By RJ Walters, Editor
Grand Rapids Metro Ministries
On Thursday, the Grand Rapids Metro Ministries of the UMC shed some light on some exciting projects that are in the works.
Four Grand Rapids groups and six UMCs altogether have been trained as communities of “shalom.”
The United Methodist Church’s Communities of Shalom, an 18-year-old mission, started in the Grand Rapids area in February and training wrapped up at the beginning of June.
The purpose of shalom communities is to assemble partners, evaluate their strengths and align them in a collective effort to improve the Eastown area near Trinity United Methodist Church.
“It’s an intentional strengthening of collaboration among local partners so we can assess one another’s strengths and utilize those strengths to accomplish what none of us could do individually,” said Valerie Mossman-Celestin, who works in the regional United Methodist Church office, in a February article in the Grand Rapids Free Press.
A shalom workshop will be held at 2:45 Friday as part of the annual conference workshops.
Metro Ministries also talked about the “Hands Across the City” initiative that is set to take place on Aug. 7, 2010.
This is a community service project that has a goal of getting at least 1,000 people from all over the area to pitch in for a variety of projects.
One of the undertakings will be a new playground at Garfield Park, which is being funded by more than $17,000 from the city of Grand Rapids.
More information is available at www.handsgr.org.
Love Link Fundraiser
A friendly battle has started up among the six West Michigan Conference districts at the 2010 Annual Conference.
The weapon of choice is currency and the overwhelming favorite to achieve victory are youth.
The “Love Links” fundraiser is making headway, raising money to address the needs of conference youth and young adults.
Seventy percent of donations go directly to the conference and 30 percent are disbursed nationally.
Each dollar given purchases a paper chain link for a district, to show off in this rivalry.
The goal of the project is $10,000 and some districts had made more progress than others as of 4 p.m. Thursday.
The Heartland District, spearheaded by a strong vocal effort of DS Bill Dobbs, had donated almost $2,000, while the Grand Rapids districts was at just $14.
The contest will continue through Sunday morning.
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