Life In Our Neighborhood
Following in the way of Jesus, it’s really important to us as the Bethel family to represent the love and grace of God well, and to be connected to and bless people in our neighborhood. That happens in many small and organic ways in the neighborhoods we all live in, but here are a few of the intentional and organized ways we come together to and live life out in our neighborhood.
Connecting with our Neighborhood…
Bethel PADS Team
Bethel’s PADS Team hosts PADS in November and April each year to serve our neighbors together who are homeless. The PADS facility is located at the First Congregational Church of Downers Grove – 1047 Curtiss St, across from the Public Library.
As a PADS Team, we work in shifts to…
- Provide food for dinner and breakfast – cook, serve, and clean up from meals
- Make sack lunches at night to send with people the next day
- Set up bedding and donated clothes
- Provide overnight “watch” staff
- Prepare hygiene kits
You are very welcome to join us in our PADS work and in so doing help take care of our neighbors who happen to be homeless. Call the church office for more details and to join our team!
Bethel PADS Team, DuPage PADS encourages us to complete a volunteer registration form. Please find the registration form at DUPAGEPADS.ORG.
After completing the form, you will receive a confirmation email and a personalized link and login to the DuPage Pads online Volunteer Training. The training is good for 3 years.
Bethel’s FMSC Team
Bethel’s FMSC Team invites friends + families to join us in packing food at Feed My Starving Children in Aurora a few times a year so that we can serve our neighbors together.
Summer Time School Supplies Drive
Each summer, during VBS, Bethel kicks off its’ school supply drive and invites VBS kids and families to join in by donating school supplies.
Each spring, we work with social workers from Manning and Miller Elementary School in Westmont to identify families in most need, so that we support 20-25 children from our community. Throughout the summer, we collect needed supplies and assemble them. Right before school begins, people from Bethel deliver the supplies to families and pray for them.
Food Pantry
All year long, the Bethel family collects non-perishable food pantry items and delivers them to local food pantries.
Camp Restore Detroit
Bethel teams of youth and adults head to Motor City about once a year to come alongside Mount Calvary Lutheran Church in Detroit to restore hope to their neighbors.
What makes Camp Restore Detroit such a special place is their partnerships within the community. Their posture is not to come in thinking they have all the answers, but instead to seek to partner with the community to build long-lasting relationship and come alongside people in the neighborhood for what they believe will help provide hope and restoration. This posture leads to team working in the areas of:
- Human Care
- Environmental Needs
- Construction
Camp Restore Detroit’s vision has captured our hearts at Bethel. We think it may grab your heart too! Check it out…
Our goal is to share God’s love with our community in tangible ways, and to be recognized as stakeholders in the rebuilding of our community so that we will be able to share our witness to Jesus in winsome ways.
Learn more at www.camprestore.org/Detroit