chairman of the Mission Committee at Grace Church, and her team organized several tables of school supplies to be sent to Midwest Mission.
Sunday, Sept. 14, was designated as Mission Sunday at the church when Doy explained, “We decided to bring the mission field to our church.”
At the close of the church service, the congregation was invited to take part in the project and directions were provided for building the student school supply kits. The group made it a fun time by forming an assembly line in filling the kits.
“All of the necessary supplies were provided, having been donated by church members or purchased by the Mission Committee,” Doy said. “We thought if most people built one kit before leaving church, we would have 100 kits built in no time. We made it a fun time by providing donuts to those who participated.”
Each kit includes three one-subject spiral notebooks, one 12-inch ruler, six unsharpened
pencils, one two-inch pencil eraser, one box of 12 colored pencils, one box of 24 crayons,
and one pair of scissors.
The supplies are contained in individual handmade one-handled bags, made by 100-year-old Grace Church member Norma Lodge and several other church members. The pattern for the bags was supplied by Midwest Mission.
The completed kits will be delivered to the Midwest Mission in Pawnee, IL.
It is never certain where the student supply kits are sent, Doy said and added, “The student kits may end up in Ohio, Texas, Haiti, Ukraine, or somewhere else in the world where there is a need. Last year we think some of them made their way to Honduras.”
