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BEAVER RIDGE UNITED METHODIST
The Church at Karns
LOCAL MISSIONS
Our community ministries offer help to those nearby. This includes, but is not limited to our food pantry, Second Harvest food distribution, coat giveaway, local school mentoring, and the "I Support the Girls" (which provides undergarments and personal hygiene items for homeless girls & women).
Beaver Ridge UMC is dedicated to missions. We celebrate all types of mission opportunities - from trips to collecting mittens to donating food, and more. You are invited to participate in any or all of these mission opportunities!
Contacts:
Food Pantry - Leslie Little, deanleslielittle@gmail.com
Second Harvest Food Drop - Mary Hunt, acumanager@comcast.net
FOOD PANTRY
Mondays from 1 to 2 pm
Wednesdays 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm
in the Education Bldg.
(bldg. closest to Weigel's)
Beaver Ridge Food Pantry serves anyone in the
community in need of help with groceries.
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**A list of needed food items is listed in the church newsletter each month.**
We're All About Missions
Wow! This summer has had an unbelievable number of mission opportunities in our church! Hosting TWO weeks of Camp in the Community, housing other churches' mission teams while they worked on houses affected by Hurricane Helene, a trip to Project Crossroads in June to work on another damaged home, another workday in Knoxville for a Corryton home, providing meals for youth groups working for World Changers on Knoxville homes, serving a dinner to our neighbors in Volunteer Village, supporting our Karns High School Band with a meal. So many opportunities, so much outreach! Well done, Beaver Ridge UMC!
Our Food Pantry also has been busy. During Youth Week, a team helped us by assembling three sets of shelves for the Pantry, allowing us to expand our offering of personal hygiene and household offerings. We have purchased a laptop computer and software to enable us to upgrade our check-in process (Thank you, Jane, for following through on this). Gleaning at both the Knoxville Market Square and at Hardin Valley has provided a LOT of fresh produce and baked goods for our Pantry. Food City on Middlebrook also provides us with a lot of food most weeks. You, our congregation, also are very supportive with providing donations of food and other items. All of these sources supplement the bi-weekly trips to Second Harvest in Alcoa/Maryville, where we purchase our basic supplies at a discount. And believe it, as fast as we fill the pantry shelves, we have clients that need those items to meet their basic needs. Thank you all, for making this balancing act possible.
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Some of you may be aware that Concord UMC does not host a Food Pantry. Instead, they plant and harvest a sizable vegetable garden on their property and share this bounty with us and other local pantries. We have been blessed with receiving several carloads of fresh produce for our Pantry from Concord. At times, we have received even more than we can effectively process in the pantry, so we have shared some of this fresh produce with our neighbors in the Volunteer Village mobile home park. This outreach has been much appreciated, especially by those who have limited mobility to shop at markets.
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This article would not be complete without me thanking all the people who helped make hot tamales on July 20, and who are purchasing the tamales and supporting the Food Pantry outreach and the Support the Girls outreach. THANK YOU!!!!!
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Blessings to all,
Lelie Little, Missions
Your Donations to KARM Help Others
Anytime is a great time to clean out clutter from your home and garage to donate to the Knoxville Area Rescue Mission. When you drop off your items be sure to tell them you want Beaver Ridge UMC to receive credit. KARM will then give us gift cards to distribute to folks in our community who are in need of clothing and household items.
Let your unwanted stuff assist others and our church ministries!
I Support the Girls is a worldwide non-profit which provides feminine hygiene products, new and gently used bras, new underwear, and socks to those in need. Currently, we have over 60 affiliates worldwide. Since its inception in 2016, ISTG has distributed over 25 million items.
Erica Zuckerman is the director of the Knoxville affiliate. Some of the organizations that have received your donations around Knoxville include Wesley House, BRUMC Food Pantry, Susannah's House, Community Coalition against Human Trafficking, Angelic Ministries, Ladies of Charity, Carecuts, and several schools in Knox, Anderson, and Hamblen Counties. These are just a few of the many organizations that have received your donations.
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If you have any donations, please place them in the labeled bin in the office hallway of the sanctuary building. If you have questions or would like to learn more about ISTG, feel free to contact Erica at 865-660-3687.
Ministry Opportunities
The Community Outreach Team collaborated with other ministries this summer. We collected donations for the Children's Hospital Emergency Room and they were very thankful and appreciated the support. The Karns High School Fair was fun. We handed out a lot of information and spoke to many people. We partnered with WCAY (We Care About You) to serve meals in Oak Ridge Estates and Volunteer Village. There was the tamale making fundraiser, the Karns Middle School Ready. Set. School event, Back to School Party, and so much more. Kerri and I love to be involved with helping others in our church and our community. What a busy summer!
Back to Church Sunday is Sunday September 21st. We will have breakfast at 9 a.m. We will meet in the Education building to gather for food and fellowship. Our church is listed on the Country's Back to Church Sunday website. We will be "joining thousands of churches across the country for Back to Church Sunday - the largest, single-day outreach event designed to help the local church reach unchurched people in their communities and invite them to get connected to the hope, care, love a church like yours can provide". We have will invite cards coming out soon. You can hand them to folks in the community, friends, or leave them in a place where someone may find them. They will have a label with our church name and address as well as the service time.
We are attending the 5th Annual Karns Fall Festival at the Middle School on Saturday September 27th from 10-3. We have a booth near the entertainment and chili-cook off area. Come by and see us. The Pumpkins are coming Wednesday October 1st at 4 p.m. Be ready to unload a full truck of pumpkins. All hands are needed. Call a friend, a youth, a community member that needs service hours, anyone you can think of who may be able to help. Don’t forget to bring wagons, wheelbarrows, brooms, gloves, etc. We will have dinner afterwards together in the Family Life Center. Bottled water will be provided during the unloading.