Thanking Rev. Brian Dale and Ministry Update

As you know by now, Rev. Brian Dale has been appointed to Bagdad United Methodist Church and will be leaving in the coming weeks. As his time with us winds down, I want to invite the congregation to participate in a Love Offering for Brian.

You can give online, by mail (P.O. Box 795, Shalimar, Fl. 32579), or by text by June 3rd (please mark Brian Dale Love Offering). This gift will be given to the Brian and Sue on June 7th. We will also offer a special honor to David on his last Sunday. You can find a save the date in the Beacon about an exciting parade to honor the Dales occurring on June 7th.

I featured several ministry updates in the last Beacon, and this week, I would like to focus on the Food Drive. I asked Pete Peters to share from his heart about the last five weeks. Here is his summary:

Two months ago, most of us couldn’t spell “Zoom,” and now that’s all we hear. SUMC is fortunate to have folks out there on the front line helping those in need. We all know there are people in our community and our church family that do not have Zoom or even the ability to Livestream. In fact, they are struggling to pay utility bills, put food on the table, or clothe their children. In the first week of April, the SUMC Missions team voted to do something about this problem in our community. The committee voted to divert funds from their overseas mission budget to a new COVID-19 Support Account. Going into the 6th week, the Missions team and volunteers have been collecting food every M-W-F and handing it out to those in need. Since starting, we have seen an increase of families with needs. Not only have we handed out food (over 4 tons to date), but we also have handed out over $3,000 in gift cards. The mission has impacted over 200 families so far! We have even helped folks with paying rent and utilities as needed. This has also married well with other outreach programs like Sharing and Caring and, especially, Blessings for Children, because we refer everyone with children to that valuable mission as well.

God is present in all we do, but never have I seen God’s love displayed more than when people (“Cheerful Givers”) who donate food ask what else can they do to help the recipients who are so humble and quite sad to be in this situation (“Tearful Receivers”). We on the front line are blessed to see God’s love each and every day!

We even have two individuals who were embarrassed to ask for help but needed food for their families. They both wanted to help in some way and have come every single day to help with collections and distributions.

If you are tired of Zoom, please contact us and come help! Donation are still needed!
DROP OFF 9-11 and PICK UP 10:30-11:30 M-W-F at the FLC

We are grateful to Pete and all the volunteers who have made this possible. It is so amazing to see our congregation use their gifts to serve our community! We have seen our church really step up during this time, and it is most exciting.