Reaching out
|Carpenter's
Kitchen|Food Pantry |Group Homes|Family Crisis Center|
|Fellowship|10,000 Villages|Hospitals|
| Four Saturdays every year, volunteers from Long Green Valley Church head to downtown Baltimore to prepare and serve a meal to the homeless. | ||
| It started several years ago when the Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church saw a need for a weekend soup kitchen and invited churches from the county to participate. | |
Responding to the call, we decided to go beyond the government surplus food provided and serve meals we would put on our home tables. This we still do at "Carpenter's Kitchen." |
The first Sunday of every month, worshipers are encouraged to
bring in non-perishable goods to share with the less fortunate. These items are taken to
the Dundalk Church of the Brethren where they are distributed as needed.
Christmas is a special time for sharing. For the past several years we've enjoyed taking
parties to two group homes. One, the Jentry McDonald House, is a short term facility for
younger children who need a place to stay while their parents get their lives in order, or
other arrangements are made. The second is the Kanner House, a longer term home for
teenage boys. It has been fun returning year after year, watching these boys grow toward
manhood. Every young person in both homes receives at least two gifts, wrapped as part of
a "faith in action" Sunday School class. Singing, storytelling, face-to-face
sharing, and refreshments provide a fun time for all.
Originally an outreach of the Dundalk Church of the Brethren, the Family Crisis Center of Baltimore County provides a safe haven for women and children experiencing abuse at home. The shelter is equipped and staffed with children in mind. Counselors support families in trouble, both those needing protection within the shelter, as well as those trying to make it on their own.
Several of our members have served or continue to serve on the
board of directors. We also support this center through our church budget. The women in
our Mothers Together program collect items to share with the families in the shelter at
Christmas time.
Sharing a common Anabaptist heritage, the Church of the Brethren and Mennonite congregations of the Baltimore area get together for support and mission. Ministers meet on a monthly basis. Music Festivals have been held, joining together choirs and other musicians, a few weeks after Easter, using the new hymnals our denominations have jointly produced. Seminars have been planned for training members in such areas as urban ministry and teaching our new highly-rated children's Sunday School curriculum, "Jubilee," published by the Brethren and Mennonite Churches.
Congregations include: Dundalk Church of the Brethren (COB)
just east of the city, Faith Brethren in Christ located in Essex. First COB
in the Forest Park part of northwest Baltimore, Friendship COB, in the North
Linthicum area just south of the city, North Baltimore Mennonite Church in the
Roland Park section of Baltimore, Reisterstown (COB) northwest of Baltimore,
Wilkins Ave. Mennonite Church in the southwest part of the city, and Woodberry
COB, in the Hampden area of Baltimore, as well as our own congregation.
Recently begun as an outreach of the North Baltimore Mennonite Church, Ten Thousand Villages is a self-help store located in the Fells Point area of the city at 1621 Thames St. (410/342-5568). On sale are items made by artists in third-world countries, directly marketed here in the states, with most of the profit going back to the artist and not lost in between here and there. Several of our members volunteer at this store, which is a local outlet of a Mennonite Central Committee program (and not "officially" an outreach of this congregation).
A similar Brethren effort, SERRV,
has a store at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Maryland, 500 Main St.
(410/635-8711). Another store is located at the Cranberry Mall in Westminster, MD. In this
program, congregations (not limited to Brethren) can order and sell these self-help crafts
as part of a periodic bazaar. Many of our people regularly volunteer at New Windsor,
sorting and packing items from overseas for distribution.
A listing and a map of Hospitals in the Baltimore Metro
Area.
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