The latest round of grants from the Brethren Faith in Action Fund (BFIA), which provides grants to outreach ministries of Church of the Brethren camps and congregations, are going to eight Church of the Brethren congregations and one camp.
With funds generated from sale of the upper campus of the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md., grants are made to ministries that honor and continue the center’s legacy of service while also addressing the dynamics of the present age. For more information and how to apply go to www.brethren.org/faith-in-action
$5,000 to Iglesia el Buen Pastor in Blacksburg, Va., supports families in the congregation who are facing immigration issues. More than 85 percent of the congregation are immigrants in need of support to cover attorney fees and USCIS fees. The Church of the Brethren’s Deportation Defense Response team and its Legal and Mutual Aid Grant Fund has supported the congregation, but the funds have not been sufficient. This grant helps cover additional costs of legal fees for families in the congregation.
$5,000 to Monte de Hermon, a church plant in Bassett, Va., supports families in the community who are facing job loss and a reduction of hours. The congregation also has lost people to deportation, with their families struggling to make ends meet. The church plant is in need of mutual aid support to help with costs related to food, lawyer fees, and immigration application fees.
$5,000 to Mountain View Fellowship Church of the Brethren in McGaheysville, Va., helps fund a “metal outdoor church identifier,” or a six-foot-tall commercial-grade sign with message board. The congregation hopes to promote the message of God, advertise ministry-based community events, and pertinent church information for the community.
$5,000 to Onekama (Mich.) Church of the Brethren supports the local ECHO His Love programs for those experiencing homelessness. Three programs run year-round. Safe Harbor is an overnight shelter that runs from November to the end of April. HARC provides some day shelter for Safe Harbor guests as they work toward permanent housing and self-sufficiency. TEN&TS is a summer program that provides tents and camping equipment for the remainder of the year not covered by the other programs. The grant will help purchase supplies such as, but not limited to, tents, camping equipment, food, cleaning supplies, bedding, laundry, paper products, beds, and occasional hotel rooms for those experiencing sickness.
$5,000 to Troy (Ohio) Church of the Brethren supports the congregation’s Laundry Outreach project that was started in 2019. Congregational leaders recognized the need to assist people with cleanliness in their everyday lives. The project provides supplies and funding to community members to support washing and drying their clothing and bedding twice per month. Volunteers from the church have given some 950 hours to aid the cleaning of almost 8,000 loads of laundry.
$5,000 to Union Grove Church of the Brethren in Muncie, Ind., supports a paper pantry that provides basic cleaning and hygiene products for families in the community. The free monthly paper pantry has operated since September 2023 and averages about 150 families every month. The pantry has served many of the 50-some Afghan families in the Muncie community and the congregation hired one of them as an interpreter to help communicate with clients not fluent in English. The congregation helped the interpreter—who had not seen his family for more than three years—with airfare to get his wife and four children into the US from Pakistan last year. Union Grove also has made free Bibles available to the Afghan community.
$4,800 to Ridgeway Community Church of the Brethren in Harrisburg, Pa., supports a monthly drive-through breakfast ministry that has been carried out for two years. This outreach ministry provides breakfast for hundreds of members of HANNA’s Pantry, a food pantry with which the church has partnered in several services to the community including food drives, clothing drives, and community gardening. The effort has involved use of the congregation’s land, building space, and many volunteer hours.
$3,900 to Potsdam (Ohio) Church of the Brethren funds community outreach events in 2026 including a Fish Fry and 5K run/walk (May), Vacation Bible School (June), Ice Cream Social (July), Corn Fest and 5K run/walk (August), Kids Club (September to May), and Christmas Eve Service (Dec. 24). Through these events, the congregation is building relationships with those outside the church and several families have joined the church after attending the Christmas Eve Service.
$2,500 to Camp Emmaus in Mount Morris, Ill., supports renewal of the camp’s central activity area that includes a volleyball court and basketball court/campfire-picnic area. The first stage of the project is to renovate the volleyball court with new poles and a net, improved sand surface, and regrading of boundaries. Any funds remaining go toward the work on the basketball court/campfire-picnic area. It is hoped the volleyball court will be finished in time for summer camps this year.
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Find more Church of the Brethren news:
- ‘What got us here won’t get us there’: Learnings from the L.E.A.D. Conference
- World Friendship Center in Hiroshima seeks volunteer co-directors through Brethren Volunteer Service
- Annual Conference officers to host virtual delegate briefing on May 27
- Brethren Press publishes children’s book about feetwashing written by Gimbiya Kettering
- A new Brethren Rapid Response Network is organized