Each July Trinity’s UMW Circles take turns hosting a coffee at the Hermitage on Westwood Avenue.
On July 19 Circles 5 & 6 participated bringing 100 bags of cookies, cheese straws, and brownies for purchase ($.25 per bag) by the residents and staff, along with a pound cake and angel food cake, lemonade, and coffee to share with our guests. Friendly visiting is the main purpose.
A Hermitage resident with her new lap quilt.
Marble Jones and Nancy Miller are Trinity’s Hermitage Guild representatives and Mary Deal organizes the monthly coffees for the home. The ministry of presence with our seniors is important. We visited with Lee Childress who once headed Meals on Wheels. We also distributed three lap quilts for residents).
Thanks to all who backed goodies for this event. Louise Girvin of the Circle Leadership Team said: “It was a delightful event and so appreciated by all the residents who attended! It was a huge success!”
To learn more about Trinity’s UMW Circles, please visit our UMW page.
On the second Saturday of each month, volunteers of all ages spend the morning at work at Shalom Farms in order to provide fresh produce to low-income neighborhoods in Richmond.
On Saturday, July 16th, we had the largest group from Trinity participate since we embraced Shalom Farms as one of our “Trinity in Richmond” projects. The group harvested tomatoes, (lots and lots of them!), weeded sweet potatoes, cleaned and prepared a hoop house for planting, and readied potatoes for digging. It was a fun and productive morning.
Trinity Volunteers will be heading to Shalom Farms in Western Goochland County on Saturday, August 20. We will meet in the Stuart Hall Parking lot at 8 AM and return around 12:30 PM. This is a wonderful opportunity for those of all ages who love the outdoors to help with Shalom’s mission of raising and providing produce to families who do not have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Contact Teresa Given at tdagiven@gmail.com for more information or to sign up to attend.
More than 150 people attended last Sunday’s Outreach Summer Forum led by Anjum Ali (adjunct professor of Islamic Studies at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College) and Malik Khan (president of the Interfaith Council of Greater Richmond). The Forum helped those attending learn about some of the misperceptions about Islam and was well received by those in attendance.
The presenters have provided some of their presentation materials HERE.
Dillard Forum
Dr. Peter Ochs from UVA, will present “Religion and Conflict Across the Globe: Is There a Remedy?” on October 30-31 at Trinity as part of the Dillard Forum. Learn more here. Don’t miss this additional opportunity to listen to and connect with those who want to bring peace to our community and world.
Peace Festival
The Richmond Peace Festival takes place Saturday, September 10 from 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM. Learn more about the Peace Festival here.
As students in Richmond head back to school this week, many have shiny new school supplies thanks to the generous donations of people at Trinity.
The Oak Grove Apple Angel Tree is part of our ongoing partnership with Oak Grove/Bellemeade Elementary School. This summer we put up a bulletin board featuring 79 “apples” asking for donations of specific teacher-requested school supplies. We are pleased to announce that every apple was taken and returned.
The group who delivered the supplies to Oak Grove/Bellemeade took a moment to speak with us and offer a heartfelt Thank You to Trinity last week:
9th grade student Cameron Love reflects on his summer mission trip experience.
On July 31, seven kids and three adults got up at the crack of dawn to make a nine-hour journey to Lorain, Ohio. In Lorain, poverty levels have risen due to the closing of U.S. Steel and almost 15,000 jobs have been lost. Additional steel mills are also headed down the same track. As part of this mission trip, Trinity teenagers and adults traveled to various job sites, to help people restore and renovate their houses and help the community.
On the first day, before we started working at our job sites, some of the Next Step Ministries staff gave us a tour of Lorain. It was quite interesting to see such a beautiful waterfront city which was on the verge of dying. We spoke with a chief fireman who said that the Steel Mills closing had triggered the downfall of the city. We traveled into the downtown area of Lorain, and unlike Richmond, there was not a person to be seen out on the streets. Windows were boarded up because jobs just couldn’t survive here after the closing of U.S. Steel. We did meet one man who owned a coffee shop in downtown Lorain who was said to have opened up his store every time mission teams came through the area. We saw this type of hospitality from everyone in Lorain. Over the course of a week, three different groups containing volunteers from Trinity Lutheran (Hudson, Wisconsin) and Trinity UMC worked on three different job sites. At these sites, we provided help to people who needed support from others to keep going. We installed drywall, garage doors, electrical outlets, painted, and had fun doing it all.
In the evenings, Trinity and the volunteers of Trinity Lutheran would meet in the sanctuary of the church hosting us and join together to praise God through songs and prayers. We would also meet with our separate churches and reflect on how we saw Jesus throughout the days of the week.
On Thursday, we worked at the job site putting up drywall, painting, etc. and then we went to a park where Next Step Ministries hosts cookouts every week for the citizens of Lorain. We had football games, talked, and ate with the citizens of this county. It was quite fun just to talk to the people of Lorain and even get to know them well. After worship that night, we went down to the shores of Lake Erie to wash each other’s feet to remind us that we are all disciples of Christ.
On Friday, our final day, we swam in Lake Erie and took a hike in a state park. We finished off our last day with another cookout and worship with the citizens of Lorain. After worship we hosted community Bible trivia and a basketball game in the church.
This trip proved to be life changing to all the volunteers as we were able to serve God through helping others and changing lives.
-Cameron Love, 9th grade student, Jr. High Mission Team Member
The sixth running of the Mission Footprint 5K was completed on Saturday, September 10. Despite a warm, muggy morning 152 participants endured the humidity and the course. We want to thank all participants, our corporate sponsors, our volunteers, Henrico County Police, Commonwealth Timing, our MC, Tyler Hart, the ministers and staffs from each church, and the planning team: Sheila Norfleet and Bill Carnahan (Trinity), Cassandra Ducca (River Road Church, Baptist), and Tim Latham and Parker Garrett (Third Church).
Did you participate in the 5k? Have you taken the feedback survey?
