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December 2009
The Consistory has voted! The missions St. Paul's would like to support with the Association Mission Fair funds are the Blue Ridge Food Bank, Heifer International, New Orleans Recovery, and Habitat. When all the churches have sent in their ballots, the Association will report which of the eight choices are the top four winners. We will let you know in February! The Mission Fair is an effort to have all of our churches raise money over the next year for a giant ingathering in April, 2011, when the money will be divided equally and sent to the four chosen missions. The Association will be sending us start-up money of $50 in January to get our campaign going. We welcome any ideas for fundraisers you think would be good for St. Paul's to try! Our ministry has found four local families to help for Christmas. The Christmas Wish tree in the narthex will have gift tags on it for you to pick on Sunday, December 6th. Please bring the gifts back (wrapped and left under the tree in the parlor) on the following Sunday, or no later than December 20th, when we will be distributing them to the families. Note: If your gift tag is for a family from Response, it must be returned by December 13th and should not be wrapped. Money gifts will also be joyfully accepted. They will go towards buying food or other necessities we learn about as we get to know the families better. Thank you so much for supporting this heartwarming annual effort to help families in the Woodstock area. You may find your own Christmas spirit has tripled as a result!
Ellen Markel, for Stewardship and Missions
Ongoing Projects - Collect and deliver paper products to Response, food items for Bread of Life Food Pantry, and provide occasional short-term aid to needy individuals. August - Collect bags of school supplies purchased during August sales and deliver them to the Shenandoah County Schools for distribution to needy students. September - Volunteers from St. Paul's and Mt. Calvary travel to New Windsor, MD, where they spend the day unpacking, inspecting, pricing and repacking items for the SERRV gift shop. October - Generous donations are taken for Homewood and the Hoffman Homes for Youth. These donations come from the Harvest Home offering, given during our joint fall Harvest Home service and dinner at Mt. Calvary. December - Our St. Paul's Family Christmas Tree project aides needy families, providing wrapped gifts and cash, with which we purchase a Food Lion and a Wal-Mart gift certificate for each family. February - Deliver bags of food items collected on Shopping Bag Sunday half to the Shenandoah Alliance for Shelter and half to the Bread of Life Food Pantry. March - Send money collected for One Great Hour of Sharing.
April/May - With congregational assistance, we choose and publicize a Heifer International Project. |