Outreach2

Outreach
	FISH is a community-wide food bank effort to help the hungry in Grants Pass. Several times a year food is contributed by our parishioners and distributed to the food bank Contact: Nancy Livingood. 944-0862

	Feeding the Hungry at Riverside Park. This ecumenical community-based ministry was started in 1976 with St. Luke's becoming involved in 1995. Four teams were established, one for each Saturday in the month. Typically about 15 to 25 are fed during the first part of the month with as many as 60 towards the end of the month.		Team members purchase the food and prepare it at home or at the church and take it to the park to feed at 2:00 PM. Sometime they need reimbursement and we have a fund which allows us to reimburse them. For more information on this program please contact Dave Pylant at 476-1439 or,for information on St. Luke's part of it, please contact Stephanie Lessard at 479-6603 or Bob Graham at 862-2520

For more information, please contact the church office at 476-2493. The national UTO website is: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/uto/	The Mission of the United Thank Offering is to invite people to offer daily prayers of thanksgiving to God and outward and visible signs of those prayers which will benefit others.God calls each of us to grow in awareness of God, our own relationship with God, and our relationship in community with all whom God has created. As habits of daily thankful prayer mature, our personal relationship with God grows. Daily prayers of thanksgiving strengthen our being and doing. Through our shared stories, God calls us to continue to grow into the fullness of the Kingdom.		The blue box can be a reminder of our many blessings. Uniting our own gifts of thanks with those of others keeps us in thankful relationship them and with all of creation. In sharing our thank offerings with those throughout the Communion who seek to address compelling human need and extend the mission of the Church, we deepen our sense of participation in the lives of others. The shared prayer and money offerings help others to respond to God's call and to grown in their own deepened sense of living within the greater Christian community.

Paint Your Heart Out. Each September the City of Grants Pass organizes an effort to paint homes of city residents who cannot do the work themselves.	St. Luke's Church has for years been an active team sponsor. This year work was done on September 7th and 14th. Check out the house which is at the corner of G and Pine Streets.		For information on helping with this program, contact John Kirschner at 474-2483.

Christian Service Network. The Christian Service Network is made up of over 20 participating churches which pool their resources to help those in need.	CSN helps with information, referrals, and with finances. We need more volunteers!		For more information please contact Marlies Wilson at 474-1090

Healing Ministry - St. Luke's has long had an active ministry of offering prayer for healing.	This ministry is through our clergy, through members of the Order of St. Luke (both clergy and lay people),the Crisis Prayer Chain, and the Intercessions List.		For more information or to add a name to the Crisis Prayer Chain or Intercessions List please contact Program Chair Shirley Duewel at 955-4767

	The Alpha Course is a fifteen session program which runs over ten weeks to provide a practical introduction to the Christian faith. It offers to opportunity to explore the meaning of life.
			St. Luke's Church sponsored their first Alpha class in the Spring of 2002 with a second class held starting in September. For more information please contact Starr or Joe Hungate at 479-0452.


	St. Luke's has been designated as a "Jubilee Center" by the national church. This honor is based on the outreach programs sponsored by the parish, especially FISH and the Feeding in the Park programs.		St. Lukes helped create and continues to support the Christian Service Network, Faith House, the local Crop Walk; plus involvement in 'Paint Your Heart Out', grants to local agencies. For more information, contact the church office at 476-2493.

MaaSae Girls' Lutheran Secondary School. Parishioners of St. Luke's Church have generously supported the MaaSae school in Monduli, Tanzania.	Our rector and his wife visited the school in August, 2002.	For more information, please click here or contact Fr. Jim Boston at 476-2493.

	Missionary Shirley Adams serves Literacy and Evangelism Fellowship of Kenya in Nairobi.	She is supported inpart by a grant from St. Lukes and by individual members.