The Mission Board meets monthly to plan the best uses of our mission resources and to discuss mission opportunities our church family can participate in. These opportunities enable us to Live a Life of Love by helping those in need and reaching out to our community. We organize activities throughout the year and support various programs as needs arise. Here are some of our activities and the programs we support:

Food Distribution

Our church hosts and sponsors a monthly food distribution on the second Friday of each month. Feeding San Diego provides most of the food and helpers from our church and other organizations volunteer in many ways to make everything run smoothly. We are always in need of donations. Canned food and other non-perishable food items can be donated any Sunday morning at one of our worship services. We also distribute food on the second Saturday morning of every month for the residents of Ramona Terrace Estates. If you'd like to come get fresh produce and more, come by our church on the second Friday of the month from 12:30pm-1:30pm. If you’d like to volunteer, we need help from 8:00am-10am or from 12:00pm-3pm on those Fridays .

Please contact our church office for more information: office@fccramona.org

Open Door Mission Meal

FCC supports the Ramona Open Door Ministry that provides meals for the hungry every Monday evening at the Grange. Our church provides a simple meal on the fourth Monday of every third month. Let us know if you’d like to volunteer.

Helping Hands

Helping Hands uses individual volunteers, small groups, and larger groups to assist those in need of help with tasks around their homes. Helping Hands is a non-budgeted ministry whose funds come from fundraising and direct donations. If you’d like to volunteer to be one of our helping hands, call the church office at 760-789-3348 or email us at office@fccramona.org.

To make a donation in support of Helping Hands, simply use our secure online donation form. Select “Special Designation” under Fund, and write “Helping Hands” in the note or comment. You can also mail a check to our church office (PO Box 248, Ramona Ca. 92065)

Corazón Mission in Mexico

For many years our church family has raised the funds to build a home in Mexico for a family. Up to twice a year, a team of volunteers from our church traveled to Mexico to build a home in one day. To date we have built more than forty homes. In addition to building a home, we have been able to provide funds for the education of children each year through the organization, Corazón. If you would like to donate to support Corazón or if you’d like to join us on a home build in Mexico, please contact our Church Office and let us know!

The Giving Tree

In our narthex (the entry area of the church sanctuary) we have small tree on which we place tags that specify various needs we have identified in the community. We invite people to take a tag, fulfill the need, and bring it back to the church at the worship service or to the office during office hours. Look for the giving tree any Sunday morning!

Ramona Food and Clothes Closet

The Ramona Food and Clothes Closet is an organization that seeks to provide emergency food, clothing, and other resources to aid individuals and low income families in Ramona, Santa Ysabel, Julian, Ranchita, Borrego Springs, Warner Springs and outlying rural areas. Our church collects toiletries and nonperishable food throughout the year to be distributed by the RF&CC. In December we collect unwrapped toys for their Share Your Holidays program. If you would like to donate toiletries and/or nonperishable food, you may bring your donations to our church office (Monday-Friday, 8-4pm) or bring them with you to church on Sunday morning.

Gifts of Warmth

Throughout the month of October, our congregation donates new or gently used coats, hoodies, hats and scarves to be distributed by Veterans Village of San Diego to veterans experiencing homelessness in our community. We also use mission funds to purchase new underwear and socks. This October, consider bringing donations to the church office (Monday-Friday, 8-4pm) or bring them with you to church on Sunday morning.

Christmas Missions

Beginning with Operation Christmas Child gift boxes, distributed through Samaritan’s Purse, we are able to share our love during this special season. We also provide Christmas gifts for some of the senior citizens who participate in the Meals on Wheels program and provide Stater Brothers or Albertsons $25 gift cards for shut-ins who are visited by sheriff volunteers through the YANA program. Look for opportunities to volunteer and support our mission this Christmas.

Serve Ramona

FCC has been spearheading this inter-church and inter-faith group since 2014. The focus of Serve Ramona is to bring together local churches and other community organizations to better serve the needs of Ramona, as an expression of the love of God. Through this group, we participate in a Ramona Clean-Up Day, a summer clothing exchange, Homeless Care Bags, and The Ramona United Methodist Thanksgiving Meal. For more on Serve Ramona, check out the Facebook Page.

The Ramona Homeless Project

One of the members of FCC Ramona, John Stevenson, leads The Ramona Homeless Project. Its mission is to support and serve the homeless population of Ramona by connecting them with resources and networking with individuals, churches, and organizations who want to help those experiencing homelessness. If you are one of those who’d like to help the homeless in Ramona, please contact John Stevenson or contact the Church Office and ask how you can reach him.

Organizations supported by FCC

Change for Tomorrow serves a rural population in Uganda promoting women through social education, entrepreneurial opportunities and agriculture. They built a school to educate the children of their community. www.changetomorrow.co.uk

Frontiers USA is supported prayerfully and financially as they reach out to the Muslim world with the love of Christ. https://frontiersusa.org

In His Steps is a Ramona based ministry dedicated to helping people with alcohol, drug, and other life-controlling problems. They have residential homes for men and women. www.inhisstepsramona.com

Medical Ambassadors International is an organization that equips communities through Christ-centered health and development. We have worked with Dayo Obaweya, who is based in Nigeria, for many years. www.MedicalAmbassadors.org

Church World Service is an organization that pools the resources of multiple denominations and communions including the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church, and the Reformed Church in America (click here to see the full list of member communions). Their vision is a world where everyone has food, voice and a safe place to call home. They’ve been working to make this a reality for more than 75 years. https://cwsglobal.org/

Benevolence Assistance

Funds are available to assist those in need. We accept assistance requests for help with utilities, some medical bills, prescriptions, insurance, and car repairs. Checks will be made payable to the company or billing party directly. We do not provide cash assistance. To submit a request, please print the form here and return the completed form to the church office. We will reply within approximately one week. Due to a finite amount of funds we are unable to assist with rent payments.

To Apply for Benevolence Assistance, complete the form below:

Dear Benevolence Applicant,

The First Congregational Church Benevolence program is a limited assistance program that is intended to help individuals recover from a temporary financial hardship due to unexpected circumstances. For individuals that have previously received assistance, there is a waiting period of one year from the date of the last approved assistance before they can be eligible for additional assistance if the need arises. If you apply for but are not granted assistance, you may be eligible prior to the standard one-year period. The scope of the First Congregational Church benevolence program is to families or individuals who are in a temporary financial hardship where assistance with the cost of living expenses, that if covered, will help them effectively recover from the financial hardship. Cost of living needs may include, but are not limited to: food, utility payments; auto repairs, insurance, registration and gas; medical bills; phone and internet bills; and other items that may be associated with the necessary costs of living with the exception of rent or mortgage payments. Any and all payments will be paid directly to the company/organization to whom the bill is owed and at no time will a check be given to, or made out to, or will cash be given to the recipient. Assistance with food or gas will be provided via gift cards to a local establishment as determined by the First Congregational Church benevolence committee.

The application process typically takes about one week but may be expedited if the need arises. After submission of the application it will be reviewed by the First Congregational Church benevolence committee and you will be contacted so we can get a better understanding of your situation and how we can best assist you.

It should be understood that this benevolence program is not to be used as a welfare program to supplement your annual income. If it is determined that this is the case, through research and analysis of past assistance where your financial situation has not noticeably improved, then you may be disqualified from further assistance at the discretion of the First Congregational Church benevolence committee.

Refusal of assistance, for reasons other than lack of benevolence program funds, does not necessarily make one ineligible for future assistance. To become eligible, you need to show that your needs now fall within the scope of this program or that you have made progress in alleviating your financial situation such that any assistance provided would effectively assist you in recovering from your financial hardship.

If there are any questions with regards to your application, contact us, and a member of the benevolence committee will be in contact with you in a timely manner to discuss your specific questions.

(ASSISTANCE IS AVAILABLE ONCE PER YEAR STARTING AT THE DATE OF THE LAST APPROVED ASSISTANCE)