Darien UMC Lends a Hand to Disadvantaged Homeowners

Submitted by the Darien United Methodist Church:

Adults and youth members of the spent the last week of June in Williamsport, Pennsylvania performing community outreach services. Participating in the United Methodist Action Reach-out Mission by Youth (“U.M. Army”) program, tasks included painting, cleaning and repairing homes of the underprivileged and handicapped of this western Pennsylvania community. 

These Darien adults and youth worked and interacted with members of six other churches from Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine, and New Jersey.  

Adults were chosen to supervise teams of middle school and high school aged youths. Each team was tasked with projects which sought to alleviate hardships among the residents of Williamsport. Members of the Darien group worked on homes that needed repair, and whose homeowners were unable to fulfill these repairs due to their health, physical handicap, or financial situation. Collectively, all the 132 participants in the U.M. Army program completed 62 different client sites during the week. Some client site projects took one afternoon, while others took the entire week. 

In addition to the community work, U.M. Army participants also engaged in daily worship and spiritual growth activities. This was the first year that the Darien United Methodist Church participated in the program, and based upon the reaction of the youth, they are already planning next yearʼs U.M. Army mission trip.