Wednesday, December 30, 2009

2nd Floor Renovations

The last month has been a busy one for the second floor and children's ministries of the United Church of Rogers Park. If you haven't been upstairs to see changes that have occurred, please take some time to visit and see the transformation.

While working on a mission trip at UCRP with her youth group from Downers Grove First United Methodist, Jenny felt called to do something more than her week of service. She decided that she wanted to help create a children's library for the children's ministries at UCRP as a part of her project for her Gold Award in Girl Scouting. But, sometimes God has a bigger vision than we can see and soon the project grew from creating a library to helping to renovate the entire second floor of the church. Jenny was able to raise over $3,000 and acquire donations of computers, tables, and children's books.

Through Jenny's project, new flooring was bought for the blue room, the floors in the classrooms were stripped and refinished, a new computer was purchased, and she cataloged and organized hundreds of books for the children's library.

This all means that the second floor of the church now houses a children's library, an education resource room, a computer lab, a multipurpose meeting room, a large open

space, a classroom and a nursery. These rooms are already being put to use and will continue to offer space for children's ministries, meetings, and other uses.

We would like to thank Jenny and the youth from Downers Grove First United Methodist church for all their hard work.




Sunday, December 27, 2009

Holiday Cheer for All

Christmas cheer flowed throughout the building at the United Church of Rogers Park on December 22. 40 families gathered together for the 2009 Holiday Cheer program. Mark Bowman and his family cooked a delicious vegetarian meal, and church members mingled and served the food. After dinner, everyone came together to sing Christmas carols and make Christmas cards. At the end of the night, 86 children received gifts that were generously donated from the angel tree at United Church of Rogers Park and Trinity United Methodist in Willmette. Each family also received a gift card for groceries thanks to donations from The Glenwood, Davis-Miller Design in Winnetka, and generous church members.