Allow me to expand on what I said previously...our missions program is not just overseas, it also works in our home state, FL, NH, seven countries around the world, plus what our youth programs are doing in their efforts which is something separate from the church.
Now let me go further. If somebody from the community comes asking for help all we ask them to do is attend church once with us and we will help them as best we can with one months utilities, wood for heat, or heating oil. We also help those who come to us who are in need of food by either giving them a gift card for the local grocery store or buying them the groceries and delivering them to them.
If somebody needs help with a mortgage or rent payment, there is another church in the community that deals with these issues and we send them to this church. Many of the towns in our state have very little in general assistance funds and once it is gone it is gone and they start sending people to the local church.
We will help our own before we will help those in the community or we will help them with a higher amount of money...whether it be for food or gasoline or sometime of heating assistance and sometimes a mortgage or rent payment.
I have known of one church to buy the property that one parishioner is living on and the church agreed to let the person stay on the property as property manager and take care of the property of the church outside. The church also agreed to take care of all the taxes for this individual while doing this until they either left the church or until the person died. The reason the church did this is because the town was going to foreclose on the property putting this person and his family out on the street.
