St. Patrick's Announcements

O God, the source of all beginnings:
We thank you for bringing us to this new day.
Continue to send us your Spirit as we continue our journey as your people.
Equip us to proclaim the Good News of Jesus,
defend us from all evil,
and give us the grace to live together in peace and common prayer.
In your power, may we continue to grow into a holy community
that transforms the world around us. Amen.

MISSION MINUTE
"Serving as Christ's hands and heart in St. John's County and beyond..."

You and our mission teams are on the move. We are so blessed by the giving nature of this community. Nothing is impossible for us! We truly are ordinary people empowered by God to do extraordinary things in Christ's name.

So far this year we have made the following monetary distributions for our ministries:
Michele Perry's - Brick's of Hope campaign to build a village for the South Sudanese orphans and refugees - $1145.00

Good Friday offering of $255 to the Anglican Church in Jerusalem.

Easter plate offering of $325 was split evenly between Camp Weed's Camp Elizabeth, the camp for children of prrisoners, and the Episcopal Relief and Development Myanmar disaster fund. The donation to Camp Elizabeth is being sent in Rev.John Owens honor. John has been active in lay prison ministry and has just been ordained to serve as a priest to our prison system.

We are participating in the Millenial Development Goals of the Epicopal Church. This year concentrates on goal #2 which is providing for every child to receive a primary education. The aforementioned gift to Brick's of Hope was a part of our donation to achieve this goal. We have earmarked $1189 in oour budget for additional gifts for goal #2. From this budgeted money, your mission team has distributed an additional $300 to Bricks of Hope in South Sudan, which will help to build a school for the children. We also distributed $600 to the Colorado Haiti Project to provide two students with a Korbit Student scholarship to St. Paul's School.

This spring we also collected $252.76 for the United Thank Offering. These funds, collected twice a year, are used for grants to various Diocesan, national, and international organizations and churches. In the past vans and buses, medical supplies and centers, and church school supplies have all been bought with these funds.

You have also given so much in nonmonetary ways! We have a group of 9-11 people who faithfully deliver your bags of food every month to our Crookshank Elementary (St. Augustine) needy families now numbering around 50 families with about 150 children. Your generosity provides us with around 90 bags of food, plus milk, hot dogs, bread, and sundry other items.

To date, you have also donated over 100 lbs. of food to our Salvation Army barrel. Our current project, "I Can One Can Every Week" commits each of us to bring 1 can each week to fill the barrel.

We are also exploring sharing the I. M. Sulzbacher food ministry with Church of Our Saviour, Mandarin. About 3 times a year we will provide a ministry team to cook and serve dinner to about 700 clients.Look for more on this soon.

We are also planning a mission trip to our companion parish, St. Patrick's, Long Beach Mississippi. Look for more on this later, too.

We are in contact with Father Evelio Perez-Rubi about the needs of our companion parish, La Transfiguracion in Tabor, Cuba. Although we have no mission tripped planned for 2008, we will be able to send needed items through the trips of Church of Our Saviour or other Diocesan teams making trips this year. Stay tuned...

Even with all these activities, we still feel called to do more. We are looking for ministers to coordinate outreach to Habitat for Humanity-St. John's County, Betty Griffin House (thrift shop and center for abused men, women, and children), and to begin exploring needs at St. Francis House, St. Augustine (homeless shelter, counseling, and food ministry).

This minute has turned into an hour it seems, but you do so much service to others that this update couldn't be short.
Your mission team thanks you:
Alyson Bean (UTO); Barbara Byers & Pete & Carol Neilson (Feed My Lambs & Samaritan's Purse);
Glory Faunce (Salvation Army); Linda McClelland (MDGs); Hugh & Linda McCLelland (Sulzbacher);
Charlie & Katey Stuart (Cuba); Barbara Byers & Katey Sutart (Michele Perry & Bricks of Hope);
Linda McClelland & Youth Team (St. Patrick's, Long Beach)