ToTheLeastToTheLost.com

Tasks

Our mission is to reveal needs in our community and world and empower others to take part in meeting them.

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Open Our Doors to the Homeless During Dangerously Cold Weather This Winter

Our Mission: When the temperature drops below 25 degrees for 4-5 hours on a given day, we'll invite our homeless guests to the Mt. Bethel UMC campus.

How to Participate: By 11am on days we're able to go, a message announcing that we are opening our doors will be posted on OpeningOurDoors.com and our Twitter account (@OpeningOurDoors). All current and urgent announcements will be posted only in those two places. Volunteer information and registration will be located on OpeningOurDoors.com. An email will also be sent to those who are on the mailing list (You can sign up here to receive them.) To receive text message updates from our Twitter account, text "Follow OpeningOurDoors" to 40404—no registration required.

Questions? Contact Randy Hudon or Gaylyn Kelly
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Donate 100,000 Books to Help Kids in Athens Succeed

Our Mission: We'll partner with Books for Keeps, a 501(c)(3) non-profit in Athens, Georgia, to help them end 'summer slide', a reading achievement loss that contributes significantly to the achievement gap between children from low-income families and their fellow students. According to the 2010 Census, Athens' 39% poverty rate now ranks #1 in the nation for cities its size. Summer slide is a real problem, often due to a simple lack of access to books outside of school. Books for Keeps will give 12 books each to over 7,000 children, empowering them to read all summer long. Your books can improve a child’s chances for academic success, and help end the cycle of generational poverty in Athens.

Goals: We want to collect 100,000 books, which will then need to be sorted, inspected, and packed by volunteers and transported to Athens.

Questions? Contact Donna Lachance for information about Books for Keeps and our involvement.

Update: We've collected and transported about 25,000 books to Athens, GA in a month! Although we didn't make it to 100,000 books, we've made substantial contribution to an important organization. We will no longer be keeping the large storage unit for drop-off, but you can still bring books to Mt. Bethel's front office, and we'll make sure it gets to Books for Keeps. You can still make a tax-deductible donation to the Books for Keeps "Wimpy Kid Campaign", an effort to fund deep-discount purchase opportunities for the rarely-donated, most-requested book titles. A donation of $25 will buy 12 of the most popular books. You can donate online or by check through Mt. Bethel UMC—just specify "Books for Keeps" on the memo line. You can also use your leftover Amazon gift cards to purchase books from Books for Keeps’ Amazon Wish List. These books are shipped directly to their warehouse.
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Construct a Basketball Court at St. Philip UMC

Our Mission: We'll construct a basketball court on St. Philip property for the community to enjoy and build relationships with one another and church members.

Goals: We need $5,000 for materials and labor to build the court.

What We're Doing: We're selling drawstring bags with the TotheLeastTotheLost.com logo with the proceeds going directly to aid in this project. You can order one online and pick it up at Mt. Bethel UMC or get one on Sunday, August 14 after the service. Any additional funds beyond what's needed will be saved for a future task.

Questions? Contact Jon Ponders (678-560-7441) for information about St. Philip UMC and the building of the basketball court.

Update: Task complete! Check out pictures of the work or watch the video above for recap! You can continue to donate and purchase drawstring bags; extraneous funds are kept in a separate account dedicated to projects on this site and will be applied to future needs.
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Build Two Homes through Habitat For Humanity

Our Mission: We'll build two homes for two families in our community who need them.

Goals: We need $120,000 for materials and labor to build the homes.

What We're Doing: For the 18th year, we will host the Habitat Road Race (5K/One-Mile/Habitot Trot) on Saturday, October 1. All proceeds from the race are used to fund the building of these homes. Runners, joggers, racers, children, and 'phantom runners' (sponsors) are welcome to participate!

Questions? Visit HabitatRoadRace.com for more information and contacts.

Update: The Habitat Road Race was a huge success! We had 850 people register to either participate or 'phantom run' and raised $109,000 as of October 11. The new homes were dedicated on Saturday, October 29.

Stories

Vases with Verses

Each Tuesday morning at The Garden, Kathy Hoppe leads an art class for the residents there. Kathy, a former art teacher, had visited the facility earlier in the year and was moved to do something. "A woman, especially a woman with children, who has no financial and or family support, is in a desperate situation," says Kathy. "Without ministries like The Garden, they find themselves homeless and helpless."

After much prayer and talking with the Mt. Bethel advocate, Jackie Gallentine, Kathy felt called to get involved at The Garden and began what is now called Vases with Verses. Kathy commented that "God has called many Mt. Bethel members to this ministry in many different ways." She felt that she was being called to use her artistic skills for art therapy and fundraising activities.

Beginning this past fall, Kathy began taking recycled vases to The Garden and teaching the residents how to paint art and scripture on them. Currently, they have painted 325 vases with Christmas being the most recent theme. In January, they plan on continuing the vase painting with a Valentine’s theme.

Along with providing art lessons to the residents, Kathy’s Vases with Verses serves as a fundraiser that allows the residents to contribute to the needs at the Garden. "Pastor Seven wants them to take some responsibility for assisting in this ministry," says Kathy. The vases are not "for sale" but rather are given to anyone who would like one for a suggested $20 donation. They suggest that the donors might use the vase to gift it to someone who needs encouragement or inspiration. The donations will be used to improve the restrooms and to help fund the art materials for art therapy activities.

Caring for Soldiers

From ProjectMailCall.com:

As of September 11, 2011, volunteers of Project Mail Call have packed and mailed 3,635 customized boxes weighing 57,310 pounds: over 28.5 tons. The custom-packed boxes were mailed to 3,108 military units representing 98,484 military personnel in 27 countries. Working out of Ed and Mary [Ettel's] basement in 170 packing sessions for seven years, 3,354 volunteers have packed boxes, and 12,267 people have written letters that were included in the boxes.

Read the rest of Project Mail Call's Story.

Lemonade

Alexis Kennedy decided to serve a local ministry, 7 Bridges to Recovery in Atlanta. Our family and several others at Mt. Bethel Christian Academy have helped with this ministry before serving meals, playing with homeless children and their mothers. The 7 Bridges to Recover is a non-profit ministry rescuing the least and the lost from the streets of Atlanta and beyond.

Read the rest of Alexis's Story.