– Mother Teresa

Riviera United Methodist Church reaches out into our community and into the world to provide aid and comfort to those in need. There are many opportunities for your participation and support – indeed, it is vital that we all participate in outreach since it is a primary mission in our Christian faith. Here we provide a brief description of various service activities and programs at Riviera – this in addition to the many independent efforts initiated by individual church members. For more information, your suggestions, and how you can help, call Ferne Yoshida (375-1567) or Joyce Mar (783-0032).

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His House, a social service of the Salvation Army, is a mission in Torrance which began and is still supported by many local churches. The agency provides many services for low-income families, including bags of groceries, rental and utility assistance, school supplies to Torrance students (called Operation Backpack), after-school reading/tutoring, baby blankets & clothes to new mothers, and turkey dinners at Thanksgiving. Brown bag lunches are provided to the hungry and homeless daily. Riviera church members donate groceries (on Sundays in the boxes in the narthex), school supplies, Thanksgiving turkeys, baby blankets and supplies, and provide volunteer help reading to students after school.

Heart To Heart is an annual event in which the Fellowship Hall becomes a market place and exposition for handicrafts and various aid organizations. The handicrafts are marketed by Third World Handarts and by African Mission Team, non-profit organizations who provide a marketing outlet (and thus gainful employment) for handicrafts made by impoverished artisans working together in cooperatives. Various service organizations such as Toberman House, His House, the Heifer Project, and Habitat For Humanity also exhibit at Heart To Heart. Donors may make donations to these organizations in someone else’s name if they choose.

Heifer Project International helps to fight world hunger by providing gifts of live animals (and training in their care) and trees for planting to needy families. Each animal or tree goes directly to a needy family to provide food and income, thus helping to lift them out of the cycle of poverty and hunger. Cost of an animal or share of an animal ranges from $10-$500.

Toberman Settlement House in San Pedro provides invaluable services to the surrounding community – programs in drug prevention, gang prevention, summer camping, after-school program/tutoring, Senior Club, thrift shop, neighborhood and economic development, parenting effectiveness, comprehensive emergency assistance, and more. Riviera supports Toberman with our dollars (through special offerings) and with donations of food (on Sundays in the boxes in the narthex), children’s toys, and the hours of many in our congregation who volunteer their time & efforts.

Loaves and Fishes is the luncheon that Riviera church provides to the low-income and homeless on the fifth Saturday of months containing five Saturdays. Over one hundred guests typically attend and are served a full-course home-cooked meal. In addition, brown bag sandwich meals, socks and toiletries are available for them to take as they leave. Members of our church congregation provide and serve the food. And musical entertainment sometimes appears!

Reaching Out Partners. Over the years, Riviera church has provided support for certain designated needy individuals and families. A few examples: 1) money for groceries for a woman who was very sick, with two children, 2) clothing, apartment furnishings, and school supplies to a woman with four children who lived in a shelter for one month after her husband was shot in the head and her belongings had been stolen, 3) money to pay for books and groceries for a family of four with husband laid off work and both parents attending community college, and 4) a suit of clothes to an unemployed man looking for work

Youth Mission Teams. Every summer the senior high youth participate in the Sierra Service Project (SSP) where they work along with youth from other churches to help repair homes and improve the living conditions of native Americans living on reservations – this year they will travel to northern Arizona.

During Christmas season the youth go caroling at senior centers.

• Food for Sundays
• Heifer Ark
• Reaching Out Partners
• Missionaries
• Reading Program
• His House and Toberman