FUMC is a missionally minded church and our missions committee plays a vital role in the life of the congregation. We are responsible for planning both local and distant mission trips as well as coordinating the church’s missional giving.
On a local level we provide financial support and/or material assistance to:
Tender Hearts, a women’s shelter in York; God’s Kitchen, a ministry that delivers meals in Clover; the Clover Area Assistance Center, which provides comprehensive support to needy people in our community; Epworth Children’s home, a United Methodist run Children’s Home in Columbia, SC; and the Wesley Foundation at Winthrop University, a campus ministry of the SC Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. On an international level we sponsor four orphans through the Kenya Orphanage Project. We also contribute to the salaries of missionaries in Nicaragua and the General Board of the UMC. In addition to completing several local projects, members of our church have also been involved in short term mission work both nationally and internationally including trips to El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, and Ecuador.
We have a very strong commitment to Salkehatchie, which is a statewide ministry that provides an opportunity for youth and adults to invest one week of their summer in making improvements to local houses that are in very poor condition. We are honored to host our own Salkehatchie camp. Our church serves as housing for the camp participants and a few of our members serve as camp directors, which means they coordinate all the logistics. The men of our church cook breakfast for the campers each morning. Members of our church go to Salkehatchie camps in Shaw and Bishopville and our committee proudly provides financial assistance to make that possible.
A few years ago our church had a vision to assist with distributing food to those in need in our community. The congregation has been very supportive of this vision and has faithfully brought non-perishable food items as well as volunteered to make this project a reality. The “Food Project” occurs on the third Saturday of every month serving between 80-100 families.
In addition to these activities, our church also holds special offerings for particular ministries of the United Methodist Church and for disaster relief whenever a major natural disaster occurs. We also provide assistance to families in need on an ongoing basis. Not to mention the fact that as a United Methodist congregation our apportionment payments also fund a lot of mission work. The material here is merely intended as an overview of the many ways FUMC is involved in missions.
For more information contact Senior Pastor Tresco Shannon at 222-3496 or teshannon@umcsc.org
