Mission Activities

Community Adult Day Center (CADC) is a not-for-profit organization serving DG and surrounding communities. The center provides a dignified and pleasant environment for any adult needing daytime care and is an alternative to full-time in-home care. Clients enjoy a warm, supportive atmosphere, creative program, nutritionally-balanced meal, and an opportunity to share with others of the same age group, as well as social activities, including physical exercise, field trips and current events programs.

For more information, contact the center by phone 630.968.1060 or email info@communityadultdaycenter.org.

Saturday, July 15, 2023 9:30am to 3pm

The 17th Annual Downers Grove Garden Walk gives you an opportunity to view some of the most beautiful gardens in the area. All proceeds benefit the DGFUMC Bridge Board in providing transitional housing and mentoring for homeless families.

Tickets are now available online or at the following locations: 

• Anderson's Bookshop, 5112 Main St., Downers Grove
• Community Bank of Downers Grove, 1111 Warren Ave.
• The Growing Place, 25W471 Plank Rd, Naperville
• Phillip's Flowers and Gifts, 528 N. Cass Ave., Westmont
• Downers Grove First United Methodist Church, 1032 Maple Ave.

Tickts are $20 in advance. Tickets also are available on Saturday, July 15 at each of the gardens, and at Downers Grove First United Methodist Church from 9:30 a.m. to noon in our parking lot for $25.

Saturday, July 10, 2021 9:30am to 3pm

The 15th Annual Downers Grove Garden Walk gives you an opportunity to view some of the most beautiful gardens in the area. All proceeds benefit the DGFUMC Bridge Board in providing transitional housing and mentoring for homeless families.

Tickets are now available online or at the following locations: 

• Anderson's Bookshop, 5112 Main St., Downers Grove
• Community Bank of Downers Grove, 1111 Warren Ave.
• The Growing Place, 25W471 Plank Rd, Naperville
• Phillip's Flowers and Gifts, 528 N. Cass Ave., Westmont

Tickts are $20 in advance. Tickets also are available on Saturday, July 10 at each of the gardens, and at Downers Grove First United Methodist Church from 9:30 a.m. to noon in our parking lot for $25.

DuPage United, founded in 2003, is an inclusive, non-profit, non-partisan organization whose members are civil society institutions: churches, mosques, synagogues, non-profit agencies, and associations. They have come together to form public relationships and to act together to improve the quality of life for individuals, families and communities. DuPage United engages in democratic action in the public arena.

A group of clergy and lay leaders founded the organization in order to build the capacity to sit at the table with decision-makers to change systems and structures that were unjust. DGFUMC is a member of DuPage United.  For more information, please contact Rachel Brooks (703-955-6401).

In 2008, the Missions Work Area received one percent of the congregation’s Growing Together contributions. Those funds, $20,000, along with $5,000 of the 2008 Easter Offering, were sent to the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) to build a school in Jombu, Yei County South Sudan.  The Jombu community provided bricks and labor needed to help build the school.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) conveyed the following to us from the ground in Sudan: "The Jombu people can not thank you enough for this gesture. This world is full of happy people - and you have contributed to their joy at Jombu. The building and community training you are providing through your gift will reach many generations."

Kids Hope USA develops one-on-one relationships through the creation of church-school partnerships that pair church members with at-risk kids in supportive, mentoring relationships. Mentors spend just one hour per week, reading, talking, playing and listening to a child at school. By helping the child feel loved and valued, they help that child to learn, grow and succeed.

What are the lives of our neighbors like that share the same hemisphere? What do we have in common? How are we different? In an effort to understand the lives of the Guatemalan people, and they of ours, DGFUMC has sent several teams to live with members of the Unidas Para Viver Mejor (UPAVIM) Christian community in the impoverished outskirts of Guatemala City. We have also hosted two teams of women from UPAVIM in our homes in Downers Grove. UPAVIM is a cooperative association of about 88 women from marginalized areas. Some are widows, some were abandoned by their husbands, and some are dealing with alcoholism in their families. Many are sole providers of economic support for their families. They began helping themselves and their community in 1988 with a Healthy Baby program, then decided to create products to sell to generate funds. With those funds they have built a facility which houses a medical clinic with a pharmacy and laboratory, a daycare, a school from K-6th grade, a library, soy milk production, a bakery and rooms for the manufacture and shipping of their handicrafts. They are now working in a number of ways to achieve better housing, clean water, better education and health care for the thousands of people in their community.

The mission of DuPage P.A.D.S. (Public Action to Deliver Shelter) is to end homelessness in DuPage County.  Building on years of experience, DuPage Pads believes the solution is housing, coupled with support services and employment.   Over the years, the agency has grown to be the largest provider of services to those who are homeless in the county, last year serving 1,451 individuals including 245 children in 140 families.

Our church hosts individuals and families every Tuesday night from October to May. DGFUMC volunteers coordinate the program and work on the first Tuesday of each month, while other churches work on the remaining weeks.  

For more information about DuPage Pads, contact Will Salmon (630-682-3846). For information about the DGFUMC PADS program, contact Sheila Ochoa (630-968-7120 x 205). 

Sharing Connections Furniture Bank provides donated furniture and household items to low-income families, most of whom are coping with crisis like domestic violence, job loss, or financial hardship and include the previously homeless, unemployed and working poor, veterans, victims of domestic violence, immigrants, individuals with mental or physical disabilities, victims of fire, flood and natural disasters, etc. Clients have housing, but are faced with the harsh reality that their “home” is empty or severely under-furnished. The goal of the organization is “tonight, everyone eats at a table and sleeps in a bed.”  The average salary of a client family of four is approximately $12,400 a year. After basic expenses are paid, there’s little if anything left for the common household furnishings most take for granted. 

For more information, call 630-971-0565 or visit the Sharing Connections website.

The United Church of Rogers Park (UCRP)  has been our Sister Church for several years. Helping with the Summer Camp for neighborhood children has been a week-long mission of the DGFUMC junior high youth for more than 10 years. The Missions, Justice and Community work area has provided financial support to UCRP through the Rainbow Covenant and other financial donations.

One of the benefits of being United Methodist is the way we work together to be in mission all around the world. The first, foundation level of mission outreach is through the “apportionment” giving that is a part of our regular church budget. The second, “extra” level of mission giving is through the “Rainbow Covenant” which allows us as a congregation to select specific ministries and mission projects for our congregation’s support. The Rainbow white band is for a Sister Church of our choosing, which is UCRP.  

In the summer, our youth group went to UCRP to assist with Summer Camp. Adult members of DGFUMC can also be of service to UCRP. Always, our sister church needs financial contributions to help with overdue building repairs and to support its extensive community outreach programs. Watch DGFUMC communications for specific dates and times as opportunities to help at UCRP are announced. Here are some projects our church members have completed in recent years: