The Joe Rush Program provides opportunities for groups to experience inner-city ministry through hands-on discipleship. Volunteers scrape, prime, and paint the exterior of homes in the Birmingham area that are owned by the low-income elderly or disabled.
The work is designed to give your group the opportunity to reflect, discuss and pray about these important matters of faith. We promise your group a time of spiritual formation and community building. Your group will leave tired in body, refreshed in spirit.
Who was Joe Rush?
Joe Rush was a very important friend to Urban Ministry in its earliest days. There is a plaque at the Walnut Grove United Methodist Church (where our Work Teams are housed) with this message...
A gifted pastor, Joe served the Canterbury United Methodist Church from 1973-1987.
Joe was so deeply invested in mission and outreach, in assisting youth and adults in sharing "hands on ministry," that initially in his honor and now in his memory Urban Ministry has created the Joe Rush Cnte for Urban Mission .
May his spirit, love, and compassion be multiplied by all that goes on here.
The Joe Rush Center for Urban Mission offers a full-service mission camp for Jr. High, High School, College-aged and older persons. The goal of the Rush Camp is to strengthen relationships between volunteer groups and homeowners in the community over a can of paint and a paint brush. During your time with us, your group will consider important issues from a Christian perspective such as poverty, racism, and affordable housing.
Many groups spend a full week (Sunday PM through Friday AM) in residence at Urban Ministry's facility located at the Walnut Grove United Methodist Church. We can sleep 60 persons for $250/week--including food! Groups work during the day and reflect on their service in the evening. Some visit the nationally-acclaimed Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, attend a Birmingham Barons baseball game (AA affiliate of the Chicago White Sox), and enjoy other Birmingham sights. We welcome groups from March-October to work in this program. Michael Young is our Site Manager and "straw boss" and sees that all materials are ready for work groups.
The cost per individual for a week-long camp (Sunday evening through Friday morning) is $250.00. This price includes:
• Three meals a day (cold breakfast, picnic lunch and hot dinner each night)
• Lodging (there is hot water in the showers and air conditioning in the dorms)
• Evening programming conducted by interns that live here at Urban Ministry
• Materials for the work site
In order to hold your reservation we need a completed application form and a deposit of half of your estimated total. We have nine weeks of summer camps and we have work teams from March through October. Some dates have already been filled, so call us soon!
If you are a part of a group, or know a group that would be interested in volunteering with us, please call Deb Welsh at 205.781.0517
ext. 103
or email
her at
welshdebl@aol.com.
Thank you and we look forward to seeing you very soon!
