Founding Pastor
Grace United Church of Christ | Sauk Village
(birthed October 5, 2014)
Projects and Work
Grace UCC is a new church plant that is a little over four years old. The vision was shared and supported by Melody’s former church family, Covenant UCC. It was birthed concurrently during her service as an Elementary School Principal in the Chicago Public Schools. Thirty-eight years of teaching and administration concluded at the end of 2017 in retirement.
The initial years of Grace UCC were spent making their ministry known. They provided weekly Bible Study, Exercise Program and Homework Café. As they began to know the community better, their hearts were led to a mission we called “Share the Warmth.” Their focus was to provide new coats, hats, gloves and scarves for students in the three schools in their village. Thus far, they’ve outfitted a couple hundred students in grades PreK-8th. Last year, their Crocheting for Christ ministry made all the hats and scarves. For a couple years, they featured a Back to School Gospel Fest called, “Jammin’ for Jesus.” Several hundred students received fully equipped book bags. There was free food, immunizations, dental cleaning, health screenings, community resources, face painting, games, vendors, live music, and a good ole fashioned yard sale.
Grace UCC has since created a social media portion of its ministry that features live streaming of weekly Bible Study, videos of our music ministry, the Pastor’s Word, sermons, inspiration/encouragement, job site, etc. They’re praying one day to have e-memberships. They recently opened a weekly Food Pantry in conjunction with the Greater Chicago Food Depository that has provided food for hundreds of families in several zip codes in the Far South Suburbs of Chicago. They’ve also been blessed to contribute to a clean water project with their friends in Kenya, Africa and support their brothers and sisters in Flint, Michigan during the water crisis.
In addition to preaching, pastoring, and wearing the many other hats of a small church pastor; Melody serves on the Council of the Eastern Association of the Illinois Conference and is a member of the Justice/Witness Ministry.
