Thursday, September 29, 2011

You Can Make a Difference - One Person at a Time

Our mission, "Through the sharing of God's love, we seek out and assist those in need, so all may live their lives more fully and more capably," is put into action through the programs and services we offer at InterServ.


We help working parents by ensuring that they have access to quality affordable care for their children. The children who come to our centers gain the skills they need to be successful in school and in life. We help older adults to maintain their independence by providing access to nutritious noon meals through our senior nutrition and mobile meals programs, and to in home care and other services such as Lifeline emergency response. We provide food orders to families who are struggling to keep food on their tables. Last month we were able to provide 545 food orders. We provide a safe place for youth to come after school where recreation programs help to build character and values that will last a lifetime. Volunteers are an integral part of our success. Last month we helped to connect 158 volunteers with meaningful work that makes a difference in our communtiy.


We are grateful for the support of our community and we give thanks to those who partner with us to share God's love in a very tangible and meaningful way.


We will host a special celebration to honor our donors at Ashland United Methodist Church on Thursday, October 27th from 4-6 pm. Please join us as we share thanks with people who support our organization and help to keep it strong.


You can help to make a difference - one person at a time. Join InterServ as we live out our mission - one person at a time.


"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, and whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." Philippians 4:8

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Rethinking Church & Putting Love into Action


This weekend, churches in St. Joseph, Missouri are putting their love into action by helping InterServ and Community Missions with projects that will help benefit programs that help people to live their lives more fully and more capably.

On Saturday, United Methodists will gather at the Community Missions campus (Juda House and Haven) and build a storage structure and a shaded area for InterServ and its related organization, Community Missions. Another group of Methodists will bring a sack lunch for those who will be working on the construction projects. Still another group of Methodists will bring truckloads full of paper and hygiene items to be distributed through InterServ and Community Missions. Across town, an ecumenical group of church goers will gather at First Christian church for morning reflections about poverty as part of a "Journey to Justice" experience. Participants will then go to one of eleven different work sites to hear first-hand accounts of how lives have been changed by the agencies working to fight poverty in St. Joseph. Finally, InterServ staff and volunteers will work to move items for a family affected by the recent flooding as another act of sharing God's love with people in need.

On Sunday, still more Methodist church members will help out by replacing house numbers on the homes of some of the people who receive Mobile Meals. At 4:00 p.m. InterServ's Retired and Senior Volunteer Program will honor volunteers with an appreciation event at the Firefighter's Hall on A Highway. Our oldest volunteer is 102 years old and the person with the most lifetime volunteer hours has volunteered over 12,000 hours of service!

I am proud to be part of this wonderful organization and to see how people from faith communities all over the city are putting their love into action - not just this weekend, but every day. God's love is truly amazing.