Community Events
Zumba classes are now held at the church, led by certified Zumba instructor Soraya Sierra of Verona. The classes are held from 7:00 to 8:00 PM on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. The cost is $10/session, and reduced-price packages are also available. For more information, contact Soraya at 973-239-3778.
Fellowship Events
Our church family likes to get together with each other for food and fellowship. Visitors are always warmly welcomed to these events.
Every Sunday, we have a coffee hour after church where you can get to know us. In fact, most members think they haven't been to church if they haven't been to coffee hour.
One recent fun and fund-raising event was a concert by the Narrow Escape Duo, who entertained us with jazz selections from the American songbook.
Mission Opportunities & Fellowship Events.
Bridge of Faith
We have an ongoing project with Faith UCC in Union, NJ, in support of Bridge of Faith, a program that collects gently used clothing, school supplies, over-the-counter medicines, and used school and medical equipment and sends them to orphanages and a maternal-child health clinic in Awka, Nigeria. We sell African crafts at churches, church meetings, and street fairs to help fund the project. In addition to providing the funds to ship the items, the money raised has purchased 500 insecticide-treated mosquito nets and a solar suitcase to provide reliable electricity to a maternal-child health clinic in Okpuno, Nigeria, so that babies can be delivered at night more safely. Click here for a schedule of upcoming sale events.
In March, 2010, Church president Marjorie Royle returned from a Mission Trip to Awka, Nigeria. After three years of planning, collecting, and raising money, she accompanied Douglas Taylor, and Felix Molokwu, representatives from Faith UCC churches, for a week in Nigeria delivering new and used items to a variety of educational and social service agencies. They provided a used 14-passenger van, donated by the Volunteers of America, to Orphanage Tenderlove to transport children to schools and medical visits. They also brought food, children’s clothing, toys and books, bicycles, a computer, and insecticide-treated mosquito nets to this and two other orphanages, and distributed mosquito nets to a maternal-child health clinic and several other groups as well.
The most memorable visits were those where used textbooks were distributed to six primary and secondary schools in the area. The children were so very eager to receive these books that were being discarded by New Jersey schools. To the teachers, it seemed like Christmas, as they opened the books and found resources to make their work easier and more effective. And the notebooks and pens and pencils we brought were snatched up as if they were gold.
The Molokwu family visited again in July, 2010, distributing more bicycles, books, examining tables, and the solar suitcase for the clinic. A shipment of books and school supplies currently is on the way to Nigeria, so that they will be ready for distribution during Mr. Molokwu's next trip in Spring, 2012.
Mission More Locally
Throughout the year, we collect food and other items for the Human Needs Pantry in Montclair as well as for families in need.
The Quilting Group
One project of the quilting group, Star Stitches, was auctioned off to support the ongoing work of the group, which makes quilts for seriously ill children or others in need. For more information about learning to quilt or the quilting group, please call the church at 973-239-3212.