Monthly Grace UMC Missions Focus
April 2025 – Pastor’s Discretionary Fund
April’s special mission giving goes to the Pastor’s Discretionary Fund. This is a fund set up to help support local missions when a special ask is made that we are not promoting. The fund is used to purchase gas cards for those who stop by the church office with an immediate need. The fund is also used for immediate need helping members if an unexpected need arises.
MISSION Donations: Please note on your offering that it is for the Monthly Mission Focus.
If you are mailing something to the church, please use our PO Box and not the church street address.
Grace United Methodist Church
PO Box 276, Pequot Lakes, MN 56472
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Monthly Mission Focus History
April 2025 – Pastor’s Discretionary Fund
April’s special mission giving goes to the Pastor’s Discretionary Fund. This is a fund set up to help support local missions when a special ask is made that we are not promoting. The fund is used to purchase gas cards for those who stop by the church office with an immediate need. The fund is also used for immediate need helping members if an unexpected need arises.
March 2025 – Lakes Area Food Shelf
As is tradition, we will be designating mission gifts in March to the Lakes Area Food Shelf. Pastor Jen has also reached out to Our Savior’s Lutheran Church to challenge them for most pounds of food collected during this time. We will be kicking this off at worship with more details about which weeks we will be focusing on which food to bring in. Generally, throughout the year, when in doubt, the food shelf needs peanut butter! We will begin with peanut butter though for sure!
February 2025 – UMCOR
Our Mission Focus for February will be sent to support the work of “UMCOR-the United Methodist Committee on Relief”, and their efforts to offer aid to the people who have faced many disasters that have filled our prayers. We will place a special emphasis on sending aid to those who have been affected by the wildfires in California.
January 2025 – My Neighbor to Love
Our January Missional giving for January will be given to “My Neighbor to Love” and their efforts to support those who are struggling
with stable housing. More information and details can also be found on their website => My Neighbor to Love Coalition
with stable housing. More information and details can also be found on their website => My Neighbor to Love Coalition
December 2024 – Soup Kitchen & Relationship Safety Alliance
Our Mission Focus for December will be shared between our support of the Soup Kitchen and the Relationship Safety Alliance (Women’s shelter).
November 2024 – Lakes Area Food Shelf
Our Mission Focus for November is the Lakes Area Food Shelf. We make a special gift during this month to help build Thanksgiving meals for our neighbors who rely on the food shelf. It is estimated that the minimum cost of a meal is $28, and this is only because of the accessibility of the food shelf to special pricing and resources. We all know that $28 would not go far at the local grocery store. Our gifts together can do great things!.
October 2024 – Lakes Area Food Shelf & Brennecke Family
Reminder–October 6th, we will take a special offering of bread for the Lakes Area Food Shelf, give through a cash gift or by purchasing bread (fresh or frozen), low-carb is the best donation. Sunday, the 6th, is World Communion Sunday, and we will pray especially over these bread gifts.
Our Mission Focus for the rest of October will be the Brennecke Family who we support in mission.
September 2024 – UMCOR
Our Mission Focus for September will be “United Methodist Committee on Relief” better known as UMCOR. UMCOR does incredible work responding to disasters around the world. They are often the first onsite and the last to leave providing various services and support as needed. Besides our cash gifts to support their work, quite often they request supplies, but most often ask for prayers for the people that are in need in these life-changing situations. We will add very intentional prayers this month for their work according to their current requests.
August 2024 – Back to School
We all know how much teachers give to their students in terms of education and care. Too often they also have to empty their own pockets to outfit their classrooms as well. Our combined missional giving for the month of August gets distributed to local teachers associated with Grace UMC to help them be successful.
July 2024 – Operation Christmas Child
Our joint mission for the month of July is Operation Christmas Child. This is a project of the international relief organization, Samaritan’s Purse. This mission provides local partners around the world with shoeboxes filled with a variety of gifts for children, as an outreach within their own communities to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. With each box built, a $10 donation is suggested to offset the shipping and handling costs. Our goal this year is to offer support to this mission, not by building boxes, but by offsetting these costs. $10 can go a long way to putting these gifts into the hands of children in need!
June 2024 – The Freedom Ranch
The missional giving for the month of June will go to help the Rising Hope Foundation with the needs for The Freedom Ranch. The Freedom Ranch is a safe home built to provide long-term care and recovery for young girls, ages 12-17, who have been rescued from human trafficking. The treatment plan for each girl is determined by the level of trauma she has experienced and is specifically designed to meet her needs and goals by her professional care team. The Freedom Ranch is equipped to house eight girls. In addition to therapy and a safe space, the girls will receive life skills training to prepare them for confident independent living. These skills include cooking/baking gardening/landscaping, personal hygiene/self care, budgeting/banking, home cleaning/maintenance, basic car care and maintenance, and self defense.
Additional information can be found on their website => The Freedom Ranch
May 2024 – Minnesota Annual Conference Love Offering
The missional giving for the month of May will go towards the “Love Offering”. This is an offering collected yearly when our Annual Conference is held. It is combined to be used from 3-4 areas of need and service. Details can be read on the Conference website by following this link =>Annual Conference Love Offering
April 2024 – Pastor’s Discretionary Fund
April’s special mission giving goes to the Pastor’s Discretionary Fund. This is a fund set up to help people who find themselves in emergency situations. The fund is also used to purchase gas cards for those who stop by the church office with and immediate need.
March 2024 – Lakes Area Food Shelf
Our March missional giving is designated for the Lakes Area Food Shelf and has been part of Connecting at Grace during the Lenten Season with the community “Lenten Food Challenge”. The challenge has focused on both monetary collections and the weekly food items below:
-> Week of February 18th – Peanut Butter
-> Week of February 25th – Cereal
-> Week of March 3rd – Canned meats and Proteins
-> Week of March 10th – Paper towels and toilet paper
-> Week of March 17th – Final Offering
February 2024 – Adult and Teen Challenge Minnesota
Our missional giving for February will be given to support the good work being done through the Adult and Teen Challenge rehabilitation services in Brainerd. Many families have been touched by the pain of addiction, and so feel a personal connection to the work of this place. More information and details can also be found on their website => Adult and Teen Challenge Minnesota.