By Brant Mills, TAC Communications
A
small church found themselves hosting an event for their entire community less
than two weeks after discussing ways to reach out and be good neighbors.
First
UMC Humble held a planning
committee meeting recently to discuss what more they
could do to get to know their neighbors. Senior Pastor Dr. E.B. Beasley said
they “had a dinner and a dream night to talk about things and we said
we need to make the community more aware of who we are. Somebody said we need to
go down to the street into a nearby park and just cook hot dogs or hamburgers
and invite the neighborhood.”
A
couple of days later some of the church staff found out about an upcoming event
that fit into their vision. National Night Out, which is designed to focus on
crime and drug prevention, was going to be taking place in their town, but when
they called to get more information, the city had already drafted the press
release to cancel the event.
“The
subdivisions and the apartment complexes couldn’t do it after Ike – so we
said “we’ll help you,”” Beasley said. “That was on Sunday night - we
said we ought to do it. On Thursday we got the call, and now we’re out here on
Tuesday cooking hot dogs for the whole community - and we just had to go out and
get some more. You’ve got to be careful when you ask God to do something
because he’s got a weird sense of humour – he delivers on these things,”
Beasley added with a hearty laugh. That’s why we were talking about the hot
dogs from the beginning and now ten days later were doing it.”
Know
Your Neighbors
“This
is actually an extension of being a part of the community post Ike,” FUMC
Associate Amanda Davis said.
“When
Ike came through, neighborhoods where people knew each other took care of each
other, but those where people didn’t know each other, they didn’t reach out
to each other,” Beasley noted. “It’s really important that our communities
and our neighborhoods know each other and the church has the opportunity to be
the vehicle to make that happen… We show them we care and we’re hoping that
some of these people will come into the church – will come and experience our
fellowship.”
FUMC
Humble has been working on reaching out to the newcomers in the town, but for
the last 8 or 9 months they’ve been talking about those immediately around the
church. “We’re looking for ways to minister to the neighborhood that we’re
in. Beasley noted. This is where God’s put us, and… we need to include
[those nearest to the church] in the ministries were doing.
“We
bought 200 hot dogs and we ran out within the first hour,”
Throughout
the evening 300 children were fingerprinted by the Humble Police Department, who
brought McGruff the crime dog with them. Target, the NNO national sponsor came
out to give away gift cards and paint faces, and the Humble Fire Department
brought a few of their antique fire trucks for the crowd to enjoy. The church
even had a pumpkin patch open for people wishing to take one home.
“They’re
having a good time tonight,” Beasley said, as a group of children ran around
playing behind him. “Its part of being a neighborhood and part of being in a
small town. It’s a part of the values we’re trying to lift up in the church.
There’s a lot of fun going on.”
The
staff at FUMC Humble are constantly looking for new ways to reach out into their
community.
Dr.
Beasley also said that their Methodist Men’s group “is talking about trying
to provide 20 District camp scholarships for kids in the church’s neighborhood
next summer because of what the conference camping program at Lakeview can offer
them.”
For
more information on FUMC Humble or their programs, please visit their website.
For additional information on National Night Out, please visit their website at: http://www.nationalnightout.org/nno/