Churchwide Serving Day Volunteers Make An Impact Across Dallas
April 03, 2023
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
- John 13:34
Find out how you can make an impact at HPUMC this Easter at hpumc.org/serve, and learn more about each of our Outreach partners here.
Palm Sunday marks the first day of Holy Week, a celebration of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. What better way to usher in the presence of Christ than to honor his call to love and serve others? On the Saturday before Palm Sunday, Highland Park United Methodist Church has made it a tradition to do exactly that with Outreach partners across Dallas. On April 1, our congregation lived out the call to serve.
HPUMC’s 2023 Churchwide Serving Day was a multigenerational event, with more than 500 people of all ages coming together to serve people of all ages across 19 Outreach partner locations. At home base at HPUMC, in Great Hall, volunteers arranged bags for Community Partners of Dallas, an organization that provides for children who have been abused and neglected and supports the CPS caseworkers that help them.
Groups put together items for older and younger kids—bags of snacks and kits with baby bottles, bibs, and more. At neighboring tables, volunteers helped prepare for Easter at HPUMC by putting together kids’ worship packets and pots to plant in Arden Forest.
In South Dallas, volunteers took part in a Curb Appeal beautification project in partnership with St. Luke “Community” UMC in the neighborhood of Fair Park. At Austin Street Center, volunteers sorted clothing and donations as part of a spring refresh for the people helped and housed by the center, while those at Charles Rice Learning Center and K.B. Polk helped set up new spaces for students to enjoy.
Volunteers organized food pantry items for those in need at North Dallas Shared Ministry, Wilkinson Center, and Aunt Bette’s Community Pantry. With VNA Meals on Wheels, meal boxes were prepared for neighbors and their pets. At Exline Recreation Center, volunteers served brunch to senior citizens in partnership with Love Ministries, while senior citizens in Wesley-Rankin Community Center’s Casa Feliz program were assisted with yard work and home beautification.
Across all of 2023’s Churchwide Serving Day locations, volunteers from the HPUMC community made a difference with local partners by helping to share the love of Christ, fight poverty, and feed and clothe Dallas neighbors for another amazing year.
