Jesus is our example.  He came to serve, heal, and minister to all people.  Although some ministries of the church are readily visible, other ministries serve quietly in the background.  Members of United Methodist Church of Livonia have big hearts and lovingly reach out into the community and beyond.

 

---

UMCL Serving our Community and Beyond

 

Thrift Shoppe, 6 Spring Street (the old Methodist Church building).  Open – Mask Required

Located at the old Methodist Church building on Spring Street, the Thrift Shoppe fills both floors with used clothing, household items, furniture, and much more.  Donated items are sorted, organized, and very reasonably priced.  Serving the community as a place that accepts usable items, the Thrift Shoppe contributes much more by helping families in need and donating a portion of their proceeds to worthy community agencies.

Donations are accepted any time the Thrift Shoppe is open.  No books or electronics, however most other items are accepted.  If you have a question, see one of the people at the Thrift Shop.

Hours: Thursday and Friday, 9AM to 4PM and Saturday 9 AM to 2 PM

 

---

Area Radio Broadcast

WYSL 1040 (Avon) broadcasts our church service every Sunday, 8 to 8:30 AM.  The service includes music, scripture, and the message.  The broadcast service was taped the previous Sunday.

www.wysl1040.com/

 

---

Serve Through Hands-on Opportunities:

Typically, each April students and adults from more than 50 churches in the Rochester area serve by improving homes, help with teen basketball and soccer camps, and with younger children in neighborhood Sidewalk Clubs to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to some of the neediest areas.  Several adults and a number of youth from UMCL give of their time each spring to help coordinate, supervise, and work during the week of Flower City Work Camp.  Due to COVID, the 2020 work camp was canceled.

April 2019, over 500 youth, plus adults, from more than 50 Rochester area churches brought light and hope to some of the neediest areas in Rochester.

 

Dress A Girl Around the World  “Dress a Girl Around the World is a Campaign under Hope 4 Women International (a 501 (c) 3 organization) bringing dignity to women around the world since 2006.  Hope 4 Women International is a nondenominational independent Christian organization.  We dream of a world in which every girl has at least one new dress.  We want girls to know that they are worthy of respect, and that they are loved by God.”

For the first time in March 2018, the women of UMCL collected fabric and notions for dresses, held a cutting party to cut and assemble dresses and notions into kits.  Kits with two dresses and supplies each were signed out and the completed dresses returned to the church.  Our Dress A Girl program, mentored by Browncroft Commuity Church, Rochester invited sewers, cutters, assemblers of kits and helping hands to participate in our mission campaign for DAG.

Approximately 400 dresses were completed in 2018 thanks to the generosity of all who contributed fabric and sewed the dresses together.  The 2019 cutting party prepared over 400 dresses, and 2020 nearly 400 dress kits were made.  These dresses were completed and delivered to Angles of Mercy in October.  The UMCL total dresses for the three years is nearly 1200.  State wide, New York sewers made over 650,000 dresses in 2019!

Dresses have been shipped to missionaries in Guatemala, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Haiti, and Eastern Europe.  Every year before the dresses leave UMCL, the church congregation prays over the dresses blessing them and the girls and young women who will wear them, praying  a hedge of protection over them.  See more photos of the March 2018 DAG and March 2020 cutting party.

UMCL welcomes donations of quality quilting cotton, lace, buttons, and bias tape, as well as help at the cutting party and sewing dresses together. For more information on UMCL Dress A Girl program, to donate supplies, and/or help, call Robin Bedson, 346-3623.

Operation Christmas Child is an outreach ministry of Samaritan’s Purse.  During the fall each year UMCL collects and packs Christmas wrapped shoe boxes with gender and age specific items, such as fun toys and stuffed animals, hygiene items and school supplies.  Shoe boxes are for children ages 2 through 14, sent all over the world, and often are the only gift a child will ever receive.  Over the years our church members, study groups, children, and youth groups have collected, packed, and donated hundreds of shoe boxes to Operation Christmas Child.

Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes report: United Methodist Church of Livonia collected 125 shoe boxes in 2019 and nearly 100 in 2019.  Finger Lakes West (Wayne, Monroe, Livingston, and Ontario County collection totaled over 19,000 shoe boxes.  Locally shoe boxes go to a church in Webster, are loaded into a tractor trailer, and head to Maryland to a distribution center where they are put in large boxes, into crates and onto pallets.

School Backpack Project.  Every year some of the children in our community would start school without a backpack and necessary school supplies, such as paper, pens, pencils, notebooks, and other things required by the school.  Through the generous gifts of money and school supplies from our members, backpacks are assembled by grade level to give to children in need at Livonia Central School so that they can start school right.

Toys for Tots.  As a part of this community wide program, UMCL members generously purchase and donate many new (unwrapped) toys selected for a specific (gender and age) needy child in the community.  Fellowship Hall at UMCL is used as the location for the monumental task of wrapping and organizing these gifts to be delivered before Christmas.  Annually this program benefits children from about 70 families.

 

Short-term and long-term mission experiences  In addition to mission experiences, some available through the United Methodist Church, each of our small groups has a particular mission project.  Some of these projects benefit our local area, others reach beyond our community into remote areas overseas, and may even include sponsoring a child overseas.  The projects are as varied as these groups.  Church members have also participated in short term missions to needy areas overseas and in Central America.

Puerto Rico Missions Trip – January 2019

Thirteen from UMCL along with eleven others (Rush UMC, Homer UMC) traveled to Puerto Rico to help rebuild in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, September 2017.   Over a year after the storm there is still much to do to rebuild churches, homes and infrastructure on the island.  Team members worked on construction projects building walls, roof trusses, and interior and exterior finishing to assist in the recovery to help our Puerto Rican brothers and sisters in Christ back to a “normal” life.  Read mission trip blog.  More mission trip photos.

---

Radical Hospitality

Radical hospitality is one of the marks of a servant Christian life.  That includes our church building, too.  At UMCL we see our building as a ministry tool.  To that end, we play host to a number of organizations, events and gatherings throughout the year.

Community use of the building is limited due to COVID-19.  Contact the church for more information.

Groups that have regularly used the UMCL building include AA, MOPS, Livonia Rotary, Red Cross (blood drives), and Zumba.

• AA Meetings – Sunday 8 PM, Monday/Tuesday 7:30 PM.  Women’s AA Wednesday 8 PM
• MOPS – Mothers of Preschoolers, 2nd & 4th Tuesdays, 9:15 – 11:15 AM

 

Join us for a meal:

Spaghetti Dinner – It seems like the entire community enjoys spaghetti.  Although we cannot gather inside for fellowship, the food is still wonderful.  Curb side pick up only.

2nd Wednesday of the month, 5:00 to 7:00 PM – Curb side pick up only

Cost: Donation

 

 

Annual Turkey Dinner.  Meet your family and friends at church and enjoy a traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings and dessert.  Cancelled for 2020 due to COVID restrictions.

On October 12, 2019 we served about 725 meals.  It was delicious, hope you were there.  Join us in 2021.  Date will be posted when scheduled.