A food drive for the animals at Gress Mountain Ranch will begin on Sunday, January 2, and run through Sunday, January 16. Donations can be left outside Asbury’s upper level doors anytime throughout those weeks.
For over 21 years, the Gress Mountain Ranch in Orefield has been caring for abused, neglected, and abandoned animals. This is their “forever” home – animals are not bred or sold. Currently about 90 animals, including dogs, cats, pigs, horses, donkeys, ponies, alpacas, llamas, ducks, parrots and peacocks, are in need of food.
Items most needed at this time are applesauce, canned fruits and vegetables, zero Gatorade (no calories), duck pelleted food, pine shavings (not cedar) and Timothy hay. Other items requested, or for more information about the ranch, visit their web page at gressmountainranch.org.
Thank you for your generosity in caring for God’s creatures!
FEBRUARY 1, 2022 UPDATE: Bags are no longer being collected at this time. Thank you for your contributions!
The Sleeping Mat Ministry is collecting plastic grocery bags again to be used to create sleeping mats out of “PLARN” for the homeless. Bags can be dropped off in the marked receptacle outside of the upper entrance of Asbury. Learn more at asburylv.org/PLARN.
The sleeping mat ministry is continuing to create and provide plastic sleeping mats for the homeless. Learn more about this ministry, the materials needed, the creation process, and how you can help at at asburylv.org/sleepingmatministry.
AIM (Asbury in Mission) is organizing an event to prepare at least 60 Relief Buckets for UMCOR (the United Methodist Committee on Relief). Your participation – though through donating supplies, donating money, and/or donating time to assemble the buckets – will help to provide relief where it is most needed, including areas recovering from Hurricane Ida, the flooding in Tennessee, and the Dixie Fire in northern California.
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
Donating Supplies
Supplies will be collected on Sunday mornings at the upper and lower entry doors over the next three weeks (October 10, 17, and 24). UMCOR has developed specific requirements for the supplies that can all fit neatly into a 5 gallon bucket. These items are:
Five-gallon round bucket with lid: Home Depot or Lowe’s buckets
32-64 oz. bottle liquid laundry detergent
16-40 oz. bottle liquid concentrate household cleaner, not spray cleaners
16-34 oz. bottle liquid dish soap
4-8 oz. pump spray air freshener, not canned aerosols
6-14 oz. pump spray insect repellant or pack of 10-20 wipes, not canned aerosols
Scrub brush with or without handle
18 re-usable cleaning wipes: Clorox HandiWipes, ScotchBrite, or Scrubit
Scouring pads, no stainless steel or pads with soap in them
36-50 clothespins
50-100 ft. clothesline (thick cotton or plastic line)
24 roll of heavy-duty trash bags (33-45 gallon sizes), at least 2-3 mil thickness
N95 particulate respirator dust masks (1-3 mm thickness), no surgical masks
Kitchen gloves
Work gloves, cotton with leather palm or all leather
Monetary donations can be made through Asbury’s online giving portal (under the “Fund” drop-down menu, select “Relief Buckets”). Donations can also be made with checks payable to “Asbury Church” with “Relief Buckets” in the memo line. Checks can be dropped in the offering plates on Sunday morning or mailed into the church office. Helping With Bucket Assembly
Buckets will be assembled on Saturday, October 30. If you are interested in helping to assemble the Relief Buckets, please use the form below to register. We will need about 20 people to help starting at 9 AM.
Thank you for making a difference through your contributions!
Asbury’s Barrels of Love ministry was started with a book drive by Connie Miller and her daughter Devin 20 years ago! At that time, the end of the civil war in Liberia was in sight and Dr. Chris Hena (who was stationed in Kazakhstan at that time) requested children’s books to replace those destroyed during the war. Several thousand books were collected in that first Barrels of Love shipment.
In March we’ll be conducting a 20th anniversary children’s book drive for Bête Gbanee School in Paynesville and the Dominic Hena School in Kakata. Please gather new or gently used children’s books (no textbooks please). Look to your children for titles they particularly enjoy(ed). Deliver them to the upper parking lot at Asbury on Sunday, March 14 and March 21 between 9 AM and 10:30 AM.
Thank you for sharing the gift of reading with these Liberian children and helping Asbury celebrate 20 years of the Barrels of Love ministry.
A note from Wendy Arbushites, coordinator of the Sleeping Mat Ministry.
The Sleeping Mat Ministry team would like to thank everyone for their donations of clean, used plastic grocery bags! An extra thank you to the people who flatten out their bags, to the people who sort theirs by color, and the people who do the folding as per the slideshow! These steps all save us time, so thank you to those of you who take those extra steps for us.
Since early March, we have created 22 sleeping mats for the homeless in the Lehigh Valley. With winter coming, we could use more help to create mats. We would love all of our neighbors in need to have a sleeping mat for the winter.
Each mat takes an estimated 500-700 grocery bags (an average trash bag stuffed tightly full), so it takes a lot of time to make a single sleeping mat. Every bag must be flattened out, folded, cut, strung together and crocheted. Carrying straps and ties must be created, then the mat must be measured, rolled, tied, and given a strap. None of the steps are difficult, but they do take time. Some team members specialize in one or more areas; others do it all.
We would like to clarifywhat we need to produce sleeping mats.
We are looking for soft (like a grocery bag) plastic bags that are grocery-sized or larger. Smaller bags are not worth the time it takes to turn them into “plarn” (plastic yarn).
Small holes are OK, especially at the bottom, but shredded or torn bags are not usable. We need to be able to make a loop with the bag.
Please give your bags a quick sniff test. We are making bedding. We cannot use bags that smell of mildew or other bad smells.
For carrying straps, we can use long, thick plastic newspaper bags (16 inches long and 7 inches wide or larger), but not the see-through or smaller ones.
Please check that your bags are clean and empty. Even removing receipts is time-consuming when you need to process hundreds of bags.
If you can follow these guidelines, you will help us to cut down on sorting time and on trash disposal. We appreciate you helping this ministry to care for our neighbors!
If you think you might be interested in helping, please contact Wendy Arbushites, coordinator.
