Community Outreach Update

It’s truly a privilege and blessing to serve alongside each other and see the Church live on mission. In this September Community Outreach Update, we’re highlighting some urgent needs, some events to serve at, and putting out a call for some exciting future opportunities we can’t wait to share in the next couple months. Take a look and jump in whenever or wherever you can…

LOCAL PANTRY & SHELTER NEEDS
Our local pantries at Combined Community Services, Salvation Army, and Our Father’s House have been serving an increased number of households in August and September. You can find a current list of regularly needed items, with drop-off locations and times here: Local Food Pantry Needs. In addition, Fellowship Missions has some shelter needs and volunteer opportunities. A list of needs can be found here, and to learn more about the volunteer opportunities check here.

ESL CLASS SNACKS & SET-UP HELP
Our Community Life ESL classes begin soon at both Leesburg and Harrison Elementary Schools on Tuesday evenings. If you could help provide snacks or willing to help with basic set-up or tear-down, please contact our Hispanic Ministries Pastor, Sam Pena, by email or call 574-268-0188, x216. These are simple opportunities but help make a huge impact in the lives of the students taking the classes.

THE NEST @LOST SPARROWS INTEREST MEETING – September 29, 7pm
According to the U.S Department of Health & Human Services the state of Indiana has the highest rate of child abuse in the country with 15% of babies tested were born exposed to opioids, 33% more than the national average. The Nest is a forthcoming mentor-based program supporting new moms in adverse life circumstances and at-risk infants. If you would like to learn more about this program and the opportunities to help, join us for an informational meeting at Warsaw Community Church on Thursday, September 29, 7pm.

FEED MY STARVING CHILDREN – October 11 and 13
Warsaw is hosting the Feed My Starving Children mobilepack event at the Warsaw High School TRAC and some limited packing spaces are available on October 11 and 13. For more details or to sign-up, visit the Warsaw Mobilepack page.

LOST SPARROWS TRAUMA CONFERENCE VOLUNTEERS – October 14-15
Our friends at Lost Sparrows are hosting their annual trauma conference which helps educate on the effects of childhood trauma and adversity. As part of the Coalition of Churches for Orphan and Vulnerable Children, this conference is critical to the work taking place in our community and we want to help the conference be a huge success. Volunteers are needed for varying roles including greeting, parking, ushers, clean-up and more. Whether you can give a couple hours or a whole day, you can sign-up for volunteer roles here.

NOTE: Prospective and current foster parents, adoptive parents, educators, caregivers, social workers and anyone wanting to learn about trauma and its effects on children should attend. If you’re part of Warsaw Community Church, want to serve vulnerable children, and would like to attend, we’ve got some scholarships for the conference. Please contact our Community Outreach Director, Greg Demopoulos, by email or call 574-268-0188, x256 for more details.

Future Teams We’re excited about some future opportunities to partner with others to serve our community. If you have a heart for vulnerable children, for fostering or adoption, or want to help encourage our school staffs, let us know. We’ll be putting some teams together to serve these areas, but we’d like to get a list of interested people we can keep in the loop as more details become available and we can share next steps and answer questions. If you’re interested, please contact our Community Outreach Director, Greg Demopoulos, by email or call 574-268-0188, x256 for more details.

News and Text Alerts
As a heads up, when we have urgent needs, we post here on the WCC News Blog, but often send a quick text message to our Community Outreach Response Team. You can sign up for the text message alerts by texting the word WCCRESPONSE to the number 877-329-2240.

Thank you for making an eternal difference at WCC and in our community!