Our Ministries
Outreach Opportunities
The Outreach Ministry Team (OMT) together with the Hunger & Poverty Team (H & P) is the primary agency of the Lancaster Church of the Brethren (LCOB) to reach out locally and beyond to help people in need. We take the scripture from the Hebrew Bible and the teaching of Christ seriously. If not before, Isaiah gives us a command to help the poor. Jesus tells us, “What you have done for these, you have done for me.”
We are involved in fulfilling this command in many ways. More so considering the staggering poverty just in Lancaster County, where one in 10 live below the poverty line.
See below the many areas you are able to be part of this mission. To find out how you may get involved contact Otto Schaudel, OMT chair, at schaudel@hotmail.com.
Hygiene Kits
LCOB works with Church World Service to provide “Hygiene Kits” for distribution around the country and around the world, wherever the need arises. Within the past year, a 40-foot container with blankets, kits baby items and medical supplies has gone to Zambia. Other hygiene kits have been distributed to homeless and low-income families and shelters in New Mexico, New Jersey, California, Michigan and Florida. In the face of natural disasters, violence, or grinding poverty, Hygiene Kits can mean the difference between sickness and health for struggling families.
Get Involved
Please consider providing items for our hygiene kits or support us financially.
A Hygiene Kit consists of:
- One hand towel measuring approximately 16″ x 28″ (no fingertip or bath towels)
- One washcloth
- One wide-tooth comb
- One nail clipper
- One bar of soap (bath size in wrapper)
- One toothbrush (in original packaging)
- Six standard size Band-Aids®
Place all items in a one-gallon plastic bag with a zipper closure, remove excess air from bag and seal. Cartons of toothpaste that have an extended expiration date will be added to Hygiene Kit shipments just prior to shipment.
We will assemble the kits in April 2012. To financially support this endeavor you may write a check to the LCOB, memo line Hygiene Kits.
Hygiene Kit value: $10
Processing/Shipping Cost: $2 per Kit
In addition to the 1200 hygiene kits that LCOB provides each year to CWS, we also go to New Windsor, Maryland, several times a year to help “process” Hygiene Kits sent there by other organizations from around the country. All of the kits need to be checked to insure that only the above items listed are in the kits that are sent out. This insures that all kits are as identical as possible so that no one at the receiving end of the process receives less than another. Additional volunteers are always welcome. If your group would like to schedule an event, please contact Russell Adsitt at rus_linda@peoplepc.com or at (717) 569‑0278 for more details.
Giving Tree
Lancaster County Council of Churches has a Christmas Gift program that Lancaster Church of the Brethren participates in every year. A Christmas tree will be placed in the Sanctuary and the Family Life Center on the first Sunday of Advent.
Get Involved
On these trees are ornaments with children’s names and suggestions of a gift for that child. Each child will be listed on the tree twice, with one gift of clothing/shoes and one for a toy and /or surprise. You may take the ornament and buy a gift and return the gift wrapped with the ornament (including childs name) attached to package by a date that will be specified later with further directions. Then the gifts are bagged for each family and delivered to LCCC later that week, so the gifts can be delivered to the families before Christmas. If a gift is not returned in time for the delivery, someone from LCOB will need to buy the gift, for there will be several children in a family and we don’t want to miss anyone.
This is another successful program that LCOB participates in, so pick your ornaments early. Watch for further announcements about the Giving Tree coming soon.
Any Questions call Cindy Harmes at (717) 569‑5277 or Ellen Weaver at (717) 290‑1715 or ellensweaver@gmail.com.
SERRV
For more than 60 years, beginning after the end of WWII, SERRV has worked to eradicate poverty in poverty stricken and third-world countries by marketing their crafts and foods. They support their artisan and farmer partners in making sustainable development choices with materials and production techniques, financial resources and social programs that benefit entire communities.
As a nonprofit organization, they use all proceeds from sales and donations to promote these values in the 36 countries where they work.
To SERRV:
- To promote a sustainable way of life
- To value the lives of others
- To believe in the goodwill of people
- To build a strong community
- To live and to cherish
- To enrich and be enriched
- To share in and take reward from
- To treat friends and enemies as the same
- To participate to live to breathe
- To create a better future
- To restore a damaged planet
- To embrace a better lifestyle
- To enrich the time I have with others
- To add value comfort and support
- To inspire others to SERRV
- To eradicate poverty, wherever it resides
LCOB works with SERRV by volunteering at their New Windsor, Maryland warehouse to process gift items and crafts from bulk packages so that they are ready for individual sale. Bulk cases are unpacked, items are checked for damage and then they are priced for individual sale. These items are then repacked as individual units. We usually work about six hours in the processing center and are provided a lunch in return. Time for shopping is allotted and discounts are given.
Get Involved
We usually schedule trips to SERRV during the months of January–March (weather permitting) and July–September. This coincides with their heavy work periods. If you would like more information or want to schedule a trip for your group, please contact Russell Adsitt at rus_linda@peoplepc.com or at (717) 569‑0278.
2¢ a Meal Project
Some time ago, in order to help feed the hungry locally through the Lancaster Counsel of Churches and globally, through the Brethren Mission and Ministry Board, we initiated the 2¢ a Meal project. We ask our people to bring 2¢ for every meal as an offering. 1/3 is used by the LCCC, 2/3 goes to fight global hunger through our Mission & Ministry Board.
Homeless Children in Lancaster Be an Angel
For the past few years, LCOB has provided school uniforms to the more than 1000 homeless children in Lancaster City. During July and August we collect donations, cash and specified uniforms, as well as school supplies to be made available to this organization, headed by Ken Marzinko. In 2011, LCOB provided 475 uniforms and school supplies with a total value of $10,195.
Get Involved
We take donations throughout the year through checks to the LCOB, memo ‘Be an Angel’. For more information, contact Lois Hansell at hansell2@comcast.net.
LCOB is also involved in the resettling of Refugees. In the past year, LCOB has helped six families from Sudan, Russia and Iraq. This is an ongoing project.
Bridge of Hope
Bridge of Hope is another agency to help fight homelessness which we support. It helps single mothers to become self sufficient and independent and make affordable housing available for her and her children. For further information, contact Executive Director Francesca Cane at (610) 280‑0280 or toll free at (866) 670-HOPE.
Into the Neighborhood Committee
Into the Neighborhood Committee’s (INC) goals are to get to know the neighborhood better, to respond to the needs of the community, and to coordinate projects with area churches.
Get Involved
Get involved by attending INC events or contact the church office to be connected with one of our committee members via email at office@lancob.org.
Into the Neighborhood Committee members include Calvin Wenger, Cindy Lattimer, Jeff Rill, Monroe Allen Hansell, Hank & Theresa Herr, David Hosler, Kathryn Riegen, and Suzanne Schaudel.
Update
Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser for the Sebest Family
Suzanne Schaudel hands over donations from the Spaghetti Dinner to Andi and Jim Sebest
Jim Sebest and his wife Andi
The first big project that INC organized was a Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser for the Sebest Family on June 4, 2011. LCOB planned this event with assistance from Grandview United Methodist and St. Matthew Evangelical Lutheran with a goal of raising between $20,000 and $25,000 to help with the purchase of a “standing wheelchair” for Jim Sebest who suffered a catastrophic swimming accident in August 2010 leaving him paralyzed from the shoulders down.
Jim Sebest proudly shows off his standing wheelchair
The Sebests live on Louise Avenue, in the Grandview Heights area of Manheim Township. The Spaghetti Fundraiser was more successful than we could have ever imagined. In the end, more than $34,000 came in earmarked for the Sebest family. This money helped the Sebests to purchase a standing wheelchair allowing Jim to get himself into a standing position without the need of three adults to lend assistance. This special wheelchair helps with circulation and general health more than a normal motorized wheelchair can do. The Sebests have been overwhelmed with such outpouring of love and help to their family.
Thank you from the Sebest Family
To the family that is the Lancaster Church of the Brethren,
I am truly blessed. I am truly humbled. And I am truly amazed. God takes such care of us. In the midst of what seemed like the worst, He sent his very best. He sent his angels not only to pick us up and carry us thru, but to lift us up and change our perspective. Life is an amazing adventure. The family that is LCOB is an extraordinary group of people. We can’t thank you enough for all you have done for us. The spaghetti dinner fundraiser was simply beyond anything I imagined. Our heartfelt thanks to everyone involved.
To whosever idea it was, to the people who planned it, to the people who executed it, to the people who donated food and time, to the people who attended it, to the people who cleaned up after—hank you more than you will ever know. I am amazed by your generosity, your spirit, your devotion. What you have done for us is such a gift. Because you see, it is not only the financial help with the wheelchair and the medical expenses, which is amazing and wonderful, but the way in which I now see life. I know with an amazing clarity that everything is going to be okay. I know that God has got me. I know I can live my life without fear. No matter what. He sent his angels. His very best. Thank you all for being our angels!
With heartfelt love and appreciation,
The Sebest Family
Jim, Andi, Addison and Olivia
Other INC Events
Film Discussion Night—INC (LCOB’s Into the Neighborhood Committee) has planned a movie night on Sunday evening, March 25, 2012 in the Family Life Center at the Lancaster Church of the Brethren, beginning at 6:45 pm. The movie “Invictus”, with a running time of 134 min, will be shown. The film opens in 1990, just as Nelson Mandela is being released from prison after serving a 27-year sentence. Four years later, Mandela is elected president of South Africa. Taking note of the racial divide that still runs through his country, Mandela urges his people to look to the future instead of remaining stuck in the past, and begins to see the Springbok — South Africa’s mostly white rugby team — as a powerful means of promoting his agenda for social change. Popcorn and drinks will be served. Child care will also be available; please contact Jamie Nace at 940‑1790 by March 22, if child care is needed. Following the film, Dave Hosler will lead the group in a discussion. This invitation is extended to all in the neighborhoods surrounding the churches in the Grandview Heights area. Please plan to join us and bring your friends for the showing of this inspiring film.
Our first community movie night was held in October, 2011. We watched the movie ‘Paperclips,’ a thought-provoking documentary of how the students of a small middle school in Tennessee created a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust with a project that began by collecting paperclips to represent the 11 million persons who perished in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany.
Prayer Breakfast—When a small group of persons gathered early on a Wednesday morning in 1987 for a simple Prayer Breakfast, little did they know that 25 years later the Prayer Breakfast would still be going strong. Members, friends and neighbors in the community are invited to stop by any Wednesday morning at 6:50 to join in an hour of sharing food and concerns for others.