Projects  for 2017

Our faith is alive!  Please accept our invitation to join in any of our outreach projects.  You will be amazed to find how good it feels to get involved.

Agape House

Easter Baskets and Christmas Gifts

For the last seventeen years, Mt. Zion has helped the Agape House (Somerville, NJ) at Easter and Christmas. The Agape House, which operates under the Volunteers of America organization, provides emergency shelter to families and women of Somerset County.

At Easter we divide up the shopping list for baskets and on Palm Sunday we assemble and wrap the baskets in preparation for delivery to the Agape House. Each child in residence gets an age-appropriate basket with plenty of candy, chocolate, toys, and Bible or Bible coloring book.  This is easily one of the most fun service projects that we do!

At Christmas we request a “wish list” from the Agape House and divide up the list.  It is heart-warming to know that you provided a child with something they wished for.

Somerset Food Bank

On Sunday mornings you will see many members carrying plastic bags from their cars into the church. That’s because we take our food bank contributions very seriously. Our goal in the year 2017 is, well, 2017 pounds of food. That’s about 40 pounds a week!  But we have managed to hit our goal for the last sixteen years. One of our members weighs the food and takes it up to the food bank.  A few times a year a group of us spend a few hours at the food bank sorting bags from all over the area into the designated bins (you’ve never seen so many tuna cans!).

Tabby’s Place

Many of the church members are pet lovers. When we found out a few years ago that a no-kill cat sanctuary was being built near us (in East Amwell, on Route 202 south just south of Ringoes), we wanted to help.

The sanctuary is a fantastic place, and we love contributing cans of cat food to give the kitties a special treat. Our goal is 2017 cans of cat food this year. We are well on our way to achieving it.

Somerset County Project First Class

In recent years we have participated in various ways with providing Back to School supplies to children in need.   One of our member teens took on a Girl Scout service project to provide backpacks to 25 children housed at Agape House and the congregation contributed immensely to the success of this project.  In 2016 we once again provided Back to School supplies to Somerset County children in need through Project First Class.  Our small congregation made a healthy contribution to Project First Class and we expect to continue this outreach project in the years to come.