Introduction to iServe Ministries
- 1. Introduction to the work of Webster Gardens, MO
- 2. Who we are iServe is a ministry of The Lutheran Church of Webster Gardens, Missouri. It is incumbent upon members of our congregation to show compassion and concern for those in need in our community, and to “Serve Boldly,” modeling Jesus’ compassion for those to whom he ministered. For that reason, we identify opportunities to serve in our community within a five-mile radius of the congregation. Inside that circle, we have made significant impact in the past few years. Our services are self-funded, from individual gifts and contributions made by church members. This is the first time we have extended our appeal to a wider audience—in order to do even more.
- 3. What we need: Extreme Home Makeover For 2014-15 we will conduct our sixth Extreme Home Makeover. This year we serve a divorced woman with three girls under eight years old who recently arrived in our community from Mexico. She was able to secure a house on a short sale for herself and her girls, but the sellers left the house in shambles. The house is in need of tens of thousands of dollars in repairs.
- 4. iServe is beginning our sweat equity volunteer work on the house immediately after Demolition Day, November 5th. The complete re-build of the home will be finished in two stages: in December 2014 and January 2015. The Big Reveal will occur in mid- January. Basement and deck remodel will continue into Spring 2015. We are replacing and finishing hardwood and tile flooring, drywall and painting, a kitchen remodel, new wiring and lighting, new bathroom plumbing and fixtures. We have seven leaders, including a project manager, safety coordinator, materials manager and volunteer coordinators. This is an annual project conducted by iServe ministries of The Lutheran Church of Webster Gardens. To see a four-minute You Tube video of our Extreme Makeover of a home for two visually impaired residents, click on this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0x7-aXwODI
- 5. Our Goal With thousands of individual hours to be contributed by volunteers we are ready to go. But materials and fixtures must be purchased along the way. To complete our sixth Extreme Home Makeover will take $22,000—a significant amount. But it will mean a mother and her three girls can have a new beginning. To see other ways were serve our community, continue with this presentation.
- 6. The Big Rake We conduct “The Big Rake” every Fall, where dozens of member crews of adults, youth and children fan out for two days in the community to rake leaves at homes of physically impaired, elderly neighbors, and families with limited resources. This year’s goal: 300 volunteers to rake 90 yards.
- 7. Summer Café When school is out for the summer, families with limited resources do not have the free lunch program to provide meals for their children. So, for the first time this past summer, iServe sent members into a depressed neighborhood to serve local children who don’t have access to meals every day. Volunteer members met children at a local park on four Sundays in July and August to serve the children a meal, conduct games, crafts and other activities; and to provide food for them to take home for the week. Volunteer contributions: over 300 person-hours of time serving 70 children.
- 8. 1st Serve Sunday One of our other regular services to the community is called 1st Serve. On the first Sunday of each month after worship services, members go out in our community to clean yards and paint at specifically identified homes. Other volunteers prepare ham, turkey and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the workers.
- 9. A Mission Trip in our own Backyard" This is our 4th year leading a 3-morning VBS at Christian Friends of New Americans August 4-6 (Mon-Wed, 9-11:30am). Make "A Mission Trip in our own Backyard" This is our 4th year leading a 3- morning VBS at Christian Friends of New Americans in August , to make a difference in a child's life from Nepal...Ethiopia...Eritrea.... We used lessons from our Weird Animals VBS. Adult and older student volunteers.
- 10. July 4th Parade Clean-Up iServe provides a crew of adults and children as the last unit in the annual July 4th parade in Webster, Missouri. Our mission is to pick up all the trash left as the parade concludes, leaving the streets and neighborhoods cleaner than when the parade began. This activity saves the city hundreds of dollars in clean-up costs, and provides us with an opportunity to let members of the community enjoy the celebration.
- 11. Annual Coat and Blanket Drive Every September iServe collects good new and used coats and blankets for distribution in two local neighborhoods where children and adults may not have the resources to purchase cold weather items. This year we collected over 1,000 coats.
- 12. Grow-2-Give Garden Each summer we manage garden plots to provide fresh food to local food pantries. Thanks to 214 volunteer hours of our Grow-2-Give gardeners we’ve been able to donate over 1.060 pounds of fresh produce to the Affton (MO) Christian Food Pantry, serving over 200 clients. We had some massive yields on beans, squash and tomatoes this past summer.
- 13. International Service Outside of our five-mile radius community, Webster Gardens Church serves around the world. We send youth and adult members on service trips •Juarez, Mexico, where 22 adults and youth built two homes in 2014 •Teams to Hong Kong, Macau, and Jiangmen, China for five consecutive years helping with English as a second language •Seine Bight, Garifuna, Belize serving 70 children