Austinville Elementary School
Austinville Elementary school has a high percentage of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Austinville also serves the majority of the Hispanic children who have migrated to our community in recent years. Our members help in the following ways:

• Tutoring - With the help of the school principal and teachers, our members are assigned students who need special help with basic reading and math skills. They tutor their assigned children once a week.
• Lunch Buddy - Austinville teachers identify students who are in need of some special attention and loving care. Church members are assigned one lunch buddy who they eat lunch with at least once a month at the school.
• Special Projects - FUMC members also provide manpower and support for several special events held during the school year – Book Fair, Knowledge Jamboree, and Field Day.

Kairos Prison Ministry
FUMC has several members who are active on Kairos Prison Ministry teams that take the Emmaus Walk experience to inmates in Limestone Correctional Facility in nearby Athens, AL. Some members serve on the ministry team that goes into the prison for a weekend to provide an intense spiritual experience for selected inmates. Other members of our congregation minister to the inmates by baking homemade cookies to be served during the weekend.

Connect Decatur
The Volunteer Center of Morgan County began a project several years ago to partner churches of different racial backgrounds together. Our church has one of the most successful partnerships in our area with St. Peter’s Missionary Baptist Church. The Connect Decatur committee meets once a month with St. Peter’s to plan joint activities to foster fellowship and understanding. In recent years these activities have included choir swaps, a joint women’s Bible study, an annual picnic, and service projects among others.

Habitat for Humanity
FUMC will be partnering with other United Methodist churches in the Morgan County area to build a Habitat home during the summer of 2007. Groundbreaking on the home is scheduled for mid-May.

Toiletries for Homeless Children
The congregation of FUMC has collect toiletries to give to the homeless children in the Decatur City school system. Items such as toothpaste, wet wipes, shampoo, etc. are assembled in packages to be distributed to the children as needed.

Tennessee Valley Outreach Food Ministry
Each Wednesday night, teams of three or four church members take food prepared by our First Fellowship kitchen team to our local homeless shelter, Tennessee Valley Outreach. Our members then eat with the residents and offer a listening ear and words of encouragement. We are the only local church that both provides and shares the meal with the residents.

Local Food Outreach
Several FUMC members deliver Meals-on-Wheels to local residents on a designated route once a week. A ministry team also prepares fruit baskets to be delivered to Meals-On-Wheels recipients during the week of Thanksgiving. Our church assists Decatur’s Committee on Church Cooperation food pantry by sponsoring a food drive for their benefit one month each year.

United Methodist Women
The UMW of our church is vitally involved in a variety of mission projects. Their mission activities include:

• gifts to missions through pledges, mission recognition in honor of a birthday, new baby, or anniversary
  gifts to the building and maintenance of Camp Sumatanga
• saving labels to help purchase educational items for the Red Bird Mission in Kentucky
• donations for the purchase of Christmas gifts for the children of Sand Mountain Parish
• cookie trays for the home bound
• providing scholarships to worthwhile students
• contributing to UMRA, Tennessee Valley Outreach, Neighborhood Christian Center, and schools in Bolivia and Mozambique

PACT
Parents and Children Together (PACT) is a local agency committed to preventing child abuse and providing comprehensive services to the families of our community. Our members assist this agency by transporting PACT clients to and from medical appointments, parenting classes, group meetings, and training programs. Other FUMC members serve as volunteer receptionists and office assistants in the PACT office.

Community Free Clinic
The Decatur Community Free Clinic opened in 2004 to provide free medical care to the medically uninsured of our community. FUMC provides dinner for the clinic volunteers one Thursday per month. In 2005-2006, FUMC members can volunteer to provide clerical help, to assist in the pharmacy, and to help schedule appointments.