[COG email blast] IHN Volunteer Opportunity

[admin at bpcog.org]

Dear Church on the Green members,

The Session approved our church hosting 4 families (up to 12-14 persons) in
the Interfaith Hospitality Network for the Homeless in Essex County. The
director spoke in worship this past summer at Park Methodist Church and is
Presbyterian herself. Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish houses of worship
are involved.

IHN is one of the few programs that accepts homeless families--husbands,
wives, and children. IHN screens families before they are placed overnight
for a week in a house of worship. Each house of worship helps to provide a
place for the families to sleep, meals (dinner, breakfast, packed lunch),
and volunteers just to befriend the guest. We would house these guests
upstairs in classrooms in the second floor of the Education Building the
first full week of January. IHN provides aerobeds (inflatable). I have
placed calls to Park Methodist, Watchung Presbyterian, Bethany
Presbyterian, and Korean Presbyterian churches in Bloomfield and
Bloomfield College staff asking if they would like to help with an
evening--dinner and evening hosts or Saturday activity with our guests. We
remain responsible each night for providing BPCOG overnight hosts.

If we are to host IHN *Sunday January 2 through Sunday morning January 9*
we will need these volunteers:
1.  2-3 persons who can be there Sunday January 2 afternoon to receive
guests, staying til 5:30 PM.
2.  2-3 Persons who would like to provide a dinner meal Sunday through the
following Saturday evenings (5:30-7 PM).
3.  Persons who would to provide food for breakfasts each morning.
4.  2-3 Persons who would like to be present as evening hosts each night,
help or play with  children/youth, preferably dinner through 9 PM or 7-9 PM.
5.  Male & Female that would be overnight hosts 9 PM (or earlier) until 7 AM
the next morning, Sunday through the following Saturday, sleeping in a
separate room, with overnight procedures listed and IHN backup staff on call.
6.  2-3 Persons who can come for morning and afternoon blocks, if needed,
on Saturday January 8.
7.  2 Persons who can be with our guests up to 12 noon Sunday, January 9.
Maybe a few to help straighten up classrooms after worship January 9.

Please call the church office if you can help. Entire families or pairs of
friends may volunteer. Leave a message with the day and time you can help
if no one answers. If you do not get a response within 48 hours call me on
my cell phone 908-432-0408. My wife and I will be overnight hosts at least
two of the seven nights. I will plan to be there for all or most of the
evenings we host.

Bob Foltz-Morrison, Interim Pastor
Bloomfield Presbyterian Church on the Green