{"id":30628,"date":"2022-07-26T12:16:42","date_gmt":"2022-07-26T16:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=30628"},"modified":"2022-09-22T10:38:30","modified_gmt":"2022-09-22T14:38:30","slug":"methodists-help-washed-up-laundromat-customers-7-26-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=30628","title":{"rendered":"Methodists Help Washed Up Laundromat Customers (7\/26\/22)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can there be anything more boring than to lug a basket of dirty clothes into a laundromat and then sit in an uncomfortable chair watching socks tumble around in the dryer?\u00a0 Of course it could be worse:\u00a0 Maybe you forgot to bring the right change.\u00a0 Maybe you didn’t bring detergent.\u00a0 Maybe you’re surrounded by grumpy people who are just as “excited” by the experience as you are.
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A United Methodist Church in Georgia wanted to do something to brighten up this dreary experience.\u00a0 God’s love is everywhere, so church can happen anywhere…<\/span> <\/em><\/p>\n

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Coins and Care…<\/span><\/h3>\n

A recent article on the North Georgia Conference’s<\/a><\/span> website described a ministry where members of a United Methodist Church visit a local laundromat to supply patrons with detergent and coins.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Bright Star United Methodist\u00a0Church<\/a><\/span> (in Douglasville, GA) wanted to reach out to the community to show a taste of God’s love.\u00a0 So they created a ministry called “Coins & Care.”\u00a0 Several times a month, they visit the nearby “All Washed\u00a0Up<\/a><\/span>” laundromat to surprise patrons with a friendly greeting and a laundry “care package.”\u00a0 The package includes detergent and quarters (along with a smile and welcome to the Bright Star UMC).<\/p>\n

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Church Can Happen Anywhere…<\/span><\/h3>\n

We are frequently trapped by the vision which limits “Church” to the events that take place on Sunday \"\"mornings inside the Church’s building.\u00a0 But God’s engagement with us is a 24×7 operation, and most of our contact with God happens outside of our church building.<\/p>\n

We sometimes say things like, “Come to church on Sunday, and you’ll see how much God loves you!”\u00a0 But what if you don’t “come to church on Sunday”… does God still love you?\u00a0 Is it impossible to see God’s love unless you’re inside a church building???<\/p>\n

The Bright Star United Methodist Church has come up with this creative way to reach out to people in a local laundromat.\u00a0 By spending some time with people, handing out snacks, and supplying coins and detergent, these Christians are meeting the people at their needs.\u00a0 Through their creativity, they are extending God’s love an an unexpected way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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In Luke chapter 16<\/span><\/a><\/span>,\u00a0 Jesus told the story of a “Shrewd Manager” who was about to be fired.\u00a0 While he still had the ability, the manager came up with a dishonest scheme to make friends who would help him through his impending unemployment.\u00a0 The manager’s boss commended the “Shrewd Manager” for using the resources available to him, even though the manager was stealing from him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jesus didn’t tell this parable to show approval of the dishonest manager’s action.\u00a0 He used this illustration to encourage us to think outside the box and to use our creativity to show His love to the people around us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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This ministry at Bright Star challenges all churches to find ways of reaching out to their own community.\u00a0 The specific need might be something other than laundry detergent, but God has enabled us to find our own creative ways of helping people.\u00a0 Do we know our community well enough to meet those needs?<\/p>\n

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For some examples of how PUMC is reaching out to our community, click this button:\u00a0 Community<\/span><\/a> \u00a0<\/p>\n

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A recent article described a ministry of a United Methodist church in Georgia which is ministering to people in a local laundromat. The ministry team visits the laundromat to supply patrons with coins and detergent, and in the process gives them a taste of God’s love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-godprints","category-mission-aroundtowns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30628"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30639,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30628\/revisions\/30639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}