The Outreach Ministry is dedicated to reaching outside our immediate church family to reveal the love of God. Throughout the year, we are actively involved in many ministries and are always looking for additional ways to show God's love to those around us. Listed below are some of our on-going projects. If you would like to get involved, please speak with the listed coordinator.

• The Sterling House: On the 5th Sunday of each quarter, we go to The Sterling House in Goldsboro to visit with the residents. These visits have included homemade ice cream, homemade cookies, as well as catered meals from McCalls. Sometimes we provide entertainment while they are enjoying their snack. Sabrina Paphitis coordinates these visits.
  
  
• Wayne County Relay for Life: Garris Chapel is always an active participant in the annual Relay for Life that raises funds for the American Cancer Society. The relay is traditionally held during May. Fundraising activities will begin in February/March timeframe. Lynn Crumpler is the coordinator.
  
  
• Cancer Care Packages: In 2009, we would like to begin a Cancer Care Package ministry that will provide care packages to folks recently diagnosed with cancer. If you have ideas of items to be included or if you have a person you would like receive one of these packages, please contact Susan Spengler.
  
  
• Operation Christmas Child: Each year, we provide empty shoeboxes for the congregation to fill with Christmas goodies for needy children. In addition to the shoeboxes, the church covers the cost of the shipment. Shoeboxes will usually be available during the month of October since the shipment is due the week before Thanksgiving. We have traditionally sent about 100 boxes. Contact is Susan Spengler
  
  
• Airmen Cookie Drive: During the holiday season, folks who are able can bring homemade cookies in non-returnable packages to the church to be taken to SJAFB for delivery to airmen overseas. This is usually the first weekend in December.
  
  
• Needy families: If at anytime during the year, you know of a family in need, please speak with the pastor. He has been given a discretionary fund to be used for such purposes.
  
  
• Care for Bereaved Families: Garris Chapel has a wonderful reputation of taking care of grieving families. Rosa Wiggins heads up this ministry and will be glad to offer the church's assistance.
  
  
• Christmas Outreach to School children: Each year during the holiday season, school employees are granted a fixed dollar amount to be used to provide Christmas cheer to children identified by the guidance counselors at their schools. Susan Spengler heads up this program.
  
  
• Alzheimer's Memory Walk: Garris Chapel has traditionally provided a donation to the memory walk. Due to the increasing number of families affected by this disease, we would like to increase our participation in this project. If you have knowledge about this program, please contact Susan Spengler.
  
  
• Mission Work Teams: Garris Chapel sent a work team to Louisiana in the summer of 2006. We would like to take another work team during the summer of 2009. If you are interested, please contact Susan Spengler.
  
  
  Vacation Bible School Mission Projects: During VBS, the Outreach Ministry provides a mission-focused opportunity for the children. Past projects have included Stop Hunger Now, Heifer International, Nothing But Nets, raising funds for wheelchairs, etc. Sabrina Paphitis will be working with VBS this year to determine the project focus.
  
  
• Dana’s Wardrobe: During Prom season, this ministry provides prom dresses to those who are not able to provide a dress for themselves. Dana Southerland acquires new dresses from stores around the east coast. Fittings are scheduled through the church office.
  
  
• FLOK (For the Love of Kids): This is a weekend backpack feeding ministry that runs through the school year. Children are selected by the school counselors. Backpacks are dropped off on Fridays with food for each child for the weekend. On Mondays the children return the backpacks so that they may be distributed again on the following Friday. If you would like to help with this ministry, please contact Christina Brown.
  
  
• Red Cross Blood Drives: Twice a year, May and November, Garris Chapel hosts blood drives. We welcome those in the community to participate in this event. Contact Susan Spengler if you would like to help.
  Next Blood Drive is August 29th from 12 – 4:30pm
  

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” John 21:15

FLOK is a ministry of Garris Chapel. Here’s how it works. Friday afternoons backpacks will be dropped off at a specific school location. Each will be full of enough food for one child to last an entire weekend. On Monday morning, the children will return the backpacks to a designated location, where they will be picked up and packed for the following weekend.

Hi, welcome to the FLOK website!
My name is Christina Brown. My husband and I started FLOK, For the Love of Kids, in March of 2009 at Garris Chapel United Methodist Church in La Grange, North Carolina. FLOK is currently serving over 100 children in the Goldsboro/La Grange area. With the passion of several in our area who are dedicated to help end world hunger, we are able to provide nourishment to children in our community.

My heart is drawn to helping and caring for children. Let me tell you why. In 1977 I was born to Spencer and Debbie. Soon after came two sisters, all of us two years apart. We lived in an old flat in Hartford, Connecticut in a tough crime-ridden neighborhood; the kind of place that none of us wish for our children to live in. I have heard so many times that children don’t remember events in their lives at a young age. Let me tell you, if they’re traumatic enough, they will. I remember at times not having electricity, being scared when it was getting dark without mom or dad at home, and sleeping in a single crib with my sisters because we did not have a bed other than the one my parents slept in when they were home. I remember cockroaches on the floors, on the walls, and crawling on us when we slept. I remember being hungry and having to literally scrounge around in the fridge only to find a glass jar of pickle juice that I ended up drinking (oddly enough, I still love pickles). I recently learned that I was hospitalized for months after drinking bleach. During that time I was in an out of a consciousness, maybe that’s why I don’t remember this event. I was near death, but God still needed me here ….. I remember breaking jars of baby food to feed my sisters because I was not strong enough to open the lids. If we had milk, I would give it to them. I couldn’t stand to hear my sisters cry from hunger. I would go hungry so they wouldn’t. I remember seeing a brown, glass bottle on the window ledge; being thirsty, I drank it – my first drink of alcohol at the age of four. I was a child - hungry and thirsty.
I remember the gnawing pain from not having food in my belly. I remember the thirst and reaching for the little brown bottle out of desperation. I remember the broken jars and feeding my sisters while trying not to give them glass. Children should not have to worry about their next meal. I have opened

“…for I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” Matthew 25:35

Let me share stories of some of the children FLOK has helped:
There was a little boy this past school year whose family not only struggled to put food on the table, but experienced a tragic loss. Simon’s (not actual name) family came from Honduras. His father was a hard worker who tried to provide for his family. After some time, Simon’s father came to the realization that he could not make ends meet, much of it due to difficulty finding a permanent job. He went back to Honduras to find work. While gone he was killed. He left behind three children and a wife. Here’s what he wasn’t able to leave behind: money, vehicle, and electricity. FLOK was there for them. FLOK provided food for the children and a page long list of agencies that are available to help in time of need. FLOK was able to relieve some of the burden the mother was experiencing while trying to find a job and feed her three children.
There was also Joshua who lives in a home where there is no phone service, on some occasions goes without electricity, and had only a frozen chicken in his freezer for his family to eat. Joshua went hungry on weekends—until people like you contributed foods and funds to FLOK. Now Joshua takes home a back-pack of nutritious, kid-friendly foods every Friday afternoon.

Who we serve:
FLOK feeds children from many different ethnic backgrounds, life experiences, and family situations. Unfortunately, families all over the county are struggling. Hunger is not an ethnic specific epidemic; it is worldwide amongst all people. Some of these children are hungry because their parents cannot find jobs or have physical handicaps that prevent them from working. Some are hungry because they lost everything in a home fire and didn’t have insurance, and yes, there are some who go hungry because their parents will not be responsible. We are not called to judge their circumstances. We are called to love those children and FLOK gives us a way to show our love in a tangible, life-sustaining, hope-giving way.
It is not our place to judge. It is our place to feed. “Red and yellow, black and white, we are precious in HIS sight.” Jesus loves ALL the children of the world.

Thank you so much for
your prayers and support!!