April 2010 Outreach News25+ Ways of Reaching Out in our 25th Anniversary Year Our congregation practices outreach in many ways through the year, probably without realizing it in many cases. So we
thought we’d list the activities that involve reaching out to others in which many of you have participated since January.
There will be many other “outreach” activities throughout the rest of our anniversary year, so, if you haven’t taken part in any of the past events, you’ve lots of time to pick one or two (or more) and enjoy GCPC’s outreach! Some of these events happen more than once a year – the blood drives, IHN, KCK Hot Meal, etc – but are just listed once.
In the last three months:
• January: Support of Church Women United (PW), KCK
Hot Meal (Deacons-monthly), UPLIFT (Pageturnersmonthly),
Purchase of Fair Trade Coffee, etc on Sundays
(Kairos).
• February: Harvesters (Grace in Action & our youth),
Valentines for soldiers, (Grace in Action), Valentine
Pajamapalooza (Youth Group), Care Kits for Haiti (Grace in
Action and Young Adults), IHN, Wesport Sack Lunch (Men
of Grace-monthly).
• March: Random Acts of Kindness (Youth Ministries),
Blood Drive.
To come in the next three months:
• April: 3rd Cookie baking/bagging for Easter (Cookie
Ministry), 10th MS Walk (Outreach), 11th Earth Day Walk
(Kairos), 10th & 11th New Spirit Singers Mini-Tour (Music
Ministry).
• May: 1st Village Food Pantry and Aberdeen Village (Grace
in Action), 8th Mother-Daughter Tea (Outreach)
• June: 5th Jeremy Frye Fun Fest , 12th Bar-B-Que
(Outreach), 14th-18th VBS (Children’s Ministries)
Communion Offering
Our Communion Offering Partner for April is One Great Hour of Sharing, through which we help support PC(USA)’s efforts to reach out worldwide and help those in need. The theme this year is the instruction by Jesus to “feed His sheep” if we love Him. As we know, there are many types of hunger which require “feeding” in the diverse and troubled world and PC(USA) “feeds” many in many ways through three programs, Self Development of People, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, and the Presbyterian Hunger Program. Soles for Souls in April
We, in conjunction with KAIROS, will participate again in Soles 4 Souls by bringing our unwanted shoes of any type to church starting on Palm Sunday and through the entire month of April; these shoes will be recycled if unusable or sent to our shoeless neighbors in Haiti if there is still life in those shoes. March Communion Offering
Our March Communion Offering of cash for Johnson County Health Partnership and the Duchesne Clinic in KCK, as of this writing, netted $513.00 for these worthy organizations and many donations of OTC meds and paper towels for the
Duchesne Clinic. You may bring your offering or donations through the end of March. Grace in Action - May
Our next Grace in Action event will happen on May Day…May 1st. We’ll be working at the Village Food Pantry on Mission Rd south of 95th St and at Aberdeen Village. There may be a third activity; watch for it! And watch for the sign ups; an early sign up guarantees you’ll get your choice of activities. March 2010 Outreach News Communion Offering Partners
Our Communion Offering Partners for March are the Johnson County Health Partnership Clinic and the Duchesne Clinic. Both organizations have been serving the needy in Johnson and Wyandotte Counties for several years and have been our Communion Partners in previous years. Johnson County Health will welcome your cash donations and Duchesne needs over-the-counter meds such as cold remedies, aspirin, Tylenol and Advil, Band-aids and antibiotic ointment and such.
Do you know of a deserving possible Communion Offering recipient? Your Outreach Team is always in the market for suggestions. We've designated August for children's clothing, November for items for elder care and December for baby formula. Suggestions??? Just contact a team member with your "suggestee" and some details about them. Members include Bob Zurcher, Tom Stroud, Jan Knoche, Shirley Sampson, Claudia Basel, Kristy Shaw, Sharon Rollins, George Bures, Glenda Johnson, and Kimby Young. Our Communion Offering partner for February was Harvesters via the youth's Souper Bowl event. See the Youth column in this newsletter for details on yardage, poundage and dollars donated for this so worthwhile organization. Grace in Action
We had a wonderful turnout for our Grace in Action activities on Saturday, Feb. 6th! Sixteen volunteers went to Harvesters and they put together 2750 children's snack packs - That's 171.9 apiece - amazing, Grace!!! We also had 60 people having a good time in Heartland Hall - 40 volunteers were creating 252 Valentines to be distributed to soldiers serving overseas through the Hugs for Soldiers organization. The goal was to make 250 in honor of our 25th anniversary and we surpassed that! Another 20 people helped assemble 191 Care Kits for Haiti to be distributed by Heart to Heart International. If you're still counting, that's 6.3 Valentines and 9.55 Care Kits for each volunteer...good work for some good causes and a good time for all at the same time! Our next Grace in Action is Saturday, May 1 - stay tuned for details.
Biennial Re-Sale
Things are moving forward with our biennial re-sale event under the leadership or Kathy Bures. Kathy is continuing to take names or volunteers and would love to hear from YOU - experience helpful but not required. Do you know of an organization that might have a large space available in Johnson County for about 2 weeks this summer at a very reasonable price?? If so, please let Kathy know as soon as possible. Mother/Daughter/Anyone Tea
Our Mother/Daughter/Anyone Tea to benefit Greg Mortenson's school building efforts in Pakistan and Afghanistan will again take place in May. This year's date is May 8 - ladies and girls, be sure to save the date. We'll again have those wonderful, good-looking waiters in tuxes. June BBQs
Our second annual event will be our June Barbecue which benefits the Central Kansas Military Foundation. We will again have an Alex's Lemonade Stand to help in the fight agains juvenile cancer. We're considering combining this popular and tasty event with a basketball or croquet tournament. This year's date will be June 12. Get those good BBQ recipes together and watch for registration info! February 2010 Outreach News Grace in Action
Grace in Action for February 2010 gets us off to a fun start on Feb. 6th with your chance of three great activities.
1. You can volunteer at Harvesters warehouse to help sort and repackage donations received during the Souper Bowl of Caring. Harvesters provides food to nearly 60,000 hungry people in our community each week! Hard to believe isn't it?? Added bonus - all volunteers will get a bowl of soup! Hard to resist this one! Meet at the church at 10:00. We'll work from 10:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.
2. You can make Valentines for our service people that are serving overseas. Let them know that they are always in our thoughts and prayers and that we support them and their efforts to keep us safe in this uncertain world. Join us in Heartland Hall at 10:00 a.m.
3. Or you can help assemble Care Kits for Haiti earthquake victims. These care kits will be distributed by Heart to Heart International. PC(USA) Offerings
We've all been horrified by the news out of Haiti about this terrible earthquake hitting so close to home and in a place we rarely associate with earthquakes! We've heard from Jay about PCUSA, the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Programs and its disaster relief activities, but thought you might like to know that a percentage of the Outreach budget is always designated for PC(USA), so we are supporting their efforts in assisting the victims in Haiti as you read this. Our special offering of January 24 will add much needed funds to the Outreach annual contribution and will be reported in a future bulletin - maybe by the time you read this. You can read about PC(USA) activities on their website www.PCUSA.org and see how hard your donations through GCPC or directly are working in Haiti and elsewhere in our country and our world. The need in Haiti is greater than we can fathom.
Communion Offerings
Our Communion Offering for February is designated for Harvesters' Souper Bowl of Caring. Harvesters feeds, as mentioned above, about 60,000 hungry neighbors of ours in the Kansas City Metro every week and due to our weak economy, that number is growing. Bring your donations of canned and other non-perishable foods to the Communion Offering bin at the weekday entrance or not "Communion Offering" on your monetary donation to this cause.
Do you know of a deserving possible Communion Offering recipient? Your Outreach Team is always in the market for suggestions. We've designated August for children's clothing, November for items for elder care and December for baby formula; we don't as yet have recipients planned for those 3 months. Suggestions??? Just contact a team member with your "suggestions" and some details about them. Members include Bob Zurcher, Tom Stroud, Jane Knoche, Shirley Sampson, Claudia Basel, Kristy Shaw, Sharon Rollins, George Bures, Glenda Johnson, and Kimby Young. January 2010 Outreach NewsPick up your 2010 Outreach Calendar today. They're located on the credenza in the concourse. They are purple this year and do not have magnets attached. Holiday Wrapping Activity
We had 25 wrappers at our several wrapping events at Barnes and Noble at Oak Park Mall over the holiday. We "worked" (it was actually fun!) for about 18 hours and earned $448.77 for Greg Mortenson's Central Asia Institute to build part of a school or help pay a teacher in Afghanistan or Pakistan in his fight against terrorism and for improving lives in those war-torn countries. December Giving
At our last meeting for 2009, the Outreach Team voted to disperse some funds to a few organizations and hope that we added a little joy to their Christmas and to their clients' Christmas Season. The funds were giving to KCK Hot Meals/KCK Service Center to purchase coats; Johnson County Christmas Bureau to purchase coats; IHN to purchase gas cards; UPLIFT; Harvesters; Shawnee Community Center; and Central KS Miliatary Foundation. Grace in Action 2010 Dates
Dates have been set for Grace in Action for 2010...mark your calendars for February 6, May 1, September 11 and November 6. We will also have a special activity in July with the exact date to be announced later. Remember that we also want your suggestions for volunteer activities. Just let an Outreach Committee member know and give us some information on the group's history and service/activity. Resolve to make our 2010 Resale Event the Largest Ever!
It's not too early to start weeding out your treasures for this summer's upcoming Grace Resale event. Nor is it too early for you to indicate to Kathy Bures that you're interested in helping her with that big-but-fun event; there's a job for everyone. This alternate year event is a popular one with the community and brings good revenue which traditionally has gone to help support IHN. KCK Hot Meal Changes
The KCK Hot Meal project has changed a bit; we now partner with St. Michael's Catholic Church on the third Saturday of each month. GCPC will provide the vegetables and dessert and will be supplying 10 people to serve. Our Deacons will be providing cookies. If you have any questions, call Gary Blankers. January Communion Offering
Our first Communion Offering of 2010 will consist of cash or non-perishable food for Catholic Charities via Church Women United. That offering is received all month; you may use a Communion Offering envelope (in our mailing of envelopes or in the pew racks) or designate "Communion Offering: on your check.
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