Missions at RUMC
The Rockford UMC Mission Team is a group of volunteers dedicated to helping others in need. Several years ago, they established a weekly Bread Pan Offering. Collected in actual bread pans, the pans are distributed along with the offering plate during the Sunday worship services. The money collected benefits various organizations at a global, national and local level. You will see some of the local organizations benefitting from bread pan collections by scrolling to the bottom of the page.
Here is a short list of ways church attendees get actively involved:
Hand2Hand
Church Volunteers deliver backpacks for the Hand2Hand program at Parkside Early Childhood Center, praying over each child and their families. The children bring home backpacks filled with food to feed their families over the weekend, many of whom are food insecure. When children are fed, they are more successful in school. Volunteers also get together on selected dates to pack food. RUMC holds a food drive in the fall to benefit H2H.
Additionally, at Thanksgiving, H2H families are provided a Thanksgiving meal of turkey and all the trimmings. At Christmas, gifts are collected and delivered to H2H families so they are able to provide Christmas gifts to their children.
Appalachia Service Project Mission Team
For over 35 continuous years, the Rockford United Methodist Church ASP Mission Team has been traveling to the poorest counties in Appalachia. With the help of Appalachia Service Project (ASP), these volunteers of both youth and adults make homes warmer, safer, and drier. The 2025 Team (pictured below at First Christian Church in Berea, KY) consisted of 24 volunteers (four crews) and they traveled to a county in the Appalachia Hollers of Kentucky to repair poverty-level homes.
Our 2026 Team is preparing to raise money and travel to the Appalachia area in June 2026.
2025 ASP TEAM
Habitat for Humanity
On a Saturday in May of 2025, a group of nine volunteers worked with Habitat for Humanity on a house in Grand Rapids. The volunteers sanded floors, walls, and more walls; they wiped down all of the walls and swept and vacuumed the floors; and they primed most of the walls in the whole house.
RUMC will again be working with Habitat for Humanity in 2026. If you are interested in helping, contact the church office. Dates will be announced soon.
