MISSION 2024

Mission team is a very busy crew at Pleasant Hill UMC. We work very hard to educate and involve our congregation in bettering the lives of those in our community. Much of that work is outlined below.

USD 345 Resource Room

This is the USD 345 Resource room. In the foreground, notice the family food boxes which are packed every two weeks for those in need. One of our volunteers, Gary, helps unload supplies from Harvesters.

One of our main mission projects happens at the USD 345 Resource Room.  Every two weeks, we pack food boxes for families who sign up for food boxes through the district.  The resource room gets help from Harvesters as well as donations from many generous groups in the North Topeka area.

We also watch for special needs in the food pantry.  We have supplemented this with special peanut butter drives, pasta collection, soup…anything that helps provide a more well-rounded diet for those in need. 

The resource room also has a clothing area.  Every year, we have a giant competition at PHUMC to collect socks and underwear, one of the most needed essentials,  for those in need at USD 345.  We make it a competition between KU and KSU fans at our church.  

It’s time to start shopping for our next KU/KSU competition.

We also meet occasionally to help organize the clothing area at the resource room.

Right before school starts, we help with the “Back to School” Bash at USD 345.  The church collects school supplies and backpacks for the event, then church members assist with distribution.

Sam and Kinzie help distribute school supplies at the USD 345 Back-to-School Bash. The congregation donated items. Then members were on hand to help distribute supply to the kids.

Ukrainian bike drive

This is Rymma, new to Topeka from the Ukraine. She has received a ‘new’ bike from PHUMC members. After a bike is donated, it goes through a bike inspection for safety before going to its new home .

Topeka has a large contingency of Ukrainian immigrants who have transplanted here since  war began in their country.  We keep in touch with Topekans who help to house these people.  They inform us about new families coming to Topeka and their needs.  One of our favorite projects is to watch sales for bicycles of all sizes for all ages.  For many, this is the only form of transportation, so finding a family a bike gives independence.  After we find the bicycles, they are taken to a bike mechanic who ensures the bike is safe for use.  Then they go to happy new owners –sometimes kids, sometimes adults — in their new home in America.

Garage Sale

Pleasant Hill UMC will have its second garage sale this fall, Sept. 12-14. Members clean out closets, basements, garages and bring their treasures to the church for the church to sell. Proceeds go to help the mission projects throughout the year.

Here is our church transformed for a weekend for our community garage sale.

Bags of Hope

For the holidays, many of our teams come together for the “Keep Hope Alive” night at Pleasant Hill UMC. The Mission team contribution is the creation of Bags of Hope. These 50 bags of essentials are then given to people at the Topeka Rescue Mission. We all gather on this one night to pack our red bags.

Kelly, Barb and Gary present the 50 Bags of Hope to the TRM.

Alpha Christian Children’s Home

We work with the Alpha Christian Children’s home outside of Perry, KS to help the children who live there. This year, we collected donations to buy the kids gift cards for experiences. Their director thought this would be a wonderful way for the kids and their home caregivers to bond, so PHUMC provided gift certificates for activities like movies, bowling, pizza so the whole crew could create memories.