Thursday, August 27, 2009

Pack the Backpack 2009

With a giving heart, this year the Christ Church Cathedral congregation continued to organize and donate school supplies for Indianapolis children needing assistance. The Adopt-A-Family committee organized and helped coordinate the project. The backpacks were already purchased late last year at a reduced rate to be used for this years' project. One hundred backpacks each containing a list of needed supplies were handed out to parishioners at Christ Church, St. Timothy's and St. Phillip's. In just two weeks, 12 empty backpacks were filled by St. Tomothy's and 36 packs by St. Philips. The remaining 52 were filled with school supplies by the cathedral parishioners.

This year's backpack program was a big success thanks to the generosity of our parishoners and the organizing skills of Barbie and Bryon Russell and Betty and Steve Whaley. Of the 52 backpacks that the cathedral filled, 22 were given to Better Indy Babies, who have been our sole recipients in past years. However, this year 30 were designated for children in our congregation who needed assistance. Plans for next year's project are already in place and we hope to continue to reach out in hospitality and charity with the many gifts that we receive.

From rural Africa all the way to urban Indianapolis, some words of wisdom come to us from Robin Denney, Episcopal missionary in Southern Sudan. On her blog Robin writes, "It is not the few and the powerful that change the world, it is each and every one of us. We each have the decision every day to love, to give, to serve. And our decisions inspire others." It's easy to think that mission is something that happens far away and in another world, but sharing God's love happens on our doorstep, in our homes, and sometimes with just a small gift.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Missions Committee hosts coffee hour

Missions Committee members helped host the Sunday coffee hour on August 2nd. To prepare cookies and scones and other goodies, several members met early on Saturday morning in the church kitchen to get baking. We also prepared a bulletin board with recent photographs of the Ecuador mission trip, the trip to Brazil and several parishioner involved missions. Everyone enjoyed the fellowship and the chance to show hospitality to the church.

Making banana bread and arranging fruit may seem like a trivial activity for mission work, but building companionship to one another in service and heartfelt giving is really at the heart of missions. Bishop Waynick once told me that the Latin root of the word companionship comes from companio - one who eats bread with another. Serving oatmeal cookies and a cup of coffee to anyone on the church's front lawn is indeed the kind of companionship that is at the center of mission work!