Serving Beyond Pews
We loyally and regularly serve these organizations, and our holiday offerings financially support them. We are delighted that several of these organizations are led by or are personally connected with people who attend LUMC.
Food Bank of Contra Costa County
The congregation donates nonperishable items for distribution to emergency food programs. One-third of those served through these programs are children.
Winter Nights
Winter Nights is a rotating shelter for people seeking homes in Contra Costa County, sponsored by the Interfaith Council of Contra Costa County. Lafayette UMC and congregations from various faith traditions house homeless families at churches on a rotating basis. Congregations also provide meals, activities for the children and tutoring. The Interfaith Council provides professional staff for supervision during shelter hours, and daytime services such as job training and permanent housing placement assistance. This year LUMC will be hosting families in December.
Dress a Girl Around the World
Our Stitch-in-Time group gets together to cut patterns, sew dresses, and make pocket dolls that will go to children in need around the world. Many of the clothes we make go to Dress a Girl Around the World, a campaign under Hope 4 Women International (a 501(c)3 organization, a nondenominational, independent Christian organization. We dream of a world in which every girl has dignity and at least one new dress. We want girls to know they are worthy of respect, and that they are loved by God.
CROP Walk
Church World Services began the Christian Rural Overseas Program CROP Walk in 1947 to help Midwestern farmers share their grain with those who were hungry in post-WWII Europe and Asia. The first CROP Walk took place in 1969, where people raised money to help eradicate hunger by walking. In Contra Costa County, the CROP Walk takes place in Walnut Creek every autumn. The money raised supports the ministries of Church World Services, especially its hunger fighting efforts around the world. It also supports the Winter Nights family shelter in Contra Costa County.
Trust in Education
Lafayette citizen Budd McKenzie founded Trust in Education (TIE) to ease suffering and enhance the quality of life for Afghan children, women, and families. Through TIE, community members have helped distribute more than 50 tons of clothing and enough food for 900,000 meals in Afghanistan, contributed to the construction of schools, and collected education and medical supplies in the US for distribution in Afghanistan. For his tireless work, Budd has recently been chosen as one of the Dalai Lama’s 51 Unsung Heroes of Compassion.
The Adventure Project
Support for The Adventure Project creates life-saving products and services that improve entire communities by providing struggling families with the tools and skills to become profitable entrepreneurs. From training well mechanics to providing farmers with better irrigation systems, you’ll give people training—and dignity—year-round.
Katherine Parker
Katherine works in Nepal focusing on three areas: adolescent empowerment, including sexual reproductive health and rights and menstrual hygiene; maternal and child health; and on water, sanitation, and hygiene programs. She serves as a health and community advisor with the United Mission to Nepal and is sponsored by the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church.
Heifer International
Heifer International fights poverty and hunger around the world by providing animals to those in need along with training to foster self-sufficient farming. Moreover, the animal’s offspring are shared within the community. Thus, Heifer seeks not only to feed the hungry but to improve the standard of living of the entire community.
Angel Tree Program
Roughly 1,800 children are in the foster care system in Contra Costa County. Because holidays can be particularly hard on children displaced from their homes and families, the Angel Tree program was created in 1990. Volunteer donors from agencies and corporations all over the county provide gifts in response to the specific wishes of children in out-of-home placement the county.
Serving Within the Church
There are also opportunities to serve during worship!
- Greeters
- Ushers
- Liturgists (scripture reading, worship assistance)
- Sound/Video Tech
- Flower Donations for the worship altar and entryway