Opportunities
Breakfast Mission Dates 2012Interested in volunteering to serve breakfast to the less fortunate? Sign up for one of the following dates: Jan 29th, March 11th, May 13th, July 8th, Sept 9th, Dec 9th. Contact Greg Dickey, 215.527.3437 gregd52@comcast.net
Mission Outreach Committee
The Mission Outreach Committee
meets the 4th
Monday of each month. We
plan and review trips to respond to disasters, reaching out to
communities in need with hands on support.
trip logs
Church members travel to Allentown bimonthly to cook, serve, & provide devotions.
Our winter sleep out in cardboard boxes & tents raised $4,400+ for the homeless.
New Gosh's mission team has travelled throughout the country to rebuild lives. trip logs
Breakfast Mission
Feeding the Hungry
There are 65 to 100 hungry souls, ranging in age from 4 to 85, which come to St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Allentown, PA, every Sunday morning for a free hot breakfast. We at New Goshenhoppen UCC are grateful to be afforded the opportunity to be a part of this magnificent community outreach. The main menu at breakfast typically consists of hash browns, sausage, juice, coffee, milk and cereal, along with eggs, French toast or pancakes. Our church members travel to St. Paul’s on a bimonthly basis throughout the year to cook, serve, and provide devotions for those most in need.
Our church’s participation, known as the Breakfast Mission, grew out of a desire to provide some type of service activity for the Rite of Confirmation process. Young people, age 14 and older, could be enrolled by their parents in our Confirmation program, either as a means to let them affirm the vows made for them in the Sacrament of Baptism, or to enable those not yet baptized to receive the Sacrament upon their own confession of faith.
The Confirmation process, running from September to May, involves Sunday morning and Wednesday evening classes, attendance at regular worship services, and a weekend retreat. The desire to establish supplemental activities outside the typical classroom instruction was seen as an ideal way to help these young people experience first hand the spiritual benefits of Christian service to others.
I was aware of a past trip that the class had made to a soup
kitchen in the Allentown area and contacted the Salvation Army
in an attempt to explore this option. I was informed that St.
Paul’s Lutheran Church in downtown Allentown held a weekly
community
breakfast on Sunday mornings, and was put in touch with their
coordinator, Jane Frederick
That
initial contact in August 2002, has led to yearly Confirmation class trips
to St. Paul’s to cook and serve breakfast, as well as lead devotions. The
response from the students and parents has been overwhelmingly positive from
the very beginning. In fact, many students mention the profound impact of
that experience in their end-of-year faith statements
This extraordinary experience by our Confirmation class led us to the logical conclusion that ALL church members could, and should be afforded the opportunity to travel to St. Paul’s. Thus was born the Breakfast Mission that exists today. All those who have participated to date, well over 100 individuals, would agree that God has shown us just how blessed we are, and how we can let our light shine for His glory.
Greg Dickey
215.527.3437
gregd52@comcast.net
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