Nehemiah Mission 2019
In August, a group of Members from WUMC went to Nehemiah Mission in Cleveland for a week. Organizer Russ Line wrote the reflection below.
On August 25th, seven members of WUMC, Frank Birinyi, Paul George, Jerry Knorr, Jim Lawrence, Russ Line, Doug Scott, and Duane Snyder, and one member of Prospect Street UMC in Marion, Pete Stambazze, drove to Cleveland for an Adult Mission Trip. John Ma joined us later in the week for a couple of days. Four participants left after work on Wednesday.
We stayed at The Nehemiah Mission of Cleveland which is associated with the United Methodist Church. Their mission continues to evolve in order to meet the various needs of those families in the neighborhood and to provide a variety of services. Nehemiah continues to use mission teams to help on rebuilding and maintenance projects. Instead of taking on this work themselves, they have partnered with Community Housing Solutions who provide projects, supplies, and supervision.
We stayed in air conditioned dorm rooms at the mission. We fixed our breakfast four days (cereal and bagels) and a hot breakfast was prepared for us the other day. All the fixings for lunch and snacks were provided, along with coolers and ice to keep our water bottles and lunches cold. Becky, one of Nehemiah’s staff, prepared some of the evening meals and a hot breakfast for us. On Tuesday night we participated in their program called Bread on Bridge, which is an open meal for anyone who wants to come. They also pray with them and have a sermon.
We worked on a variety of projects this week. Four members of our team worked at the mission. They built a 4’ x 9’ platform over one end of a room. This platform was 7’ tall and is to be used for storage. This was built over an area where they hope to install a washer and dryer. The second project at the mission was to build 16’ of shelves. They were 8’ tall and consisted of 4 different layers of shelves. Some of them were deeper that the others because the walls jutted out in one spot. When we left most of the shelves and the platform were filled.
The other four members of our team worked on a variety of projects. One and one-half days were spent on rebuilding a stockade fence that was leaning over quite badly. We removed the old fencing and then had to remove some fence posts and dig out the others in order to get them straightened. All the posts were then cemented into the ground. After the cement hardened we installed the new fence.
One-half day was spent at Trail of Action which is a group that supplies food for homeless or low income families. We packed up bags of canned food. We also picked up fresh vegetables at a food pantry, bagged them, and then distributed them to home bound senior citizens.
The next project involved rebuilding the back wall of a garage. We took out the old studs and replaced them with new studs. The wall was then covered with plywood.
The last project involved another garage. We replaced the sill plate on one side of the garage. We took out and replaced about 12 beams in the ceiling of the garage. This helped to straightened up the walls in the garage. Since the back of the garage was missing. We built a wall and installed two sheet of plywood in order to hold everything in place. We removed some shingles from the front part of the garage roof. We also helped to lift some plywood up onto the new beams for the new roof. We did not do any work on the roof.
As a part of WUMC Outreach, we have been on the following Adult Mission Trips: seventeen to work with Yahweh Ministries in Bayou La Batre, AL (Hurricane Katrina and then needy families); one to work with Good Works in Athens, OH (needy families); one to work with LARRI in Gary, IN (Hurricane Ike); two to work with ROC in Henryville, IN (tornadoes); one to work in Tarboro, NC (Hurricane Matthew), and this is our sixth trip to Cleveland.
Please consider joining us on our next Adult Mission Trip to Tarboro, NC (usually late February or early March) or elsewhere. We usually do two 5 – 7 day trips each year. This is your chance to be the hands and feet of Jesus in carrying out his work. Join us for a time of fun and fellowship while we are carrying out God’s work. I guarantee that you will have a good time and that the food will be great (don’t plan to lose any weight). Don’t feel that you have to have a lot of skills in order to participate. We do the best we can with the skills that the members of the team have, and there is always something that everyone can do. The trip is not just for men, as we usually have one or two women who participate. More information will be available when we set the date and place for the next trip. For those who have trouble getting away for a longer time, our next trip is October 12th (only one day) to Camp Otterbein in Logan, Ohio. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact Russ Line at rjlineohio@aol.com.
