Ongoing Mission Efforts in Knoxville and Surrounding Area:

• Soup Kitchen – Weekly on Thursdays
• Sharing Shop – Monthly
• Wesley House Community Center – Support through regular giving & occasional workdays
• Dogwood Elementary School – Support through regular giving & occasional workdays
• Family Promise – Through Church of the Ascension
• Community School of the Arts – Calls Church Street home as its practice and performance space
• Justice Knox
• Sterchi Lodge
• Second Harvest Food Bank’s Food for Kids

Seasonal and Annual Mission Projects:

• School Supplies Drives
• Habitat for Humanity Builds
• Annual Holston Conference Hands-On Mission Projects
• Mission Day of Service (March or April annually)
• Youth and Children Advent and Lenten Mission Projects
• Thanksgiving Baskets with ministry partners and neighbors

Church Street is a member of the Holston Conference and part of the global United Methodist Church. We participate regularly in activities within the conference, as well as global UMC efforts, such as UMCOR, to bring services to communities in need around the world. UMCOR is the United Methodist Committee on Relief and is the global humanitarian aid and development organization of the United Methodist Church. UMCOR is a nonprofit 5013 organization operated under the auspices of the General Board of Global Ministries.

While Church Street’s main mission focus is in our own Knoxville backyard, we also support missionaries who are helping communities nationally at a UMC outpost in Willow, Alaska, and internationally at an orphanage in South Sudan, which is temporarily located in Uganda, displaced by war.

Hurricane Helene Flood Recovery

How does one prepare for a hurricane in the mountains of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina? You don’t, why would you? Hurricanes occur on coastlines and dissipate into manageable storms before reaching Southern Appalachia.

However, on September 27, the unthinkable happened – a downgraded post-tropical cyclone devastated the region, took lives, changed the landscape, and decimated homes and communities. We all remember the images news stations broadcast and individuals posted on every social platform. The images are seared into our minds, but you may not know how Church Street UMC and partner churches were on site, bringing hope within a few days of the storm.

Within days of the storms, volunteers from Church Street, Concord UMC, and many other churches could be found hauling water and other essentials to Greenville, TN, and the surrounding area. Our connection with Sarah Varnell, former CSUMC Associate Pastor, provided valuable direction to the greatest need. Soon, Robert Bedwell and Pam Arnett, through connections in Knoxville, went to Mountain City in Johnson County, TN. The need was great and immediate.

They connected with Dewayne Dixson, Pastor of 1st Christian Church in Johnson County, who manages the needs and available resources coming through the county. To date, he maintains a list of over 150 families that need significant help moving forward. Groups of volunteers from Church Street and Concord UMC began making their way to Mountain City, bringing much more than able bodies and a willing spirit; they were bringing hope.

Allen and Lori are the first family that our volunteers served. Their house was utterly destroyed, but they waved our volunteers off and told them to help others because they owned a daycare they could live in for the time being. Next, our volunteers met Janet and Danny Ray, who were days away from leveling what was left of their house. Janet works at the Post Office in Mountain City, and everywhere the crew goes, locals ask if they are the people helping Janet and Danny Ray. As a result, hope began to grow in the whole community. Janet and Danny Ray will receive a new modular home thanks to the generosity of many.

The crew returned to Allen and Lori and began to help them renovate their daycare and turn it into their home. They needed to eliminate much of the daycare equipment to make space for home furnishings. Allen and Lori donated some of the equipment to Church Street’s newly reopened child daycare and other agencies that needed the supplies.

The work completed is amazing: new floors, sheetrock, windows, and walls. Our volunteers do not do it for the thank yous; however, the families they have served have called them “angels come to help.” That means more than anyone could imagine.

Trips to the region will continue, including opportunities over the weekend for those who work during the week. You can watch the Messenger for more information. To be added to The Messenger, email communications@churchstreetumc.org.