Herndon UMC

You are Welcome at Herndon UMC!

The Closet of Greater Herndon

News, Opportunities, Youth

The Closet of Greater Herndon is a wonderful place to shop. It supports the needs of community members, and it passes the profits back to the community. Herndon UMC is a member organization partnering with The Closet to serve our community.  Here are some opportunities to support this organization.

Shop:

  • Monday-Saturday from 10 am-5 pm, and
  • Monday and Thursday evenings, 5 pm-8 pm.

Seniors Only (60+) hours on Thursdays, 8:30-10 am.

Donate:

Monday-Saturday (excluding Thursdays) 8 am-Noon.

Volunteer:

Willing volunteers are needed to sort donations, stock shelves, bag customers’ purchases, and assist customers.  The Closet asks supporting organizations to cover regularly scheduled volunteer days.

Upcoming dates are scheduled through the app, bit.ly/HerndonUMCNeeds, and posted on the Connection Corners.  If you sign-up through the website, please be sure to look for and confirm your sign up through e-mail (if you don’t do so within 5 minutes, the sign-up expires). 

Feel free to email Bill or Betty Arey at thecloset@herndonumc.org to learn more or find out how you can get connected.

The Closet impacts the local community.

  • In 2021, the Closet provided $132,000 in grants to 25 local non-profits.
  • In 2022, $42,000 in scholarships among 6 different schools (one of which was Herndon HS).

LINK, Inc.

Opportunities

LINK, Inc. exists to provide emergency food and financial assistance to qualified people in need. Herndon UMC helps support LINK by serving as a donation drop off point (year-round) and by supporting an on-site LINK food pantry. Herndon UMC also hosts the Christmas toy distribution each year. LINK is comprised of a number of dedicated churches, businesses, organizations, and individuals. LINK serves the Herndon, Sterling, and Ashburn communities. The all-volunteer staff at LINK believe in the power of unconditional love. Learn more about LINK at linkagainsthunger.org.

LINK Bags:

In a new effort to support LINK, Herndon UMC will begin to hand out purple bags every other month.  Attached to each bag is a label with the dates that bags will be available and the dates that they should be returned.  On the back of the label is a list of the most needed items.  Please take a bag, donate what you can of needed items, and return it the week of the Sunday specified.  We will bless the donations in worship and volunteers will take the food to the LINK pantry. 

Bags will be handed out starting JUNE 11.  They will continue to be available in the Welcome Centers until JULY 2.  Bags with donations should be returned the week of JULY 9.  The next date that bags will be handed out will be AUGUST 13.

This is an opportunity to invite neighbors and friends into serving with you.  You may pick up bags for others and have them bring the foods to you, for you to return on the dates specified, or even better, invite them to worship with you on July 9.

    Other Ways to support LINK, Inc:

     

    Learn more about LINK, Inc.

    UMCOR Health Kits for Annual Conference

    Uncategorized

    The Naomi Ruth Circle once again will be assembling Health Kits for UMCOR. (United Methodist Committee on Relief). These kits are sent globally to those who need a few hygiene items. In addition, we will be donating Health Kits to local organizations such as LINK and Cornerstone Embry Rucker Shelter for our Herndon/Reston community.

    Each kit contains nail clippers, soap, a comb, bandaids, a hand towel, a washcloth, a toothbrush, and toothpaste. Kits cost about $7.00 each to assemble.  

    If you have a few extra funds to share with this program please do so. Later in May we will be assembling the kits and welcome all to help!

    Donate today!

    Rise Against Hunger | Mar 25

    Uncategorized

    We can end hunger by 2030.  You can be a part of the solution.

    Herndon UMC is hosting a Rise Against Hunger food packing event with Herndon High School on March 25.  We will begin at 9 am and pack 30,000 meals to go to support a community in need.  Rise Against Hunger works to empower communities, nourish lives, and respond to emergencies.  You can learn more about Rise Against Hunger by watching the video below or from their website.

    Financial donations may be made to support Rise Against Hunger at Herndon UMC through the button below or through PushPay.  Choose the fund marked “Rise Against Hunger”.  Our goal is to raise more than $12,000.

    We need over 100 volunteers!  There are opportunities for the strong and able-bodied to help with the set up before the event (7:30-9 am) and with the clean up afterwards (1:30 apm-2:15pm).  There are also opportunities for EVERYONE to work a 2-hour shift (or two) packing the meals.  See the sign up links below.

     

    Sign or donate through Rise Against Hunger

    Hypothermia Dinners

    Uncategorized

    The last dinner of the season is March 26.

    During the winter months of December through March, unsheltered homeless adults living around our community have a place to seek shelter from the cold weather. Cornerstones partners with Fairfax County to operate the North County Hypothermia Prevention Program (NCHP), one of three hypothermia prevention sites in Fairfax County.  The center works to prevent weather-induced illness and loss of life among unsheltered homeless adult men and women in our community. Unsheltered homeless people are those who, whether by choice or by lack of shelter space, live outdoors, in cars, or in other places unsuitable for human habitation.

    HerndonUMC supports the North County Hypothermia Prevention Program, by preparing and delivering dinners from December through March each year.

    Herndon UMC is dedicated to providing well balanced, healthy, warm meals for those in need.  Your help is needed in a variety of ways–from supplying the ingredients, cooking the meals, and then delivering the meals at the shelter.  For those who have participated in the past, because of the pandemic, we are continuing to allow the NCHP staff to serve our food, and food will not always be prepared at church.  You will be able to see items and volunteers needed for dinners on our church-wide, central listing of needs, bit.ly/HerndonUMCNeeds.  You may sign up online, in the Herndon UMC app, or on one of the clipboards hanging on the Connection Corners at Herndon UMC.  Please note that if you sign up online (and are not logged in to the system), you will be sent a confirmation email that must be clicked to verify your signup.

    And if you would like to be included in communications as new needs are posted, please contact Beth Czerwinski or Becky Field-Ross at neighbors@herndonumc.org to be added to the email group for this ministry to our neighbors.

     

    Show Me What is Needed Right Now

    Fellowship Dinner & Mission Celebration | Mar 15

    Events, Lent, Women

    Let’s Celebrate Mission Work 

    Herndon’s United Women in Faith invites everyone to come together for some delicious food on Wednesday, March 15 to celebrate mission and service.  Each year  Herndon’s women recognize individuals serving our community with Mission Pins.  Come enjoy fellowship and celebrate service by those in our community.

    There will be a free-will donation to support the mission work of Herndon’s United Women in Faith.

    Ash Wednesday | Feb 22

    Events, Lent, Worship

    Wednesday, February 22 | 6 pm
    Dinner & Worship in Doe Fellowship Hall

    Before worship, there will be a Fellowship dinner of soup. salad, bread and desserts in Doe Fellowship Hall. Dinner, which starts at 6 pm, is sponsored by the Come As You Are life group. There will be a free-will offering to support the Pastor’s Discretionary Fund.  The Pastor’s Discretionary Fund goes to support the urgent needs to help with basic needs (e.g. rent, utilities, transportation, and food) of local individuals and families.  We have seen an increase in need recently for those facing eviction.  Gifts may be made at any time to the Discretionary Fund at pushpay.com/g/herndonumc.

    Around 6:45 pm, the Ash Wednesday worship service will also be held in Doe Fellowship Hall, while primarily an in-person service, this worship will also be live-streamed at youtube.com/herndonumc

    Discover Herndon | Mar

    Events

    Let’s discover Herndon together.
    December 11 | Jimmy’s Old Town Tavern

    This casual gathering at a local location is meant to be an opportunity to explore what it might look like to become a member at Herndon UMC. Attending this event does not mean you have to become a member of the church! It’s just an opening to see what church membership might look like in the community we serve.

    Meet at Herndon UMC after the 10 am worship service to carpool to the location or just show up!

    Events like this will repeat monthly, usually on the second Sunday of the month. Locations will vary.  The next date is January 8 at Virginia Kitchen.

    RSVP to welcome@herndonumc.org.

    Our Money Story | Stewardship Study Journal

    Studies

    A devotional journal is available that walks alongside you through Our Money Story. 

    We all have a money story, whether we recognize it or not. Perhaps we are living from a story of fear or shame or guilt. Or a story that our actions won’t have an impact. Or a story that we don’t have enough. Where might God be speaking a new narrative into the limited ones we have told ourselves?

    Often, to speak of money is to invite tension into the room. We so quickly want to avoid it. But we can reframe this. Money and possessions are one of the most common topics in scripture, and Jesus talked about money more than faith and prayer. Our money story, therefore, is a spiritual story.

    We invite you to complete this journal at the pace that suits you. You may wish to ponder the reflections and prompts individually or with others. We have designed this journal to be used as a personal devotional or as the curriculum for a group study series.

    The best stories captivate and transform us—they change how we live. This stewardship season, we invite you to remember, release, reimagine, and restore your money stories so that we can write the one God is begging us to live into.

    Excerpts are available daily on Facebook and Instagram in place of our usual Read. Ponder. Pray.

    Request a pdf-file copy of the full journal by emailing admin@herndonumc.org.

    Look into any of the ongoing studies at Herndon UMC.

    The button below will take to you a list of the groups currently involved in Bible or book studies around topics of faith.  If you are looking to grow closer to Christ by studying his teachings with a group, check out these options.  New studies form regularly, so if there is a specific topic that interests you, please let Pastor Scott Bach-Hansen know, scott@herndonumc.org .

    Current Study Groups