Presbyterian Church of Old Greenwich

It is a practical ministry, which seeks to help those with a need by delivering furniture and household items to people who have needs. Furniture and household items is the starting place, but we are realizing with each delivery that there are other needs like food and child care products and we are praying about how to begin to step into these related areas in a responsible and sustainable manner.

 

Presently Carl discovers a need and then contacts the church… email and word of mouth has quickly filled every need to date. As the Ministry is established we will let neighboring churches know so that when they have people who want to get rid of furniture we can get it to people in need. Just this week a friend called me with a crib and baby items to give away. Unbeknownst to me Carl received a request for such items so on Tuesday the crib etc. was dropped off and Wednesday it was delivered to a family with a need… that’s how God works!

 

Presently Paul and Carl do the delivering… as the ministry grows we will need to add helpers.

 

Generally, Carl visits the people who express the need first before the need is made known to the church community. We have chosen however to error on the side of grace & trust rather than create a long protocol for checking out the need.

 

This aspect of the Ministry is still being developed but have some thoughts. We anticipate once food is part of the ministry that we will take food with most furniture deliveries. And when special cases of food-needs emerge Carl/Paul will handle this on a one-on-one basis. It will not be difficult to “find” people with real food needs! We are not planning on having people with food needs will come to PCOG, we will go to them. We are still working on all of this.

 

Yes! We have NIV NTs, one will be distributed with each delivery. Also we have a brief handout that will be left with each delivery -- one side explains that we are doing this to share the love of Jesus, the other side will have PCOG’s name, address, directions, etc. Secondly, we have a letter that will be sent to each furniture recipient 2 weeks after each delivery that will bless, share the name of Jesus and invite people to PCOG. Of course we will share Jesus verbally on each delivery as the Holy Spirit opens doors.

 

Yes, like Goodwill, people who donate items in good condition to the ministry will be offered a form to complete that will allow them a “gift in kind” deduction from their taxes.