Mission & Outreach Events
Good News Center
A place for whole-life compassionate care with our neighbors!
The Food Pantry provides food assistance to families who reside in Lee County. Guests shop for dry goods like canned veggies, fruits, soups, meats, pasta, cereal, peanut butter, and more and also select several perishable items like milk, cheese, eggs, and frozen meats. The clothes closet ministry works in conjunction with the food pantry and allows guests to select several pieces of clothing or shoes. Both ministries are located in the Auburn UMC Good News Center at 302 E Magnolia Ave.
A team of volunteers stocks shelves and sorts clothing every Thursday from 8am-9am and another team of volunteers operate our food and clothing distribution every Friday from 8am-11am. We are always looking for new volunteers!
The Auburn United Methodist Church Food Pantry is an equal opportunity provider. Esta institución es un proveedor que ofrece igualdad de oportunidades.
The Good News Garden is a brand-new addition to the Good News Center! Located near the back entrance, the garden includes 32 sq ft of raised beds for growing fresh vegetables to share with our food pantry guests. Volunteers are needed to maintain the garden through watering, planting, and harvesting.
Our homebound food pantry prepares and delivers a food box once a month for families who are no longer able to visit our food pantry. A team of volunteers prepares boxes on the 2nd and 3rd Thursday mornings of the month. A team of deliverers who are matched with one or two homebound friends picks up the boxes for delivery. These deliverers form close relationships with their homebound friends through this ministry.
The Good News Partners ministry offers critical housing assistance with past due rent and utility bills along with supportive relationships with Auburn UMC volunteers. We plan to launch this ministry in October 2024.
Local Teams
Community partnerships to make new friends and live a life of service!
Loachapoka Elementary Partnership
Our partnership with Loachapoka Elementary School includes Tutoring, Gently Read Books, and Teacher Support.
- Tutors are assigned to one classroom and visit once a week to work with students for about an hour. We focus on reading but sometimes venture into other subjects like math. Our tutors work closely with the teachers to support students who need the most help.
- Our Gently Read Books Team delivers books for every classroom about 3 times a year. A majority of these books are donated by the congregation. Our team sorts the books and delivers them to the school so students can choose two books to take home to help build their home library.
- We support teachers by providing a meal in early August while teachers are back preparing to begin fall semester and another meal during Teacher Appreciation Week at the end of the spring semester. We also provide classroom supplies with our annual Angel Tree during the Advent season. Encouraging cards and gifts are given to teachers for Christmas and at the end of the year.
Worship at Auburn Assisted Living
One Friday morning each month a team of lay people and clergy from Auburn UMC visit Auburn Assisted Living to lead a simple service of worship with songs and communion. Of course, they like to hang around and fellowship some too! This is a simple but meaningful way to share God’s love by offering our presence with senior adults.
Home Repair
Every family deserves a home that is warm, safe, and dry. Our home repair team serves monthly by building wheelchair ramps and steps, replacing damaged floors, weatherizing doors and windows, and more. We sometimes organize teams to serve on a Saturday with Alabama Rural Ministry. Each service day is also an opportunity to build a relationship with the family and share Christ’s love with them in a tangible, personal way. All are welcome to serve with our home repair ministry and prior construction experience is not required.
International Teams
Global partnerships sharing Christ's love in tangible ways beyond our borders!
Costa Rica
Serving July 13-20 2025!
We look forward to serving again with our friends at Cristo Vive Methodist Church in beautiful Palmares, Costa Rica on July 13-20 2025! This team will continue construction on the church property, host a children’s Bible school, and share food bags with a nearby refugee community. Alicia Smith will be leading this team. Contact her today to learn more at southernhomeplanning@gmail.com.
Honduras
Serving June 14-23* 2025
Our Honduras team will continue partnering with Christian Social Mission and serve among several communities in the Copan region of Honduras in 2025! The team will serve with medical clinics, construction projects, and support of local pastors alongside a team of nurse practitioners students from Samford University. No medical experience is required to serve with the clinics but the team would love to have more medical or dental professionals. Joe Stokes is leading this team. Contact him today at beehive61@gmail.com to learn more.
*June 14-23 2025 dates are tentative as of Sep. 2024
Cost of Poverty Experience 2025
Step into someone else’s shoes and take on the daily challenges of living in material poverty. The Cost of Poverty Experience (COPE) is a highly interactive group activity that allows you to expand your understanding of people who live in material poverty. This enjoyable learning opportunity will leave you a more compassionate, empathetic follower of Jesus.
While there is no single quick solution for our 33,000 neighbors in Lee County living in poverty, Auburn UMC strives to live as a church that helps people. We believe our church is being led to build on this legacy of serving the poor by asking: What would it look like to not only offer help to those struggling in our community, but to walk alongside them as compassionate friends?
Coming in early 2025, we will begin answering that question with a Cost of Poverty Experience (COPE). Will you join us to expand your view of poverty and walk a mile in someone else’s shoes?
This is a great activity for individuals, students, couples, classes, small groups, or families (age 12 and up recommended). Any current or prospective mission & outreach ministry volunteers or team members are highly encouraged to attend!
Lunch is being provided along with childcare (be sure to mark this on the registration form). Cost is $10 per person or $5 for students (all ages).
Contact Joe Davis at joed@aumc.net or 334-826-8800 x249 with any questions.
Mission & Outreach Team
Joe Davis
Director of Mission and Outreach