Share Fest 2020
Like congregations around the country, First Christian Church has made modifications to our worship service and is practicing social distancing in an effort to keep our members and our community safe. Despite these changes, this does not mean that the work of ministry has come to an end. Over the past several months Carroll Russell, Debbie Crane, and the other members of the outreach committee have collected several thousand dollars worth of food, school supplies, and toiletries. Every month Carroll would make an announcement of what was being collected. These items were purchased by members of the congregation and stored in the church’s outreach room for packaging.
Our church has participated in the annual Festival of Sharing for several years. This is an ecumenical event organized by the Missouri Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. Traditionally, congregations from all around the state would come together at regional centers throughout the state to collect disaster relief kits, food, quilts, and school supplies. These items would then be shipped to the state fairgrounds in Sedalia for distribution to community service organizations here in Missouri and around the world. One of the collection points was here in Dexter at the First United Methodist Church.
Changing church demographics has gradually reduced effectiveness of this structure. Instead of having a statewide Festival of Sharing, a couple of years ago the Missouri Annual Conference instead chose to focus on the smaller regional events. The new structure is called Share Fest and is the Southeast Missouri event is still hosted here in Dexter. This has allowed us to continue to serving our community and region in much the same way as we have for years. On the first Saturday of October churches from all over the region convene at the First United Methodist Church. Volunteers unload trucks and trailers full of needed supplies. These boxes are counted, sorted, and then in the same afternoon they are picked up by agencies that need them.
The revised Share Fest structure is a relatively quick and straightforward process that allows us to share some of the blessings we have been given with people who need help. Unfortunately, the arrival of the coronavirus made this process unworkable. It was simply unsafe to bring hundreds of volunteers from several communities together at one time. Instead, the organizers put together a plan whereby a small number of dedicated volunteers would receive the items outside the church building on Friday, sort them that afternoon, and then distribute them to organizations on Saturday morning.
All volunteers wore masks and most people never went inside the building. We were unable to have our large celebratory lunch and worship service at the end of the event, but despite all of these restrictions, over $54,000 worth of supplies were collected and distributed at the southeast Missouri Share Fest alone. Similar events were held throughout the state and the work of the church was able to continue while continuing to keep everyone safe. A huge thanks to the crew from First Christian Church as well as the organizers and volunteers who put this year’s event together in the middle of very difficult circumstances.
