Mission Jamaica
Our next adult trip to Mission Jamaica is February 8-15, 2020, costing approximately $1600 plus airfare. Please prayerfully consider joining our St. Luke Missionaries on this trip! See Pastor Cliff or Ed Cooley.

Sr. SLY Mission Jamaica Trip   Summer 2020

Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Mark 12:30-31  Summer 2020 our Sr. SLY will have an amazing opportunity to attend a week long mission trip in Jamaica. This is a vacation with purpose! Mission Jamaica provides a way for us to love and serve our neighbor as Jesus taught us through his love and service to others. The Mission Jamaica trip combines a service project with time for reflection and spiritual rest. It allows a person to experience an international mission field that is close to home, yet far enough away to immerse into another culture for a week.  Who: This trip will be for Sr. SLY who will be currently in high school or attending their Freshman or Sophomore year of college. What: We will work the first 4 days we are in Jamaica (Wed., Thurs., Fri., and Sat.) We will most likely be working at Westhaven Children's Home but could potentially be at a different Mission Jamaica location throughout the week. This portion of the trip is customized for us by the Mission Jamaica office.        Westhaven Children's Home- West Haven is a home for 80+ children  and  young adults with varying degrees of disabilities. Volunteers have served  at Westhaven since 1995 providing care and interaction with the children and improving the overall conditions of the home. Teams going to Westhaven can also serve at Copse Basic School. Copse Basic School is a Preschool up to Kindergarten, daycare, and child development center.     What We Do- Westhaven has opportunities to serve on construction  projects, sewing, laundry, caring for the residents, assisting the staff and  helping at the on-site school. Every evening there is devotional time with rest and reflection provided by our own team. This is a chance for us to have praise and worship, bible study, ice breakers, prayer, etc. The last two days of our trip will then be spent sight seeing in the area. On Sunday we will worship with a local church. In years past we had the opportunity to go out on a catamaran in Montego Bay and we will visit Dunn's River and walk the falls and have a traditional Jamaican meal for dinner before heading out on Tuesday.  When:  The dates of our trip will be June 9th - 16th (Tuesday-Tuesday). At this point we have reserved 15 spots (that includes youth and chaperones). I know it is very early but we need to have a tentative head count within the next couple of weeks.  Please let me know no later than August 13th if your youth is interested in participating in this trip so we can finalize our week and deposit schedule. Where: Our team will be housed at the YWAM (Youth with a Mission) facilities in Montego Bay, Jamaica.  Cost: Unfortunately until our flights are booked I can not give a definite cost of the trip. The cost of the trip last time we went was $1402 per person. This price included flight, housing, transportation, food, and excursions. Jeff Peterson from the Mission Jamaica office has someone looking into flights, and they will try to get us the cheapest flights possible. As soon as I hear a final cost I will let everyone know. St. Luke will try to help subsidize the cost of the trip as much as possible. The church will contribute 1/3 of the cost, we will attempt to help fundraise 1/3 of the cost for each participant, which only leaves 1/3 for each participant to pay. We can always help subsidize costs as much as possible for anyone with concerns or special circumstances. As soon as we know the number of people attending I will receive information about when deposits are due.  Please let Jennifer Wright know no later than August 13th if your youth is interested in going on this trip. If you have questions please email me at  [email protected] .

Vitalant will be at St. Luke on September 1st from 9:00AM - 12:30PM in the CFC.

Vitalant is the Memphis region's only non-profit volunteer blood center, dedicated to meeting the needs of patients, healthcare facilities, medical professionals and the community at large. Every year Vitalant supplies more than 100,000 units of blood and blood products for local patient transfusion.

The donation process only takes about 1 hour and takes place entirely at St. Luke. Each donation of whole blood can help as many as 3 recipients - all of them our neighbors.

A sign-up sheet will be located on the bulletin board outside the office starting August 11th. However, I strongly recommend you sign up at clublifeblood.us. You can also complete your health questionnaire in advance the day of the drive at this website.

Don't forget you earn points with every donation that can be redeemed at clublifeblood.us; rewards include t-shirts, movie passes, and gift cards. 

Please contact Jon Klein ([email protected], 901-268-5478), the St. Luke Vitalant Coordinator, with any questions.

Habitat for Humanity Fall Build

Mark your calendars for Sept. 28 and Oct. 19, 7:30am-1pm, to help build a house! Sign up in the Narthex.

A Habitat representative will be with us Sunday, August 4 to tell us about this exciting ministry.

Click  HERE for a testimony from Habitat homeowners.

Social Ministry and our Family Promise guests want to extend a huge thank you to all of the Saints for supporting this ministry that is so vital in addressing the homeless issue in our city.  We want to especially thank all of those that volunteered throughout the week in the many varied positions that make this possible.  We have exciting news to share that our one mom and young son graduated into housing on Monday.  You have had such a positive impact in the lives of our guests and we appreciate each and every one of you!

And even more    Thank You's!!   

Many hands made light work and an enjoyable time for all at the cookout for our YMCA friends.

...and the Saints continue to share their love of the Lord with His children... Here is an email from Lauren Hales at the Church Health Center sent to the knitting group which meets at St. Luke on Wednesday mornings:

Hi ladies, 

I wanted to send a thank you email again for your generous knitting donations to our families at Perea Preschool. Molly (who I've cc'd on this email) took some great photos of the kits she was able to put together with the supplies that ya'll donated and I've attached them to this email so that everyone could take a look. 

Also, Molly mentioned that the next time ya'll are able to donate it would be great to have more little boy baskets than girls since she only has 3 for little boys left (the sweet kits must be in such high demand for baby boys).     

Thank you for everything,

Lauren Hales

Faith Community Outreach Coordinator

Assistant Editor, Church Health Reader

Church Health 

[email protected]g

More Than A Meal Date - 8/18

The August date for More Than A Meal is the 18th. Dave and Susie are once again coordinating the meal,

which will be pizza cooked by Costco. Volunteers are welcome and should arrive at Grace St Luke's Episcopal Church 1720 Peabody Avenue at 3:00 p.m.  This is a vital ministry to many in the Memphis area. (If you haven't read the book the pastor has told us about, The One Hundred Story Home, you should! It will show you how very important a simple meal can be!)

School Supplies

Remember how much fun it was to get new school supplies?  Your could spend hours sorting and resorting and organizing them to fit just right in your backpack!  Let's help some special children we know have that same kind of fun!  We will be collecting, once again, supplies for the upcoming school year.  They will be distributed to some of our St. Luke children and children in the Peace Lutheran neighborhood.  While out shopping please consider grabbing a few extra items and place them in or near the grocery cart in the Narthex.  Deadline is August 4th.

Thank you for your support!!