Outreach Question
While we await more volunteer opportunities with the Warren Township Resource Center, I would like to know if parishioners are interested in a more in-person outreach. Meaning, traveling a short distance to offer your service, your care, and your presence to folks who are dealing with poverty, homelessness, and other burdens that have pushed them to the margins of society.
As an example, Holy Family folks offered a Saturday meal one time a month at Mother Teresa’s Shelter for women and children on the hear-eastside of Indianapolis (close to Woodruff Place). Some Holy Family folks created a simple menu (Ex. spaghetti, salad, bread, cookies), others shopped for the ingredients, others cooked the food on Saturday afternoon in the church’s kitchen, and finally other folks (no more than 4), brought the food to the shelter, served it and then sat down and ate the dinner with the women and children. The time at the shelter was no more than 45 minutes, but the memories are forever. The meal prep and serving were eventually expanded to other groups: a family (mom, dad, and kids) would plan, cook, deliver, and serve; the choir took a Saturday, the vestry took a Saturday. After many years of this outreach, one person assumed the Saturday meal slot. (That person now attends St. Matthew’s !)
That is just one example of an in-person service. Based on parishioner’s ideas and passions, we can create a St. Matthew’s outreach that exemplifies the scripture from the second chapter of James:
“So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”
St. Matthew parishioners continue to demonstrate their faith and discipleship every week as they generously donate food and paper products for those in need in our community and in Irvington. This is a weekly visible display of our faith and discipleship in action. You are touching many lives with your love! Don’t stop! And if you haven’t donated previously, consider joining your fellow parishioners in this service of love.
And, if God is gently nudging your heart to further service, please email Deacon Cathy and catascot@sbcglobal.net. Let’s work together to find that outreach described by Frederick Buechner, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”