Safe, warm homes and much moreOn Tuesdays and Thursdays I set aside the day to meet with individuals who have eviction and shut-off notices. When I was first placed at Clarkston United Methodist Church I heard this would be a part of my job as Community Outreach Director. “You will meet with those individuals who come in off the streets in need of assistance.” As a pastor’s kid I’ve spent almost every day of my life in a United Methodist Church. I have attended and worked in very large and very small churches, urban, suburban, and rural churches. When I heard about this role of my job I expected to meet with individuals once or twice a month at most.

In reality, I sometimes, meet 8 people a week. I serve as a reference contact for those who are in need and looking for services in our community and I sit with individuals and listen to their

stories and struggles. Just today a woman entered my office in tears. She shared with me that circumstances of her life are out of control and she is feels helpless and alone. She had no transportation, had recently experienced divorce, job loss, family illness and death.

My heart brakes for individuals living in the environment of generational poverty. An environment that often provides little resources and great struggles. I have learned in my work here that sitting and listening to someone’s story is often as important as the money that we are able to give out.

I was not only able to listen to her struggles but fortunately for me she was able to share with me some of her gifts and strengths. We were able to share with one another about our

passion for the Deaf community and our experience with American Sign Language. She told me that she has recently found employment and pride in her job as a tattoo artist.

In 2014 Clarkston UMC gave over $41,000 to individuals to help them stay in their homes and stay warm. That money represents approximately 136 families. Families with struggles and with skills and joys. I don’t know how it came to be that I am able to share these moments with those who are seeking help but I feel honored that they are willing to tell me their stories.

I see it as my job as a Church and Community Worker to find ways to fold these individuals into the love of our church community so that we can all be blessed with their gifts and graces.

Connecting Church & Community

MARY GLADSTONE-HIGHLANDUnited Methodist Missionary

Living into Ministry

With*

Clarkston UMC has a history of offering mission opportunities each month for individuals to participate in. This year in an effort to live into our goal

of being in ministry with those that we serve we have decided to work with the same organization every month for a year. Previously we visited a different organization each month. This new model will hopefully allow us to create real and lasting relationships. The organization we chose to work with for 2015 was the local low-income housing apartment complex in our community. Our goal is to expand an after-school program that we already run at the apartment complex and to offer monthly programs like science fairs, spring gardening days, and much more.

December’s Mission in Action day was a great success! I was able to plan the event with one of the Moms of some After-School program attendees. Autumn and I worked together to come up with a Christmas Workshop where kids could come and visit 10 different stations making gifts for their parents for Christmas. The stations included ornaments, cookie decorating, picture frames, pictures with Santa, and a reading of the Christmas story. I was personally thrilled to have Autumn’s help in planning the event! At the event we were able to make connections with more of the parents and we look forward to planning the other monthly events with the help of those who live in the apartment complex.

Abundant Mission

At my Church and Community Worker Site, Clarkston United we had the true blessing of finishing out 2014 with a whirl-wind of activities. Mission opportunities were abundant and relationships were formed. Below are a few

ways that we were in ministry with our neighbors since November.

Sleeping Bags for the Homeless:This annual trip to Father Blasko’s North End Soup Kitchen in Flint, MI is one way that we providing direct and immediate help to those who are living on the streets in one of the nation’s most desperate cities. It is true that individuals living on the streets need us to pay attention to the issues that cause them to live where they do, it is also important to provide for the immediate needs of food and warmth. In November we handed out 194 sleeping bags, 10 blankets, 205 Winter Coats, 50 XXX-L Heavy Flannel Shirt/jackets, 247 McDonald gift cards, 81 pairs of

winter boots/shoes and 220 personal care bags. The personal care bags were collected and assembled by our youngest mission group, Angels in Training. In my opinion, this event is as important for those who volunteer because it forces us to meet those who are living in extreme poverty in our area.

Homework Club: About ten years ago the low-income apartment complex in Clarkston gave Clarkston UMC an apartment so that we could run an after-school program for the children and families who live in that complex. Ten years later the program has expanded to serve multiple ages over many days a week. This year the apartment complex asked us to move apartments so our volunteers switched into high

gear to organize, pack, move, and prepare the new apartment to receive students. It is amazing how coat closets can turn into homework stations when you think creatively!

Family Advent Night: In early December Clarkston UMC hosted its annual Family Advent Night. A night that is free to the community and offers a live nativity, free dinner with dessert of cookies and hot cocoa, and an hour of carols and choirs in the sanctuary. This is a great event for families of all socioeconomic statuses to come and enjoy the advent season. In keeping with tradition the biggest draw to the event was

Gunther the camel! It is a blessing to watch the joy on children’s faces as they get to share in the story of Christ in such a fun and accessible manner.

I want to sincerely thank you for supporting me as a Church and Community Worker Missionary for United Methodist Church!Supporting churches truly make it possible for us as missionaries to go out into the world and together we are all the hands and feet of God.I would love the opportunity to come and speak to your church about how your support is put into action. One of my favorite parts of my job is coming to meet you face-to-face. Thank you for all the ways you give to mission.

The Face of God

This year I attended a training with many other United

Methodist Missionaries. During the training we were asked to split into groups and each select a time to lead the group in worship. While gathered together for worship one afternoon, the group of missionaries leading us asked us all to draw the face of God.

I often appreciate these moments to sit on holy ground with God and prayerfully consider what God is placing on my heart in that moment. It was a true blessing to share with one another our drawings and to see how others viewed God in that moment in their lives.

These Missionaries were stationed in countries all over the world, Fiji, Ecuador, Germany, Northern Ireland, Zambia, Cambodia, and the United States. It was fascinating to see how each of us viewed or represented God. Some drew an abstract mass of circles and bright colors, some of Christ with a crown of thorns, some as the life-giving rain, and others simply wrote prayers.

This picture is one of the drawings. A illustration of the God of new beginnings. What a beautiful expression. How do you see the face of God?

Mary Gladstone-Highland is a missionary with the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church

serving as a Church and Community Worker based at the Clarkston United Methodist Church in Clarkston, Michigan.

Church and Community Workers respond to God’s call to ministry among the poor and disenfranchised in rural and urban areas throughout the United States. They work to change the social inequities of poverty, racial injustice, and domestic violence.

Mary serves as outreach coordinator for a regional ministry that responds to social and economic challenges in an area lying between Flint, Pontiac, and Detroit, Michigan. Two districts of the Detroit Annual Conference are involved. A native of Detroit, Mary served as a US-2 missionary as a young adult and as a Church and Community Worker in Baltimore, Maryland, and Utica, New York. She currently lives in Pontiac. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Western Michigan University in 2005.

Please support me through Covenant Relationship:

Missionary Advance # 982022Send your gifts through The Advance to your conference treasurer or to Advance GCFA, PO Box 9068, New York, NY. 10087-9068 with the Advance number clearly designated on your check. For more information about developing a Covenant Relationship. Visit www.advancinghope.org

January 23-February 1st I will be traveled to the Peninsula-Deleware and Baltimore-Washington

Conferences to share with congregations about my work as a Church and Community Worker. If you would ever like me to come to your church, I would be more than happy to do that. One of my favorite parts of my job is getting the opportunity to visit the congregations that support my work and thank them personally! Thank you to all the great churches who hosted me on my trip!

Biography

Church visits in January