2021 Missions News

From Carol Bashore, Missions Committee Chair

Updated November 2021

Our Operation Smile drive to provide facial reconstruction surgery for children overseas was an overwhelming success. The four-month goal was to raise $2,500 to pay for ten operations. We were a little shy of that amount at the beginning of September.

After asking the congregation for a continued commitment towards this project, we received so many generous contributions that we now have enough money to purchase 16 surgeries at a cost of $4,000. Ten individual families purchased a full smile, and the remaining six were from all those who participated in this amazing mission. It should bring a smile to everyone’s heart to know that Lincoln Park Church is so committed to helping those in need. Thank you so very much.

Our Helping Harvest Food Drive provided over 210 pounds of food to help during the pandemic.

Many thanks to all who participated!

“You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.” — 2 Corinthians 9:11 (ESV)

July 1, 2021

Keep the Smiles Shining

As you know, we’re trying to raise money to bring smiles to children overseas who are born with a cleft pallet. Imagine how sad it would be to have never seen your child smile. Or imagine how hard it is for a child to have difficulty eating, speaking, and living with this visible deformity. Operation Smile Train can fix that issue for only $250 per child.

As we try to reach our goal to provide 10 surgeries, we thought it would be fun to share our own childhood smiles, given to us for free by our gracious God.

In July you’ll find a picture display in the Wagner Room of the sweet children of our church. We’ll all recognize their adorable smiles since we see them frequently at church. But, will we recognize our adults’ smiles from when they were young? If you’d like to make this fundraiser fun, please share a picture of yourself smiling as a child.

Post it on the display and write your name on an accompanying folded card that says “Guess Who.” Put the card next to your photo with your name hidden under the flap. After church services, it will be fun to gather around and try to match a young smile with a fellow congregant. Everyone will get their photos returned unharmed at the end of our drive.

Update: Our Helping Harvest Food Drive is off to a good start. We’ve collected over 100 pounds of food so far from those who have either brought their items with them to church or placed them in the bin on the porch of the office. Please, let’s continue with this simple but important nonperishable food collection throughout the summer. It’s so easy to drop off one item each week. Thanks.

May 3, 2021

There are still many people affected by the pandemic who are struggling to provide food for their families. Therefore, rather than waiting to complete a food drive, we recently donated a few hundred dollars to Helping Harvest.

However, we’d still like to collectively gather a substantial amount of food. We are challenging our church members to make the Wagner Room overflow with contributions. If every member of each family would drop off one or more items each Sunday until June it would be a huge sign of our generosity. If you have not yet returned to church, for health reasons, we’ll have a bin on the office porch to place donations.

Other members have made donations to UMCOR to assist with the flooded homes and electrical issues that occurred in Texas. Many thanks.

Congratulations! We have surpassed our goal for our Well Project, and it’s coming to a close. On May 23, we’ll present a check of $10,500 to our Methodist Bishop. That amount will purchase 14 wells for areas without access to clean water. This is four more wells than we initially planned to provide. Thank you to everyone who so generously made contributions to this important cause. The price to build each well is $750.  Six of the 14 wells were purchased by individual people. We should all celebrate this remarkable achievement. Bravo.

Our new Mission Project for 2021 is to collect money to provide surgery for poor children living overseas who suffer from a cleft mouth deformation. Each individual operation costs $250. Once again, our goal is to provide reconstruction to at least 10 or more children. Look for more information in our next News-Linc.

A generous person will prosper;
whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.
— Proverbs 11:25