missions

I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least
of these brothers of mine, you did for me.
Matthew 25:40


A commitment to helping others in need in our community, our nation, and around the world is a cornerstone of HUMC’s philosophy “Love In Action”. We are an active community of faith in mission, with opportunities available to people of all ages, interests, and abilities to make a difference in the lives of others. From helping the homeless to people facing natural disasters, HUMC offers many opportunities to serve. Everyone is invited to be part of the team that does God’s work in the world. The pastor and program directors understand one of their responsibilities is to give ministry away! This is what it means to equip others. Involvement by all shapes who we are as a church and your involvement deepens your growth as a servant of God.


“and his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to full humanity, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…” Ephesians 4:11-13


If you have any questions regarding Hinsdale UMC’s mission activities or would like more information on ways to serve, please contact the church office at 630-325-1280.

DuPage Pads COVID UPDATE

The mission of DuPage Pads (Public Action to Deliver Shelter) is to end homelessness in DuPage County. It provides year-round programs to feed and shelter individuals and families who are homeless, as well as to connect them to case management and other support services. This spring DuPagePads purchased the Red Roof Inn in Downers Grove, where emergency housing has been provided since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been repurposed into a 130-unit Interim Housing Center (IHC). Hinsdale UMC is currently tasked with delivering 300 meals to the facility once a month. For opportunities to help, please contact Caroline Godellas or Lennox Iton or visit the DuPagePads website by clicking here.


To learn more about the current situation at PADS, visit their website here and please consider donating to their Emergency Response Relief Fund by clicking here.

BRIDGE COMMUNITIES

Bridge Communities is a non-profit organization committed to transforming the lives of homeless families through partnering with community groups to provide transitional housing and mentoring to empower families focused on moving towards a goal of self-sufficiency.


Hinsdale UMC sponsors and mentors a local homeless family for a two-year period, providing housing, material needs, life-skills training, and moral support. Two to three Hinsdale UMC members serve as trained mentors, meeting weekly with the family and are supported by a church committee that meets periodically to support the mentors and assist with needed services. Please contact the church office if you would like to learn more about this important ministry and how you get involved.

HCS FAMILY SERVICES

The mission of HCS Family Services is to provide focused interim services, counseling, and education to help vulnerable families and individuals in Burr Ridge, Clarendon Hills, Darien, Hinsdale, Oak Brook, Westmont, and Willowbrook to avoid food insecurity and homelessness, and achieve improved quality of life for their families and long-term economic self-sufficiency.


As members of the local church coalition, HUMC refers people in need to HCS and during the month of May we collect non-perishable food items and cash donations to support their pantry operations and the many other services that HCS provides.  We also encourage our members to donate to the food pantry throughout the year.


HSC’s low-income clients have access to the food pantry free of charge. Among these clients are residents from our communities: Burr Ridge, Clarendon Hills, Darien, Hinsdale, Oak Brook, Westmont, and Willowbrook. Within the Village of Willowbrook, HCS services the Willowbrook Corner; this neighborhood came to be when some of the residents from Cabrini-Green and/or other public housing projects were relocated to this community in the 1970s and 1980s. Many of these families and senior citizens live below the federal poverty level. HUMC Youth have been participating with the Greater Chicago Food Depository to serve this area and distribute meat, fresh produce, and bread once a month.


Your support is critical to meeting the needs of hungry families in DuPage County. No family should go hungry simply because they cannot afford to buy food. Please consider helping HUMC support HCS Family Services.

Hinsdale Junior Women’s Club has partnered with HCS Family Service for the last several philanthropy years. HSC expanded their operation and opened a new food pantry at a heated, indoor location at Anne M. Jean Elementary School at 16W631 91 St. in Willowbrook (two blocks west of Rt. 83). Because of our involvement in the past, HUMC has been asked if we could regularly send a group of volunteers on the third Wednesday of each month. Our commitment is at 4:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. If you are able to help, or are interested in helping in the future, please contact the church office.


Learn more here about how you can help HCS Family Services

umcor

HUMC supports the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) by soliciting voluntary donations at times of crisis.  UMCOR responds to natural or civil disasters that are interruptions of such magnitude that they overwhelm a community’s ability to recover on its own.  UMCOR’s work on behalf of United Methodists is global and includes countries in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, and the Caribbean.  UMCOR also serves in long-term disaster recovery in the US.


UMCOR works to enable those affected by disasters to take responsibility for relief and recovery work.  Recognizing that disasters cause disruptions that can last for years and often create permanent changes in people’s lives, UMCOR works within a community to address the long-term effects of a disaster and assist people in rebuilding and adjusting to change.

RAINBOW COVENANT PROJECTS

Throughout the year, HUMC supports various Rainbow Covenant Projects of the United Methodist Church Northern Illinois Conference. As a faith community, we pledge to provide voluntary, designated mission giving to eight HUMC-selected causes. 


Special appeals throughout the year raise donations of which 100% go directly to the designated local, regional, and international mission projects and ministries. In the past, HUMC has supported many organizations through monetary donations and through active, hands-on mission work. These organizations include Junior and Senior High Missions Trips, missionaries, UMCOR, Heifer International, JUST Of DuPage, HCS Family Services, Bridge Communities, Cookson Hills Center, Grace Children’s Hospital – Haiti, Methodist Youth Services, ChildServ, DuPage PADS (Public Action to Delivery Shelter), Tanzania Middle School, and our sister church, Olivet United Methodist Church.

mission trips

Youth Mission Trips
Our youth have worked with Group Work camps, Appalachia Service Project, and Rebuilding Together in such places as Anchorage, AK, Magoffin County, KY, Indianapolis, IN, Memphis, TN, and Chicago. The youth love these mission trips because they meet new people, help out people in need, and, whether they know it or not, widen their cultural view. It is so exciting to see the changes in the group when they realize that the whole world is not like Hinsdale, IL.


Adult Mission Trips

Natural disasters can strike anywhere. Hinsdale UMC members recognize and respond to the overwhelming needs of others in cases of flooding, hurricanes, and tornadoes by organizing adult work trips to areas struggling to rebuild after disaster. Recent trips have focused on renovating homes devastated by tornadoes in El Reno, Oklahoma, flooding in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Nashville, Tennessee, and by hurricane in Pass Christian, Mississippi.


Our Spring 2016 mission trip was to Tulsa, OK, where we helped families who lost homes in the tornadoes that struck that area. Annual trips to the Midwest Mission Distribution Center in Chatham, IL have provided manpower to collect, prepare, store, and distribute food, child education supplies, and disaster relief items to those in need throughout the Midwest, the US, and the world.