Word of Faith Church In Monterey Starts Outreach Ministry

Monterey, VA – In 2010, members of the Word of Faith Church held a number of benefits and fundraisers for people in need within the community. The benefits were well attended and well received in the Highland community. Therefore the church has decided to form an Outreach Ministry that focuses on helping people in Highland County who find themselves in crisis and or facing catastrophic situations such as an unforeseen illness or a house fire.

Some of the 2010 fundraisers included a poker run for Wayne Arbogast who suffered from a rare form of encephalitis and a dinner held for 1 year old Joseph Will who has cystic fibrosis. Both fundraisers aided with medical expenses.
Mark Waybright is a member of the Outreach Ministry and explains the ministry’s purpose.

“With all the success we decided to form an outreach that would do the dinners and other benefits to raise money to put in an account so that if any emergency arises we would have the funds available to help people out right then and there” says Waybright. “Sometimes we don’t always have a choice of waiting three weeks to raise money. So if we have the money there if somebody gets burned out, needs housing, clothes, whatever they need we can write them a check.”

The ministry will hold fundraisers throughout the year to raise money for the Outreach fund. Waybright says that the ministry will focus on helping people in the Highland County area for now, but has high hopes for the future.

“Hopefully we can grow” he says, “turn it into a viable, very helpful ministry.”

Also, the ministry hopes to get more churches, organizations, and anyone else involved who wants to help and make a difference for those in need. A barbeque chicken donation dinner is planned for this Saturday, June 18th at the Word of Faith Church in Monterey. Ministry member Trenda Varner explains the meal in more detail.

“The meal will be served from 5-8 pm at the Word of Faith Church” says Varner. “It will be a free will offering. The menu includes a half of chicken, baked potato, green beans, coleslaw, roll, and homemade desserts.”

If you are unable to stay for the meal, to go dinners will be available. This is the first fundraiser of many for the ministry this year. Nothing is quite set in stone yet but Varner talks about some of the ideas the ministry has.

“We don’t have anything officially on the books yet” she says. “We would like to do another poker run maybe in August. That would be a poker run and then a dinner that will be open to the community, not only the riders. We’ve spoke of other things but haven’t gotten that far yet; maybe a spaghetti supper in the fall. I think we would like to do the community thank you dinner again at Christmas.”

If you are unable to attend fundraisers but would like to make a donation you can do so by mailing it to WOFC Outreach, PO Box 276, Monterey, VA 24465.