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Hope Day of Service (June 6th)
We hope you are faring well during this stressful time. We are very grateful for your efforts to connect and engage within your community groups and the Church as a body.
We believe amidst this pandemic that God is still calling us to love others in service to His glory. So, although our approach to serving others may need to be adjusted to reflect the times we are in, we wanted to encourage you and the members of your community group to participate in this year’s Southern Connecticut Annual HOPE Day of Service on Saturday, June 6th.
Instead of service opportunities focused at specific sites, the HOPE Team would like to propose that Community Groups engage in two ways of serving on that day:
Part 1: Meeting the needs of your community through PRAYER
Each group pray for the needs of their community – pray for their neighbors, front line workers, families and friends, local businesses, etc. Some suggested ideas (depending on comfort level of each group) – all members wear their HOPE t-shirts and walk through a particular neighborhood (10 people or less and with safe physical distancing), or go 2 by 2 through the neighborhood, or go as a caravan driving throughout your community praying with signs of encouragement to the community, or pray as a group over ZOOM (hopefully used as a last resort), etc.
Part 2: Meeting tangible needs and/or offering encouragement to front line
workers or individuals who have been directly affected by COVID-19. Each group will decide on a sub group in their community they could best serve in a tangible way. Some suggested ideas include:
(1) choose a local hospital, clinic, laboratory, police/fire dept in your community to donate water bottles, snacks, meals, masks, etc.
(2) Serve the homeless (or local food bank) with groceries, food cards, personal hygiene products, etc.
(3) Write encouragement cards or make outreach calls to residents of a nursing home.
(4) Choose 5 families or individuals that are connected to the members in your group in some way that have needs and target those needs that day, etc.
This is a basic framework for the service projects. We realize that so many of us are also reeling from the impact that this pandemic has caused so please join with your community groups and discuss your thoughts with your community group leaders to find the best ways to meet the needs around you in a safe and practical way.
Thank you.
The HOPE Team