St. Simons UMC gives back to community through Serve Saturday

By Buddy Hughes & Terry Dickson from The Brunswick News and conference communications
 
There was a flurry of activity around the cabins at Epworth By the Sea on Saturday morning, March 9, 2024, and not just from the groups that were staying in them.
 
As luggage wheeled out and soccer balls kicked around, a group dressed in matching blue T-shirts pressure washed the exteriors of all the buildings. It wasn’t a professional cleaning crew. It was one of 12 groups from St. Simons United Methodist Church volunteering in the community for the church’s Serve Saturday initiative.
 
This is the second year the church used the second Saturday in March to do good in the community.
 
“We were looking for opportunities for our church to go out and help the community,” said church member Anna Wilson, leader of Serve Saturday. “We kind of started small. Last year wasn’t as big. We doubled in size this year.”
 
About 135 volunteers spread out across St. Simons and Brunswick volunteering in a variety of ways.
 
At Epworth, a group led by Mike Suthard pressure washed buildings to remove mold and other substances. Both Wilson and Suthard were excited to be able to help Epworth – a United Methodist Retreat ministry in the South Georgia Conference – which Wilson said “does a lot to serve and grow Christians.”
 
Suthard’s connection to Epworth runs especially deep.
 
“My wife has been coming here since she was 9,” Suthard said. “She grew up in middle Georgia and always came down here for camp until she was an adult.”
 
With more volunteers this year, the church was able to expand how many people and organizations it could help.
 
Projects included cleaning the overgrown yard, removing debris and erecting a fence at a house on Albany Street that church member Tony Eisenstraeger owns.
 
He and his wife, Eisentraeger said, had made the house their personal mission. They bought it from First African Baptist Church, made repairs to the structure, and placed a formerly homeless man in it. The man is working and paying expenses, but there was debris in the yard left by people who had camped there.
 
Work has been done on other nearby houses, and Eisenstraeger said, “Hopefully, this will change the whole block.”
 
Wilson was thankful the church was able to help more people in more places because of the greater number of volunteers this year.
 
“One of the things we have made an effort to do this year is expand more into Brunswick,” Wilson said. “We’ve taken meals to the Brunswick fire station. We’re at Memory Matters. We’re at Second Harvest. We had limited volunteers last year so now that we have more, we’ve tried to expand our scope into all of Glynn County. That will be what the focus will be next year too.”
 
More people and more churches might even be involved in the event next year.
 
Scott Cleaveland, Coastal District lay leader, and Kelly Crane, district disaster response coordinator who also serves on the district board of mission, were on hand for the day. 
 
Acknowledging that one of the great strengths of The United Methodist Church is seen in its connectional work, Cleaveland, Crane, and other district leadership are already looking at the second Saturday of March 2025 to replicate this opportunity for service and fellowship in the Coastal District by bringing churches together at additional locations between Savannah and Saint Marys.
 
“As Kelly and I visited the service opportunities in Brunswick and St. Simons we were moved by the deep connections the church had with ministries across the community,” said Cleaveland. “From advanced project planning, to online registration, the breakfast celebration and work team organization, Anna Wilson and the St. Simons UMC team provided a great day of service.”
 
Service is what the whole day was about. After the volunteers ate breakfast at the church early Saturday morning, the Rev. Tom Jones, senior pastor of St. Simons United Methodist Church, prayed for them and said, “We thank you for the calling you placed upon our hearts, the call to serve.”
 
The day’s work, he said, would be examples of “your love, your care, your compassion.”
 
With Easter Sunday and the celebration of Jesus Christ’s resurrection on the heels of their event, Wilson said it was a great time to get out and serve others as Jesus would.
 
“We’re called to serve,” Wilson said. “If there is a need in the community, we want to try to meet that need. Be the hands and feet of Jesus, who calls us to be his hands and feet. Do what Jesus would do, whether that is pressure washing or building a fence.”
 
Suthard added it’s also a great fellowship opportunity for church members.
 
“We love our church and the people especially,” Suthard said. “You sit in pews and say hello to them, but until you get out here and do a little work with them, you don’t get to know them. Everybody pulling on the same team makes it go quickly.”
 
While there is nothing wrong with donating funds to help a cause, Suthard said it’s a different feeling when you are putting in the time and effort yourself to give back.
 
“I can decide where my elbow grease goes,” Suthard said. “I can make a difference and see what I’ve done.”

Serve Saturday has also opened the door for the St. Simons UMC congregation to explore opportunities for hands-on missions. Some of the offspring of Serve Saturday include the participation of 22 volunteers in an Early Response Team Training last August. In the first week after being trained this group was called to serve in Valdosta after Hurricane Idalia. Now, in just a few short months, they have a trailer that is fully equipped with tools and other disaster response necessities.  
 
This was followed by a project last fall when 70 volunteers packed 10,000 meals for the international feeding ministry, “Feed the Hungry.” Plans are already being made to increase the number of meals to 15,000 at a packing event in October 2024. 
 
Additionally, the church has readily responded to a request in recent weeks to be a home base for the newly created Meals on Wheels program on St. Simons Island. Volunteers will be distributing meals twice a week to families and individuals on the island beginning in April.  
 
“It is apparent God is moving in the hearts of our people to not only be supportive of missions financially, but to experience firsthand the tremendous benefits provided for others, as well as for those who serve. when people choose to get involved – and the catalyst for this transformation in our church was a day of service,” said Rev. Jones.