Coalition Spotlight
Spotlight Archives

People's City Mission is a partner with local churches through the Benevolence Coalition. We are a Home (or Local) Missions outreach for these churches. They support People's City Mission and the Distribution Center with cash donations, in-kind donations and volunteers.

Coalition churches refer requests for shelter and basic needs to our Distribution Center or to the Mission, where we will qualify the recipient and assist them with free food, clothing, household items, furniture and even shelter, if needed.

Each church in Benevolence Coalition is entitled to be represented in the PCM Assembly of Church Delegates, the group that elects the Board of Directors for the People's City Mission Home. The following churches are members of the Benevolence Coalition. To become a part of the Benevolence Coalition, contact John Harris or Pastor Tom Barber at 402-475-1303.

If you need a speaker on Sunday or during the week, please contact John Harris at 402-475-1303 or jharris@peoplescitymission.org. We are eager to share the Good News of Christ's work through church involvement!

For volunteer opportunities, please contact Nora Ragon at 402-475-1303 or nragon@peoplescitymission.org.

If you have a PCM Volunteer or Mission story to share, please contact John Harris at 402-475-1303 or jharris@peoplescitymission.org.


Coalition Spotlight
Westminster Presbyterian Church Knit Together Fellowship
Every Wednesday evening Knit Together meets
at the church for study, fellowship and knitting. These recent donations to People's City Mission are part of the group's outreach ministry to those in need.

The teddy bear instantly caught the eye of a
father who was staying in our Family Shelter
with his wife and newborn baby! Each knitted
gift is an expression of love and caring.

Knit Together was organized four years ago
by church member Francy Scheele. This group
is open to both church members and non-church members. If you would like to knit together with a group of Christian friends, please call Westminster for more information. 402-475-6702.

Thank you Westminster for the beautiful knitted gifts!

Spotlight Archives
Pie and Praise

Who would have thought the two do hand in hand? John Kunze, associate pastor of Messiah Lutheran Church, and a group of his church members offered the Wednesday evening chapel service on May 7, complete with fellowship over a piece of pie. The response was outstanding. Over sixty guests participated and our staff remarked that the chapel was buzzing with excitement.

We are so thankful for the heart of a church that wants to make a difference at the People's City Mission by sharing the message of hope and encouragement through praise to our God.
We pray God's blessings on Pastor Kunze and the members of this church and thank them for an awesome evening of praise, pie and fellowship.

First Evangelical Free Church's Kingdom Assignment

Inspired by the Matthew sermon about multiplied talents, Pastor Mark Brunott at First Evangelical Free Church gave $100 to members who wanted to go on an adventure. Not only were they told to use it in some way to help others in the city, state, nation or world, but they had to multiply it. They were given three months to complete what he called their "Kingdom Assignment." This is Phyllis Kingery's story.

When Bill and I came home on Sunday, my first thought was to return the money and get out of the project. His dad had just gone into the hospital the week prior, and we knew it was going to be a lengthy stay requiring a huge drain on our time and energy. But, I decided to at least pray and consider what the Lord might want us to do.

Since I have volunteered at the People's City Mission for the past 4 years, my mind kept leaning that way, but I wasn't sure exactly how to plug in. The next week, I received their e-newsletter mentioning the urgent need for diapers, as well as their plans for the free medical clinic. This narrowed down my scope, and I shared this with a friend and asked her to pray for the right place.

The following Sunday, another friend who had heard the assignment message told me that the Lord had instructed her to match whatever I ended up doing for up to $1,000! This absolutely astounded me. I asked her to pray for direction between the two needs at the Mission. The following Tuesday, the first friend I'd asked to pray told me she had something for me in her car to give me after Bible study. It was several boxes of diapers, which the Lord had nudged her to get using some of her birthday money. The following day, I spoke with someone at the Mission about the medical clinic, and learned that it wouldn't be up and operational until the end of this year. These two contacts cemented the fact that I was to go the route of collecting diapers. This became very personal to me because I see the very babies and young children that would be the recipients of these diapers every Thursday when I serve the Noon meal there.

Word of mouth alone began to bring in diapers, as I was still very involved in the daily care and needs of my father-in-law and wasn't able to put too much time and energy into the project at the beginning. I continued to pray and ask the Lord to give me ideas for ways to collect diapers or contributions for them. Three thoughts came to mind: type a letter and leave it in the doors of all the people living on our street that I knew well enough to tell my story to, ask the south WalMart if I could do a diaper drive outside their front doors on a Saturday, have a baby shower for my friends, but have it be a diaper shower. I put these all in the back of my mind and continued to concentrate on the needs of my father-in-law and the daily trips to the hospital to sit with him. He died unexpectedly on March 16 (Palm Sunday) at the age of 91, so the next week was spent with family in town and all that goes into planning the funeral, etc.

The following week, I began in earnest to implement my ideas. I left a letter with 21 neighbors telling them about the adventure and asked if they would partner with me. Eight neighbors responded thanking me for the opportunity to participate, and about $250 came from them.

I was given permission to do the diaper drive at WalMart and spent an eight hour day outside the front doors with simply a large sign explaining the need and asking shoppers to add diapers to their list and drop them off on the way out. This netted close to $500 in donations and diapers. A total of 37 individuals contributed, and I had good visits with many of them about the Mission and its work.

I sent out 20 invitations to the shower and 16 women came for a fun-filled night of surprises, games and much laughter. About $500 was raised at this event.

I also continued to tell the story to others. My sister babysits for several school teachers, one of whom had just been declared cancer free. When she asked about all of the diapers sitting by her door, my sister told her my story, and this teacher brought eight bags of diapers the next week. She wanted to show thankfulness for being a cancer survivor and help someone else!

I also received a letter of introduction from the Mission that I could take to businesses. I went to as many stores that sold diapers as I had time for, even though this completely took me out of my comfort zone! I prayed before approaching every store manager and trusted God to provide what I was to receive. Many gave me a box on the spot, and others had me complete forms. Of the 25 or so that I visited, I have received diapers from 15 of them.

As of today, I believe the collection is pretty much over, unless a few more stores respond to the forms I completed and left for them to consider in their May giving. A total of 80 individuals and 15 businesses donated the following:

When my friend had told me that she felt God leading her to match the donations, she felt she needed to put the $1,000 cap on this. At the time, I assured her that wouldn't be necessary, as I couldn't imagine receiving over $1,000, but she said to never underestimate God! She knew we couldn't put a limit on Him!

Of the $100 given to me, I spent half on postage, poster board for my WalMart sign, and supplies for the diaper shower. The remaining half was spent on diapers to put in the shopping cart at WalMart so that the shoppers would have a visual of what was being asked of them. I kept detailed records of every single transaction and have a notebook that I will keep to remind me of these past three months.

This has been one of the most amazing assignments ever given to me, and I have seen God's hand in it at every step of the way. The very first carload I took to the Distribution Center was literally taken right to their shelves and the larger sizes were given away on the spot, as the need was so great. I marveled how God had prompted me to deliver them at that time on that day. It was a confirmation that I was doing the right project. Every time I spoke to a store manager, I felt the Lord was with me, helping me not to get tongue-tied, and allowing me to just share my story. As the total kept climbing, I soon realized that this was out of my hands. All I was asked to do was be obedient and get the word out, and God would be the one to move in the hearts of others to give. God truly can use one person to accomplish His purposes in a mighty way. To God be the glory — great things HE has done!

Capitol City Christian Church Clothing Exchange & Distribution

Recycle – Relate - Rejoice

On the third Saturday of each month, Capitol City Christian Church has a Clothing Exchange at the church from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm!

Everyone is welcome to participate and be part of this Christian community exchange.  Clean, usable clothing is collected at the church, located at 7800 Holdrege Street.  If donors wish, they can exchange their items for those brought by others.  Even if you do not bring donation, you may take what you need.  At the end of the day, all remaining items are donated to People’s City Mission.

For more information about the Clothing Exchange, please call the church office at 402-467-4458 or www.capitolcitychristianchurch.com