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What Will the Week Look Like?
Morning/Day
Serving begins on Monday. Each morning will start off with an intern led devotion in order to shape our focus and hearts. Teams will enjoy a continental breakfast and also pack their lunch while at Hyde Park Community UMC. Next, your team, including an intern, will leave to serve with a ministry partners for the day. Interns will partner with the leaders of each team in guiding the teams to have a heart for service and look for serving opportunities each day. Any needed materials or supplies for service will be provided.
Evening
After work, teams will return to Hyde Park Community UMC for showers and time to decompress. Dinner will be served at the church followed by worship and reflection. The rest of the evening teams can explore the city of Cincinnati (we have a list of our favorite things to do) or spend time at the church.
A Time for Adventure!
The only exception to the afternoon/evening schedule is Wedensday. After work, teams will be “on their own” for dinner and evening activities. We suggest enjoying Cincinnati chili or another local restaurant and an evening adventure. We are happy to help you plan your evening before you arrive. Ideas for Wednesday evening: Scene 75 – dinner and game packages available Cincinnati Reds Game Coney Island Water Park (group rate of $15/person for groups of 15 and over) Cincinnati Progressive Dinner and Escape Room
Friday/Final Day
Friday is the last day of serving! Teams will return to the church after serving for a final debrief and group send off by 5:00p. You are welcome to travel home that evening or stay one more night and enjoy the city!
Mission Partners & Theme
- A children’s camp run at Wesley Chapel Mission Center in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood
- The summer camp at Stepping Stones (serving children with disabilities)
- Building chicken coops and teaching about at home gardening with children at Madisonville Education and Assistance Center
- Providing lunch and spending time with the residents at the Center for Respite Care
- Serve with Discover Jubilee to rehab houses in order to provide safe, affordable housing in Cincinnati
- Partner with Calvary Hilltop for their Summer Food Program with children and engage them with farming and other learning activities. This site is also a great capital improvement opportunity by partnering with Discover Jubilee.
- Creating “new home” boxes for families and/or going on the deliveries of furniture with New Life Furniture
- Creating the boxes for meals and packing snack boxes for the Meals on Wheels program at Wesley Community Services.
- Wesley Foundation added another house for their campus ministry at University of Cincinnati. Groups helped to prepare the house for students moving in by furnishing, cleaning, organizing, and gardening.
- Painting the exterior of State Ave. UMC a faith community in the Lower Price Hill neighborhood.
- UMC Food Ministry provided over 2 million meals to children in 2018. Not only will most of our meals come from this organization, we will also partner with them as a mission site to prep and serve food to children.
- Sunday’s welcome dinner was catered by Venice on Vine. Teams made an impact by supporting a restaurant committed to training people with barriers to employment while enjoying delicious dinner and learning about the history of Cincinnati.
Playing on the year 2020 – the theme 2020 Vision: Prophets of the Past and Present will emphasize God’s Kingdom work through generations – including this current one!
A prophet is one who names a situation truthfully. Prophets share in the problems and in the gifts of grace as they seek to guide the future toward a better and just future for all. Not only will we explore the prophets of the Old Testament, but we will also learn about prophets in the present and not so distant past (examples: Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, Dom Helder Camara, Howard Thurman, Mother Teresa, Richard Rohr, Brene Brown, Shane Claiborne, Anne Lamont, Bob Goff, etc.).
Finally, time and reflection will be spent on how we are called to be prophetic today so that we can live more into the Kingdom here on earth! Now, more than ever, we need courageous prophets as today’s leaders to speak truth to power – calling for justice and compassion for all!
This year will run similarly, though there may be alterations, additions, or deletions depending on the needs of our ministry partners. Interns will have experience working with each of the ministry partners. They will be knowledgable our partner’s ministry and able to answer questions that your group may have (things like where is the bathroom, what kind of program do they run, what do we need to bring today, etc). Interns will serve alongside their team.
