Church World Service 

Church World Service (CWS) was born in 1946, in the aftermath of World War II. Seventeen denominations came together to form an agency  to do in partnership what none of us could hope to do as well alone.  The mission: Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, comfort the aged, shelter the homeless. Years later the mission remains and First Church is a participant.

First UMC members Bonita and David Maze worked through CWS in 1980 as they and their congregation in Heath resettled a family from Laos – mother and father and seven children came to their house and then into all of the world. (On July 4 this year they met the family in Chicago for a joyful reunion  35 years later.) CWS helped greatly in the first efforts to bring them here.

The Festival of Sharing (FOS) in Ohio began in November of 1987 with the assistance of folks from West Ohio Annual Conference and CWS. It was led by lay persons and met at the Clark County Fairgrounds for many years. Originally each of the 12 districts sponsored a booth at FOS selling food and craft items along with displays of mission projects here and elsewhere. When this became too difficult for staffing David became its chairperson and began the search for another venue. Nine years ago Rev. Bob Davis of the Jackson Area Ministries, just down the road, made the initial contact with Otterbein University and this year will be the ninth consecutive partnership of church and the university. Otterbein provides the space for the semi truck and the many vehicles that come from across Ohio with kits and disaster buckets. Students from the university help with a construction project and the men of the Sphinx fraternity help load the huge semi on Friday night and all Saturday morning.

This is a great partnership and FOS Ohio has become more and more ecumenical. In 2013 participants included: each of the eight districts in the West Ohio Conference plus UM churches from East Ohio, as well as American Baptist, Church of the Brethern, Disciples of Christ, Mennonite, Presbyterian, and United Church of Christ churches.

In 2014 CWS sent more than 114,000 kits here and around the world. And FOS Ohio continues to collect 1/3 of ALL the kits collected throughout the US.

Remember, when you sew a school kit bag or put the designated materials in a bag, there is the face of a single child on each of those school bags. Look at the bag and picture a refugee child receiving it in Columbus, a rural village in West Virginia or in a refugee camp on the Syrian border.