As an integral part of the ministry of the mission of Village Green Community Church, our Benevolence Program provided financial assistance to individuals or families who were experiencing financial or material needs. This program operated for several years and provided those in need a food voucher which was redeemable for product at local grocery stores.
At Village Green we believe in keeping with our mission to Love God, Love Others and Change the world. To that end we feel that no individual in the community who is willing to receive help in name of Christ and the church should be without food.
This program served us well in the past but in recent years it became evident that changes were needed. Praying with individuals and completing intake forms required exhaustive amounts of time and in with recent changes to Ontario’s liquor laws we were disappointed to find out that in some cases the vouchers were used to acquire alcohol, tobacco and gaming tickets.
In the last few months we have begun a dialogue with Westview Baptist Church and Westmount Presbyterian Church to see the best way to serve those in our community. It was determined that collaboratively we can work together to provide more, avoid repetition and demonstrate to the community what we can accomplish when Christians come together.
As fellow elder Jennifer said the last week, “God has answered our prayers about this, and has opened a door by which we can help even more people and not be burdened down with the total responsibility.”
Our current Benevolence program will remain in place for those within our congregation and we will be holding back a portion. However, moving forward we will need volunteers to help distribute food at Westview and Westmount Presbyterian Church. The dates are Wednesday’s from 9:00 – 11:30 am. Please contact Jason Snelgrove or Dale Mackness if you would like to help out.
Blessings,
J. Snelgrove
0 Comments