We are a small congregation of about 85 members, who are engaged in many activities and personal ministries both as part of our church and as involved, concerned and active members of our community and of our world.

As a church, we raised $5,000 to fund a micro-loan bank in Haiti, in 2007, a successful project, providing money to dozens of women who each owns her own business and has improved the lives and futures of their families and their employees.  We are very proud and pleased to have done this project, which was brought to us and kept going by a couple in our membership.

Monthly, we donate $100 to a foundation, The Huruma Organization, in Kenya, which is an orphanage home and school for childern whose parents have died of AIDS.  The money we provide is now used to pay for shipping a box of books to Kenya each month, giving these kids resources for education and knowledge that they previously had almost none of.  Through donations and requests from libraries and schools we are also providing the books that are being shipped to the school in Kenya.

Through a program called ‘Women for Women’ we send a small donation to help a woman in Afghanistan to provide for herself and her family and to help to educate her which further helps her and her family.  This program is so a part of who we are that most of our members are no longer aware of the program.

Additionally, the church provides support and help to the local Richland County Domestic Violence Shelter in the form of personal care products, some clothing and other cleaning supplies and goods.

At the end of each month, we collect unwanted clothing from members who wish to make donations, and the clothes are delivered to the local Presbyterian Church’s ‘Clothes Line.’  This is program that provides clothing to needy families for the price of $2.00 per large shopping bag each month.   All of the money collected is pooled together and used to purchase food at the local market which is then donated to the needy families in the community each month.  The simple donation of clothing thus helps to keep the disadvantaged clothed and fed in one step.

Outside of these and other programs within the church, many of our members are involved in an array of programs and interests that are personal ministry activities.  Several members are weekly tutors in a local public school, helping kids with learning challenges to read or do math or work on the computer.  Others are weekly food pantry volunteers. Some volunteer in hospitals, Others work with kids informally on their own as mentors and tutors.

Below are comments by various members about their ministries and how they do outreach in the world around them…  Do they sound like YOU and what you want to be doing?

We are a caring and involved community of people who do these things.  Perhaps you would like to be part of these programs and activities of the members of All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church of Bellville.  Come check it out..