Moving into an apartment is often prompted by a major life event such as starting college, a new job, or a new family. For other people, moving into an apartment may represent the shrinking of a family due to death or divorce or loss of a job or a home. In addition to these stresses, the sheer busyness of moving your stuff, acquiring needed goods and services, and simply finding your way in a new neighborhood can shove thoughts of God aside when you need Him the most. There are also more than the usual barriers to those of us who would minister to new apartment tenants. New move-ins are largely unknown to us. It may be up to a year before their names and addresses appear in telephone books etc. Visitation without a specific invitation is often barred by apartment complexes with “No Solicitation” signs and/or locked gates in the evenings when apartment dwellers are typically home.
The Apartment Outreach ministry reaches apartment dwellers when they first move in by distributing “welcome bags” to apartment managers who agree to give them to new tenants. Each bag contains the ingredients for a spaghetti dinner, a tract on how to become a Christian, a reprint of the Gospel of John, an invitation to worship at Sylvania (with times & location), and household items (like pens & refrigerator magnets) containing reminders of the church address and telephone number on them.
For more information on how you can help the Apartment Outreach ministry contact Demmon Canner at 903-581-9909 or apartmentoutreach@sylvaniachurch.com.
