Love-Go-Grow: Stories Inside Crozet UMC – The United Women Of Faith
When Bonnie Gibbs came to Crozet United Methodist, she knew pretty quickly that she wanted to be involved with the United Women in Faith, then known as the United Methodist Women.
“The women of the Joybelles Circle reached out to me right away and wanted me to come join them,” Gibbs said.
At that time Gibbs was still teaching over in the Valley back in 1987, which made it hard for her to get to everything the Joybelles and the UWF did, she got involved.
“I wanted to be part of this group of women coming together with the love of Christ and the mission to go and serve others.”
Serve others is unequivocally correct. The UWF is a bedrock organization for Crozet UMC, instrumental to how the church operates and an incredible place for women to plug into the ministry of the church. The group – one of Crozet UMC’s largest with 44 members – supports, completes and starts mission work from the local to the global.
“It is an organization of women whose main mission is to serve others,” said Gibbs, now the organization’s president. “We want to spread hope, love and peace to women and children and youth all over the world.”
They do that in a host of different ways. Through the church Christmas Bazaar as well as Yard and Bake Sales, the UWF raises money directly for mission work. Recently donations at the yard sale supported UMCOR relief efforts in the Ukraine.
“Some people may not want to go beyond the local,” Gibbs said. “But I feel like we need to help those in need in the United States and around the world.”
Helping those around the world goes way beyond raising money though for the United Women In Faith. The women also come together for Missions and Merriment – the next event is coming up May 1 – where they produce sewn products to be taken to Advancing Native Missions.
“Like pillowcase dresses or blankets – lightweight blankets – to go to areas where people are refugees,” Gibbs said.
The church’s two major circles, the Joybelles and Rebeccas, meet monthly and there are quarterly luncheons of the entire UWF membership. While there is fun, food and even games at circle meetings there is also some serious work getting done!
Programming and learning helps establish relationships and fellowship that leads to a better understanding of how to maximize the group’s impact in mission work. That programming can cover just about everything from the organization’s long history of working for racial justice to the reason for why UMCOR was founded and the work they do.
“Everything we do is for mission work and I just get really excited about that,” Gibbs said.
Knowing a little or a lot about the situation the United Women of Faith can help with can make all the difference. Like those blankets produced at Missions and Merriment for use around the world in refugee camps.
“They have to be lightweight so that these people can wash the blankets in the river during the day and then lay them out to dry so they’ll be dry to use that night. That is the kind of mission work that I want to be a part of and I want everyone to understand how important the little things we do can make such a big difference in people’s lives.”
That’s truly the kind of difference we all should aspire to make and the United Women In Faith are one of the organizations that have been and continue to set the standard for how we do mission work here at Crozet United Methodist.
Interested in being involved with the United Women in Faith? Reach out to Bonnie Gibbs in Realm or contact the church office.