Caring Ministries

Stephen Ministry

A Stephen Minister is a trained lay member of the congregation who will visit, listen, offer resources and referrals, pray with and for you, and offer Christian love and support. Training classes are held in the fall. This is a vital ministry at Willowbrook on which the pastors heavily rely.

New Beginnings

Established to provide support and information to Willowbrookers and friends in grief, the New Beginnings group has expanded to include support for those facing the many challenges of aging in today’s society. The group meets on Wednesday mornings.

Andrew

This unique ministry keeps in touch with our homebound members. Each pastor, on a rotating basis, will record a message on our broadcast machine; this machine in turn will dial the phone number of our homebound members and they will then receive a message. Following the message the homebound member can respond with their own message. This ministry has allowed our homebound members to stay “connected” in a very unique way.

Touches of Love

Touches of Love is a lay ministry of the church in which loving Willowbrookers reconnect homebound and frail members of our congregation to our vibrant circle of warmth and care in our local church. Through Touches of Love, Willowbrookers extend the pastoral care of the church into private homes, care centers and group homes. The ministry meets on the 2nd Wednesday of the month.

Memory Care Connection

Willowbrook UMC is now a registered facility for Memory Care Connection, an Alzheimer’s Foundation of America organization. This means that the church will have brochures and educational material available in the office. These materials promote the opportunities for assistance with the many issues that accompany the disease. Contact the church office for further information.

Willowbrook Alzheimer’s Group Support

Alzheimer’s disease afflicts one in ten people over 65 years of age and almost half over 85. Calling this an “overwhelming problem”, national leaders have established a non-partisan Alzheimer’s Study Group to develop a strategic plan to address it comprehensively.

To bring that challenge to the local level, Willowbrook has formed “Willowbrook Alzheimer’s Group Support” (WAGS) to assist residents in the northwest valley in coping with the problem.

The group’s mission is to encourage persons with memory problems to seek medical assistance, to assist care-givers in dealing with patients and to help the public to better understand the disease.

The group also wants to spread the good news that there is medical help in fighting this battle, but only if those suspecting a problem will contact a doctor. If the presence of Alzheimer’s is detected early, medications can slow or stop the progress of the disease.

The group meets the 2nd Monday of each month at 10:00 a.m. in Wilson Fellowship Hall.