Clothes Closet: Clothing Only, Please

The Love INC Clothes Closet is a ministry designed to provide wearable clothing for men, women, youth and children as a way to help during hard times. This ministry provides a needed boost for many people by providing the clothing for free.

YOU can help us out! A trend is developing that endangers the continuation of the Clothes Closet ministry. We want to keep it running! Last year the Clothes Closet served more than 7,400 people -- our neighbors right here in Gallatin County!

Here is the threat to the continuation of the Clothes Closet: people dumping at the door during off-hours.

As one example: this week, someone dumped many heavy bags of unusable "stuff" that they wanted to get rid of, leaving it at our door. The "stuff" even included open paint cans and their yellow footprints. Someone -- a Love INC volunteer! -- had to make a special trip, pick all this up, load it into their personal pickup truck and haul it away. This "stuff" filled their entire pickup, leaked paint into the truck, and the volunteer spent his evening hauling it all away for whoever left it at our door.

YOU can help us out in countering this threat to the continued operation of the Clothes Closet. First, please, please, do not dump at our door. The Clothes Closet is only open with limited hours, and people just like you come and volunteer their time to make it run. We have only volunteers who run the Closet during those limited hours -- there is no staff, nor anyone else around to sort through and dispose of "stuff" dumped at our door.  Can you spread the word, too?

We appreciate and welcome the good-condition clothing that people donate so we can run the Clothes Closet. This is a blessing to hundreds of families and individuals in our area. However, again because only a small team of volunteers do all the work during just a few hours per month, it is very difficult for those people to sort out all the unusable clothing and other "things" that people have begun to drop off at the Clothes Closet.

Stained, torn, ragged, well-worn and seriously out of date clothing are not usable. The volunteers who come to work for a few hours end up personally bagging up unusable clothing, and everything that is not clothing. They then have to haul it to their own garbage cans at home, or take it somewhere. Please, help our volunteers out. They volunteer their time.  The job of sorting out really poor, unusable clothing (and non-clothing "stuff") is becoming a very heavy burden.

Please spread the word to people you know. Love INC's Clothes Closet is not a thrift store. It is not a place to dump non-clothing items a person no longer wants. It is a special clothing ministry to demonstrate tangible love to people who need good, wearable clothing and cannot buy it. Please, help the Love INC volunteers who enjoy their work but don't want to drown in throw-away "stuff."

Thank you for making the Clothes Closet possible! This is a wonderful ministry touching thousands of lives! Our volunteers love serving there and we want the Clothes Closet to continue to thrive!

Ministry Opportunity: Bookkeeper

If you have bookkeeping/accounting skills and experience, a critical, behind-the-scenes ministry is waiting for you at Love In the Name of Christ! 

Use your bookkeeping/accounting skills to serve Christ by working at the Love INC ministry center as bookkeeper a few times a month.  Record transactions, prepare payroll and generate financial reports, using Quickbooks.  Training provided.  Hours flexible.

Please consider this worthwhile opportunity to serve Christ!  Give the gift of your time and be blessed richly.  Your service will enable the operation of our local outreach ministry that helps hundreds of our neighbors in need!  Give Love INC a call; or email loveincoffice @ yahoo.com (no spaces in email address) for more information. 

This is a volunteer position.  All Love INC volunteers must be members of a local Christian church and agree with the faith expressed by the Apostles' Creed (which includes faith in the Trinity, the two natures of Jesus Christ: fully God and fully man, and the bodily Resurrection of Christ).

Love INC Mission Statement

At the National Love INC Board meeting in June, the mission statement of Love INC was modified, although for Gallatin County Love INC, the new mission is the same one anyone involved with Love In the Name of Christ has known all along.

The new mission statement changed two words, replacing "the Church" with "local churches" - which highlights that local churches are the heartbeat and owners of Love INC.  Here is how the new mission statement reads:

The mission of Love INC is to mobilize local churches to transform lives and communities in the Name of Christ.

You will soon see the new mission statement on our brochures and, if you visit the office, on our wall.  The change was unanimously adopted by the National Board.

Picnic for Volunteers!

Calling all Love INC volunteers!   You should have received a postcard in the mail inviting you to the Love INC Volunteer Picnic at Beall Park on Thursday, August 25.  This is your reminder notice!

All volunteers who have signed a Talent Tithe are invited.  Bring your family!  All-beef hot dogs, chili and beverages will be supplied by Love INC.  Please bring a salad or dessert to share.  The picnic begins at 6 p.m. at the Beall Recreation Center (415 N. Black in Bozeman).   This is a celebratory and relaxed, informal gathering. 

Come visit with the board and staff of Love INC and your fellow volunteers.  Hope to see you there!

New Staff

Love INC thanks God for providing highly skilled, experienced and motivated Christians to assume two key leadership positions - the Relational Ministry Coordinator and the Operations Manager.  Both positions are high level, full-time positions reporting directly to the Executive Director.

Dawn Long has been hired as Relational Ministry Coordinator.  Dawn replaces Lee Ellingson who has moved to Oklahoma.  Dawn assumes responsibility for building and overseeing the Change Your Life program, including mentor recruitment and training, promotions of the program, client casework and church/pastor relations for Change Your Life.  She brings management, organization and mentor-oversight experience to Love INC.  Dawn attends Journey Church in Bozeman.

Elizabeth Tritthart joins Love INC as its Operational Manager.  This is a new position at Love INC with the responsibility of managing daily operations both within the ministry center and some various field locations, including staff supervision and training, volunteer training/oversight, systems and process analysis, and operational efficacy.  Liz brings a wealth of entrepreneurial, management and IT skills and experience to her position.  She is a member of the Evangelical Free Church in Bozeman.

Both Dawn and Liz began their work in August and, due to the heavy press of current needs and activities, have hit the ground running! Please pray for them as they take on this significant ministry work, and pray for Love INC as we seek to follow God's will in this ministry of, for and by the local Christian churches of Gallatin County.

Ministry Opportunity: Local "Mission" Work!

Love INC's "Change Your Life" relational ministry program (classes, mentoring, real homework, rewards and more) is helping residents of Gallatin County make improvements in many facets of their lives.

You can be a part of this significant and meaningful ministry!  Right now, we have openings for people to:

• Set up and/or take down classroom tables and arrange chairs
• Bring snacks for adults and children
• Make coffee

These simple tasks are a way for you to give to others in the Name of Christ.  With your help, our teachers can focus on providing excellent instruction, mentors who volunteer their time can focus on the people they are helping, and the Change Your Life participants can fully experience the love of many caring Christians. 

Can you serve Christ behind the scenes once a week (Tuesday evening)?  Call Love INC or email rmloveinc @ yahoo.com (with no spaces in the email address) to discover how you can be a part of compassionate Christian outreach -- an outreach that transforms the lives of your neighbors.

Note: All Love INC volunteers must be members of a local Christian church and agree with the faith expressed by the Apostles' Creed (which includes faith in the Trinity, the two natures of Jesus Christ: fully God and full man, and the bodily Resurrection of Christ).

 

Vehicles for Clients

A donated car received by Love INC

Love INC accepts used vehicles in good, working condition (no major repairs, please) to place with clients who are either (a) working hard in the Change Your Life ministry, or (b) have an unrepeatable emergency that has left them without a must-have means of transportation (usually a medical crisis in an otherwise functioning family). 

If you have a used vehicle that you could donate to Love INC, this donation is tax deductible according to the law (consult your tax advisor).  We would appreciate receiving a few cars now, in anticipation of the progress of Change Your Life clients in the next few months.  Right now, we have no vehicles on hand.

Please consider making a life-changing difference in your neighbor's life - please consider donating a used vehicle that still is in good, working condition with no major engine repairs needed.  Call Love INC 587-3008 and ask for Jim, or email loveincoffice @ yahoo.com (no spaces in the email address). 

Note: We cannot accept vehicles that need engine replacement, major transmission overhaul, etc., because we do not have funds to make these repairs and neither do the clients who need a vehicle.  We can accept cars that only need new tires or some other minor repair (less than $250).  Thank you for understanding!