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“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.” ~ Teresa of Avila

Project Brown Bag
Since 2015, MCC Austin has been providing food through Project Brown Bag for some of the approximately 85% of children and families in our area who are food insecure. In our first summer, we served sack lunches to 100 students who were attending summer school at Dawson Elementary and provided food boxes to a dozen more Dawson families.

In 2016 we received a generous additional donation for Project Brown Bag that allowed us to double the number of meals we provided. In addition to the sack lunches and food boxes for Dawson families, we delivered sack lunches to 100 students at Becker Elementary during a four-week summer session.

In 2019, we served 21 families, which included 76 children and 36 adults, over the course of the entire summer. The families included grandparents who are caring for and raising their grandchildren, a Muslim family, parents who work but just can’t make ends meet, families who have elderly relatives living with them, and single-parent families. The children range in ages from infants to teenagers.

Our Project Brown Bag still focuses on feeding children and families when school is not in session, but we also collect and distribute food year around. You can find out more about donating to the project or suggest a family that needs food assistance by emailing us at office@uprisingaustin.org

Unsheltered Neighbors
Our Unsheltered Neighbors ministry sets up in the Austin Family Dental parking lot in Southpark Meadows on the second Sunday of every month. Any person experiencing homelessness is invited to stop by for a homemade meal, beverages, clothing, and hygiene products. More importantly, they can stop by for encouragement, smiles, prayers, and conversation with people who genuinely care about them and are committed to helping find solutions to homelessness.

We are always looking for more volunteers and partners to help us expand this important work. We currently partner with Sunrise Community Church, which is creating an ever-growing network of churches that supports unsheltered persons in south Austin; Bombas socks, who generously donated 3,500 pair of socks to our ministry; and Lighter Loads, an Austin organization that, like upRising, is developing a mobile shower for people experiencing homelessness.

To volunteer or receive more information, please email office@uprisingaustin.org.

Mobile Shower
The City of Austin estimates that over 2,197 homeless individuals spend their days and nights on Austin’s streets. While numerous organizations and agencies in our city are working diligently on the problems of chronic homelessness, MCC Austin is one of only two organizations that we know of that is addressing a critical need of unsheltered people: facilities for basic personal hygiene.

In 2017, the MCC Austin Board of Directors approved an exploratory team to begin the process of creating a mobile shower facility for people living on Austin’s streets. We soon purchased a suitable truck and volunteers began working on the conversion. In early 2019 we learned about another organization, Lighter Loads, that was working on bringing a mobile shower to people experiencing homelessness in north Austin. We began a partnership with Lighter Loads that includes sharing information, encouragement, and resources, and we anticipate that both of our mobile showers will be ready to hit the streets in the spring of 2020.

If you want more information about our mobile shower plans or would like to volunteer to be a shower host or can help with maintenance to the truck itself, please send an email to office@uprisingaustin.org

Chrysallis
Chrysalis Life & Learning Community is a safe, supportive community for lgbtq+ kids/youth and their whole families to learn, grow, transition, and become. Our original sanctuary space is no longer needed for worship now that we have a new building, and we wanted to make use of the space in a way that offered something meaningful to our community and beyond.

In December 2019 we launched Chrysalis with a kick-off event for families. In conjunction with other partner organizations, we hope to be offering the following opportunities beginning in April 2020:

  • social activities with other lgbtq+ children/youth
  • support networks for lgbtq+ children/youth
  • support networks for parents & siblings of lgbtq+ children/youth
  • resources for working with school personnel
  • information about lgbtq+ issues
  • resources for fostering health in both mind & body
  • support & resources for transitioning & coming out
  • meeting space for lgbtq+ organizations & activities (public/private)

For more information, send an email to getchrysalisinfo@gmail.com

upRising General Fund

Perhaps the most important gift that upRising offers to Austin and beyond is our mere existence. We are a Christian church that proclaims the Good News that God loves all people, no asterisks and no exceptions. People who aren’t familiar with MCC Churches often have the same question: “Is this a gay church?” No, the church isn’t gay…though many of our members are. We’re a progressive Christian church made up of wonderfully diverse people who are straight, gay, trans, young, old, searching, certain, traditional, and edgy. We’re trying to live what we believe: that God our Creator loves us unconditionally; that Christ calls us to follow and forgives us when we fail; and that the Holy Spirit inspires and unites us. We take our spiritual lives seriously; but we try not to take ourselves too seriously!

If you’d like to support the work of upRising and its ministries, click the button above to donate financially, or send an email to office@uprisingaustin.org to find out about volunteer opportunities.