Missions & Outreach projects serve the local and global community. A brief description of each ministry is provided below. For more information, please contact the church office.
Bread for the World – Bread for the World Institute provides nonpartisan policy analysis on hunger and strategies to end it. The Institute has been educating opinion leaders, policymakers, and the public about hunger in the United States and abroad since 1975. More information can be found at Bread for the World Institute.
Community Cafe – The Community Cafe provides meals in a welcoming environment for seniors, adults and children, single persons or small groups, at no cost whatsoever. The meals are cooked by a rotating core of volunteer culinary experts and served by volunteers from a number a community groups.
Community Garden – The Estes Valley Community Garden was spearheaded by volunteers from EPUMC. Its mission is to enrich the individual, social, and environmental health of the residents of the Estes Valley through gardening and gardening knowledge, by providing residents the opportunity to grow some of their own food, thus encouraging the community to become more sustainable. More information can be found at Estes Valley Community Garden.
Crossroads Ministry – Crossroads operates as a Christian service organization providing short-term assistance to low income clients, ongoing services to clients on low fixed incomes, and encouraging self-sufficiency of clients through educational opportunities. All clients are treated equally regardless of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, creed, political belief, sex, gender expression, sexual orientation
or identity, age, physical or mental ability, veteran status, and marital status. Brian Schaffer is Crossroads’ director. Members of EPUMC serve on its governing board and volunteer many hours there each week. More information can be found at Crossroads Ministry of Estes Park.
Fair Trade – We serve Fair Trade coffee at our fellowship hour. Fair Trade Certified™ products were made with respect to people and planet. Our rigorous social, environmental and economic standards work to promote safe, healthy working conditions, protect the environment, enable transparency, and empower communities to build strong, thriving businesses. When you choose products with the Fair Trade label, your day-to-day purchases can improve an entire community’s day-to-day lives. More information can be found at Fair Trade USA.
Friendly Stitchers – Love Knots and Friendly Stitchers missions groups make sewn, crocheted, and knitted items for Estes Park and other community nonprofits, UMCOR (United Methodist Committee on Relief) and our members.
For UMCOR, we make health kits and school bags. Estes Park Health gets items for its newborn baby bags, and comfort teddy bears for the Emergency Department. The Town of Estes Park Police Department gets comfort teddy bears for children of families in crisis. Lap robes go to Good Samaritan or Prospect Park. Reusable food bags have gone to a weekend food distribution project at the Estes Park schools; we plan to resume that when the pandemic is over.
Fleece blankets go to EVCA (Estes Valley Crisis Advocates) and the Blackfeet United Methodist Parish in Browning, MT. Fleece prayer shawls and scarves supplement crocheted and knitted ones. Love Knots crochet or knit hats, caps and scarves both for Crossroads’ clothing drive and EVCA holiday presents, and prayer shawls and scarves for our members and anyone else who needs one.
HIV AIDS Ministry – Estes Park UMC has been involved with HIV AIDS Ministry through the UM Global AIDS Fund since the fund was started in 2004 to respond to the pandemic affecting millions of persons in the US and around the globe. We collect $500-$1000 a year to help save lives.
We take an offering for World AIDS Day in December each year and have members who attend UM HIV AIDS Conferences. We support the Swing Against AIDS Golf Benefit in Denver and we have Arts 4 AIDS classes/events and education opportunities. Checks made to EPUMC (with Global AIDS Fund in the memo area) are always welcome. For more information go to www.umglobalaidsfund.com or to Center for Health and Hope in Denver.
Learning Place – The Learning Place serves students who need study skill and/or organizational help, students who are struggling in specific areas, special needs students and those who attend for enrichment. Students who need help with basic homework area also served by the Learning Place. All of these students are served by either one-to-one tutoring or small group workshops. More information can be found at The Estes Park Learning Place.
Love Your Neighbor Art Shows – The Reconciling Group started the “Love Your Neighbor Art Shows” to foster inclusion, love and sharing of various fibers and art, aprons, and holiday art. We hope you will share your art or items as we love each other. For more information or to participate contact the Church Office.
Missions and Ministries Tree – The narthex Christmas tree upstairs at EPUMC is the Missions tree all year with changing themes featuring various Ministries in the community and the church. For the holidays, we decorate the tree with hats, scarves, gloves, and socks that are donated to EVCA for presents. The tree was started by the Reconciling Group. For more information contact the Church Office.
Missionary Support – Traditional overseas projects include helping support a United Methodist missionary, Jennifer Moore, in North Macedonia. Newsletters from Jennifer are posted on the church website. We also help support a medical mission project in Africa: Healthy Women, Healthy Liberia.
My Sister’s Place – Estes Valley Crisis Advocates’ safe house, My Sister’s Place, is a place where women, men and their children can find refuge from domestic violence. My Sister’s Place is at a confidential location, and all services are free. Women, men and children can stay there for as long as six weeks. Counseling is provided, as well as referrals, assistance in finding employment, legal aid, and support. To reach an Advocate, call the office at (970) 577-9781 or call Estes Park Police Dispatch at (970) 586-4000 and ask to have the on-call Advocate paged. More information can be found at Estes Valley Crisis Advocates.
Pura Vida / Guatemala – The mission of Pura Vida is to facilitate the sharing of resources with communities in Guatemala in a meaningful, respectful, and long term way. Our primary focus is on providing educational opportunities for children in rural western highlands villages through scholarships, tutoring, and support of local schools.We encourage others to work with us as we give our time, knowledge, and resources to help poor rural communities attain a standard of living in which their children can thrive. Pura Vida sponsors support students in 7th-12th grades at the John Wesley School in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala. In December 2016 , the Mock and Myers families traveled to Guatemala to build a house honoring the life and service of Carroll Mock, “Carroll’s Casa”. More sponsors are always needed. More information can be found at Pura Vida.
Reconciling Ministry Network – An RMN Team of eight persons was formed in September 2016 at EPUMC. The team meets regularly to plan “Telling Our Stories” events and provide education, awareness, support, advocacy for LGBTQIA persons and their families as we reach out to the church and community. We currently have 50 Reconciling Methodists and support a fully inclusive church. We give $250 a year to support the work of RMN. The Movie “An Act of Love” was shown in September 2016 to 30+ people from the church and community. On September 17, 2017, the RMN Team had a Reconciling Anniversary Worship service with Beverly Cole, an author and laywoman from Kansas, as our guest speaker. In 2017, we had two book studies: “The Bible and Human Sexuality” and “The Four Vision Quests of Jesus”. In addition, we started a Rainbow Crate of resources, continued the “Telling Our Stories” events, as well as working to create a safe and accessible bathroom at the church. For more information or to sign up go to www.rmnetwork.org or the Reconciling Table in the fellowship hall.