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Serve our Community
Being central in our community and creating community is core to our identity. Serving our community allows us to serve God, grow in our faith, and transform lives in our local community.
How is God calling you?
Are you called to care for the homeless and disadvantaged? Come serve with the Food Pantry or Community Clothing Closet. Can you speak a language in addition to English? Join our Food Pantry volunteers.
St. Thomas has many ways for you to be in mission to others. If you're interested in getting involved in any of these mission projects, please contact the individual listed or the main church office. Check out the available opportunities below:
Community Clothing Closet
The Community Clothing Closet serves the participants in the St. Thomas Food Pantry and to anyone else who is in need of clothing.
The Community Clothing Closet serves men, women and children that are in need. Donations come from other churches, members of the congregation and members of the community.
Clothing is distributed the 3rd and 4th week of the month at the Food Pantry. To volunteer, please contact Renee Kinnear.
A "Senior Christmas"
This program provides Christmas gifts for the permanent residents of Manassas Health and Rehab.
Wishes are picked off of a tree, wrapped and sent to the Rehab Center. This year we are doing it online again in Signup Genius. You can browse the list here, note the number and then click on the Signup Genius link and sign up. We have 115 names this year so take as many as you like. Seniors prefer gift bags if the gift fits, because it is easier for them to open. Thanks for giving someone a Merry Christmas! Bring your Senior gift back to the sanctuary no later than December 12th. These gifts will be delivered on the 13th. Un-trim A tree gifts need to be in earlier, December 1st, so watch your dates!
Christmas Day Dinner
St. Thomas has been offering a FREE Traditional Christmas Day Dinner open to the community for more than twenty years -- even curbside thru the pandemic! This Christmas, we are planning our 22nd annual Christmas Day Dinner on Sunday, December 25 from 11am - 2pm. Come join us for worship at 10 AM -- lots of Christmas Carols will be sung, and then stay for a delicious meal and fellowship.
Food Pantry
The Food Pantry distributes food every Saturday morning from 9:AM - 11:30 AM and Wednesdays from 5 PM - 7 PM, May thru mid-November. Typically, the Pantry serves between 700 - 800 individuals a week. Clothing from the Community Clothes Closet is distributed on the 3rd and 4th Saturdays with the food and on the 2nd Wednesday evenings along with the food.
Are you in need of food and can't make it on Saturdays? Please click here and type your address to find other food pantries in our area and their hours of operation.
Loch Lomond Elementary School
St. Thomas is in partnership with Loch Lomond Elementary School. We provide tutors or teacher's helpers during the school year and provide monetary donations for things that are needed in the classroom. We also provide Christmas toys and clothes for those in need during the holidays and school supplies at the start of each new year.
Quilts for Kids
Quilts for Kids meets together to make quilts that are donated to the hospital's Newborn Intensive Care and some to SERVE, but most are given to ACTS for their Countywide Domestic Violence Intervention Program.
A dedicated group of eight to twelve ladies meet at the church at 10 am every Wednesday. When the women gather, the quilt tops that are sewn at home are secured to batting and backing by binding the three pieces together at the edges and then tying small knots of stout thread through the materials at regular intervals, making a quilt.
Small tags are stitched onto each quilt proclaiming God's love from St. Thomas United Methodist Church. For more information, please leave a message with the church office at 703-368-5161. Better yet, come by the quilting bee next Wednesday.
Operation Christmas Child
The mission of Operation Christmas Child is to demonstrate God's love in a tangible way to needy children around the world, and together with the local church worldwide, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Since 1993, more than 100 million boys and girls in over 130 countries have experienced God's love through the power of simple shoebox gifts from Operation Christmas Child. St Thomas UMC has a year-round team dedicated to filling shoeboxes with a variety of gifts that will delight any child including crafts, school supplies (compasses, pencils, pencil sharpeners, rulers, markers, crayons, and children's books for older children (chapter books), gently used and brand new clothing items for children in sizes 2-14, and plastic GLAD/sandwich meat containers (nearly new containers) are needed to put soap bars in and to make hygiene kits. If the Lord places this on your heart, we'd love your help.
Please continue to pray for the children who have received shoeboxes/will be receiving shoeboxes or need to receive their gospel-opportunity-filled shoebox. To know more about this local mission and ministry, please contact Julie Bailey at pnjbailey@verizon.net or 703/361-6931. Thank you and God bless you for your kind help!
Operation Bear Hug
Everyone is asked to bring NEW teddy bears to church to hug during the services. They then will be distributed to patients in Novant hospital and Manassas Health and Rehab for Valentine's Day.
Late January, early February is the perfect time of year for "Operation Bear Hug," a time when everyone is asked to bring NEW teddy bears to church. During the Worship Service, congregants are asked to hug "your" bear, let them sing the hymns with you, pass the peace of Christ, and even listen to the sermon while sitting on your lap. These hugged bears will be tagged with St. Thomas UMC information, along with a Valentine's greeting, and distributed to patients in Novant Hospital and Manassas Health and Rehab, just in time for Valentine's Day. Bears should not be too large or too small; they should be just the right size to fit into a hospital bed. As our tags refer to them as "bears," please make sure bears are all you bring.
St. Thomas UMC has participated in this mission for about 21 years and every year it is more and more rewarding for everyone involved, as well as for the teddy bears! If you have any questions or would like to help tag or distribute the bears, please send an email to ssteechur@yahoo.com. Let's see how many faces we can light up for Valentine's Day!
Un-Trim-A-Tree
The Un-Trim-A-Tree Holiday Gift Program is a very special program that serves children and teens in need in the Greater Prince William community.
The program is overseen by Volunteer Prince William, which partnered with local churches, clubs, and businesses to bring a brighter holiday season to over 7500 people starting in 2012! St. Thomas UMC has been a joyful participant in the program for some years now.
Welcome to the Un-Trim-A-Tree sign-up page. Please review the available slots below and click on the button to sign up. Then click Submit and Signup at the bottom. Please create your own tag and attach it to the gift. The tag should include the child's number and name. (Ex. SIN001-1 Michael) Return your wrapped gift to the church by December 1st. A reminder of what you signed up for will be sent to you. Thank you!
Therapy Dogs
Training and testing for Therapy Dogs is conducted at our church to support this important ministry.
Cary McMahon is very involved with the therapy dogs. Contact Cary at ibapnp@gmail.com or call her at 703-791-4133.
Rise Against Hunger
Rise Against Hunger (formerly known as Stop Hunger Now) is an international hunger relief agency that coordinates packing events to pack meals for hungry people that they distribute in this country and abroad.
Rise Against Hunger (formerly known as Stop Hunger Now) is an international hunger relief agency that coordinates the distribution of food and other lifesaving aid to children and families in countries all over the world, including the USA. The Rise Against Hunger program’s food packaging assembly process combines rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables, and a flavoring mix, including 21 essential vitamins and minerals, into small meal packets. Each meal costs only 25 cents. The food stores easily, has a shelf-life of two years, and transports quickly. The packaging operation is mobile enough to go wherever volunteers are located, and can be adapted to accommodate as few as 25 and as many as 500 volunteers at a time.
On April 28, 2013, St Thomas UMC sponsored its first meal packaging event and it was an absolute blessing to all who participated. In just two hours, 100+ volunteers, from both campuses, filled over 3,400 bags, bags that each included six meals. A grand total of 20,498 meals were packaged for hungry people in this country and abroad. We have hosted additional packing events at both campuses and will do again after COVID.
We look forward to hosting other packing events in the future. To be a part of the planning and coordination of future sessions, please read your bulletins and newsletter to see when the next event will be (after COVID, of course). Volunteering can be a fun and rewarding social responsibility opportunity so join in and help us to Rise Against Hunger!
Vacation Bible School
A weeklong program, held during the summer, when children have the opportunity to sing, play, learn Bible stories, make crafts, and encounter God’s love together.
We welcome any local children, K through 5th grade, to attend with us next summer! VBS is $15 per child and open to the community. Younger children also participate, but must be registered through the Childcare Center to be eligible.