Wellspring United Methodist Church
Monday, May 21, 2012
Open Hearts Open Minds Open Doors

Reaching Out

Outreach

 Special Services
We have organized special worship services such as Blue Christmas (we served a meal of bread and soup following the services and donated left-overs as well as coats and winter gear to a local homeless shelter), and put together a Living Nativity for our outdoor Christmas Eve service in Dean Park.
 
Special Events
The Wellspring congregation was extremely generous in donating over 335 pounds of food to the Worcester County Food Bank in March 2005 and we continue organizing food drives on an ongoing basis.
 
Wellspring has also been focusing on what we call “Horticulture Evangelism”, planting seeds in the hearts of people and sometimes in the ground too! Since June 2005, a team of dedicated “gardeners” have created every year a little piece of heaven in an alley between two old brick buildings in the heart of Worcester. Wellspring has indeed volunteered to adopt Abby’s House* “Garden” in Worcester, which will allow women and children finding shelter within the building to spend some time outside in a beautiful environment during the summer months. The project was pretty ambitious and involved landscaping, planting, and also requesting donations of plants. It was a tremendous success and the feedback was amazing. The women of Abby’s House were so delighted by their gardent that they asked Wellspring to come back in 2006 to replant and even create a second garden at another location!
  
Every year, we participate in the Spirit of Shrewsbury celebration in September. We usually host a Wellspring booth and distribute free popcorn or free water bottles to the crowd. We also participate in the parade with our own Wellspring float.
 
We have organized several very successful hot chocolate give-aways in front of the Christmas Tree Shops in Shrewsbury during the winter months. At each event, we have served over 8 gallons of hot chocolate to the local shoppers. Each cup was given away with a “God Loves You” card including information about Wellspring.
 
This hot chocolate give-away event was modified to become an Easter chocolate and free children craft event to advertise our Easter services.
 
Wellspring also often hosts servant evangelism events such as free car washes (the last one on the Walmart parking lot was very successful!).
  
Let’s pray God to help us pass on the miracle, to help us continue planting the seeds of His Word around us. We pray God to help us be fishers of men.
 
For more information contact Sabina Terrades, sterrades@hotmail.com.

Jamaican Ministry

Coordinated by Alden and Sharon Miller of Westborough for many years, this ministry has typically arranged six non-denominational services for Jamaican men working on local farms during the growing season. These services, at the Northborough Grange Hall are usually attended by 15 to 25 workers and a few locals who act as hosts and coordinators. Pastor Abraham Waya, supported by some of the workers, leads a very inspiring service of Jamaican music, some testimonials and then an informal snack session at closure that allows time for the workers to chat with each other. The meeting highlight of the year is the September meeting with a traditional Jamaican barbeque of goat, with beans, rice and salad; all prepared by the workers in the kitchen.

This is an important part of the life of these men, away from family and friends for the season and is the only opportunity for them to meet with workers from nearby farms. Transportation is always an issue and usually provided through the kindness and support of their employer. Some of these men have worked at the same farm for over ten years and have solid friendly relationships with both the host farmers, other Jamaican workers and in some instances local families.

Mission

Many members of the Wellspring congregation participated in several work missions to Camp Wanakee, a United Methodist Center in Meredith, New Hampshire. After considerable in-house discussion we decided that our first outreach mission would be to provide our time and talent on a local basis and have fun doing it by offering a group of workers to help at a local Methodist facility.

The Wanakee Camp Director welcomed our intent and selected some brush clean-up projects that needed to be accomplished before formal camp opening. The project was clearing around the remains of a 150 year old house foundation. When that task was completed we were asked to locate the boundaries and remains of the nearby barn and dug well and clean them up as well. This site will be used during the active season as a way of showing campers how people established a farmstead and lived in this area 150 years ago. After completing all assigned tasks the Wellspring work crew toured the entire camp site.